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Journal of Bacteriology, November 2000, p. 6391-6400, Vol. 182, No. 22
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

H-NS Controls pap and daa Fimbrial Transcription in Escherichia coli in Response to Multiple Environmental Cues

Christine A. White-Ziegler,* Anuradha Villapakkam,dagger Karla Ronaszeki,Dagger and Sarah Young

Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts

Received 17 March 2000/Accepted 31 August 2000

A comparative study was completed to determine the influence of various environmental stimuli on the transcription of three different fimbrial operons in Escherichia coli and to determine the role of the histone-like protein H-NS in this environmental regulation. The fimbrial operons studied included the pap operon, which encodes pyelonephritis-associated pili (P pili), the daa operon, which encodes F1845 fimbriae, and the fan operon, which encodes K99 fimbriae. Using lacZYA transcriptional fusions within each of the fimbrial operons, we tested temperature, osmolarity, carbon source, rich medium, oxygen levels, pH, amino acids, solid medium, and iron concentration for their effects on fimbrial gene expression. Low temperature, high osmolarity, glucose as a carbon source, and rich medium repressed transcription of all three operons. High iron did not alter transcription of any of the operons tested, whereas the remaining stimuli had effects on individual operons. For the pap and daa operons, introduction of the hns651 mutation relieved the repression, either fully or partially, due to low temperature, glucose as a carbon source, rich medium, and high osmolarity. Taken together, these data indicate that there are common environmental cues that regulate fimbrial transcription in E. coli and that H-NS is an important environmental regulator for fimbrial transcription in response to several stimuli.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063. Phone: (413) 585-3815. Fax: (413) 585-3786. E-mail: cwhitezi{at}science.smith.edu.

dagger Present address: Whitehead Institute for Genome Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 01239.

Dagger Present address: The Center for Blood Research, Boston, MA 02115.

Journal of Bacteriology, November 2000, p. 6391-6400, Vol. 182, No. 22
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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