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Journal of Bacteriology, May 2007, p. 3738-3750, Vol. 189, No. 10
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00187-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Regulation of dev, an Operon That Includes Genes Essential for Myxococcus xanthus Development and CRISPR-Associated Genes and Repeats{triangledown}

Poorna Viswanathan,1 Kimberly Murphy,2 Bryan Julien,3 Anthony G. Garza,2 and Lee Kroos1*

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824,1 Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244,2 Allylix Inc., Lexington, Kentucky 405063

Received 5 February 2007/ Accepted 6 March 2007

Expression of dev genes is important for triggering spore differentiation inside Myxococcus xanthus fruiting bodies. DNA sequence analysis suggested that dev and cas (CRISPR-associated) genes are cotranscribed at the dev locus, which is adjacent to CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). Analysis of RNA from developing M. xanthus confirmed that dev and cas genes are cotranscribed with a short upstream gene and at least two repeats of the downstream CRISPR, forming the dev operon. The operon is subject to strong, negative autoregulation during development by DevS. The dev promoter was identified. Its –35 and –10 regions resemble those recognized by M. xanthus {sigma}A RNA polymerase, the homolog of Escherichia coli {sigma}70, but the spacer may be too long (20 bp); there is very little expression during growth. Induction during development relies on at least two positive regulatory elements located in the coding region of the next gene upstream. At least two positive regulatory elements and one negative element lie downstream of the dev promoter, such that the region controlling dev expression spans more than 1 kb. The results of testing different fragments for dev promoter activity in wild-type and devS mutant backgrounds strongly suggest that upstream and downstream regulatory elements interact functionally. Strikingly, the 37-bp sequence between the two CRISPR repeats that, minimally, are cotranscribed with dev and cas genes exactly matches a sequence in the bacteriophage Mx8 intP gene, which encodes a form of the integrase needed for lysogenization of M. xanthus.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824. Phone: (517) 355-9726. Fax: (517) 353-9334. E-mail: kroos{at}msu.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 16 March 2007.

Journal of Bacteriology, May 2007, p. 3738-3750, Vol. 189, No. 10
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00187-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Mittal, S., Kroos, L. (2009). Combinatorial Regulation by a Novel Arrangement of FruA and MrpC2 Transcription Factors during Myxococcus xanthus Development. J. Bacteriol. 191: 2753-2763 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Higgs, P. I., Jagadeesan, S., Mann, P., Zusman, D. R. (2008). EspA, an Orphan Hybrid Histidine Protein Kinase, Regulates the Timing of Expression of Key Developmental Proteins of Myxococcus xanthus. J. Bacteriol. 190: 4416-4426 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Horvath, P., Romero, D. A., Coute-Monvoisin, A.-C., Richards, M., Deveau, H., Moineau, S., Boyaval, P., Fremaux, C., Barrangou, R. (2008). Diversity, Activity, and Evolution of CRISPR Loci in Streptococcus thermophilus. J. Bacteriol. 190: 1401-1412 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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