# | Rank | Similarity | Title + Abs. | Year | PMID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 333 | 0 | 0.9449 | Mutants of Escherichia coli altered in both genes coding for the elongation factor Tu. Genetic analysis of a mutant of Escherichia coli resistant to the antibiotic mocimycin is presented. This resistance is due to alterations in both tuf genes coding for the elongation factor Tu. Mocimycin resistance is recessive. Bacteria carryong only one tuf gene from the resistant mutant are still mocimycin sensitive. If the mutant gene is the tufA gene, the seisitive cells can be made resistant through inactivation of the tufB gene by insertion of the bacteriophage milliunits genome. Conditional mocimycin-resistant mutants ban also be isolated when the tufB gene is altered by an amber or a temperature-sensitive mutation. When only the tufB allele from the original mocimycin-resistant mutant is present, inactivation of the wild-type tufA gene fails to give viable mocimycin-resistant progeny. We conclude that the tufA mutant allele codes for a functional mocimycin-resistant EF-Tu, whereas the mutant tufB gene does not code for a functional product. | 1978 | 360222 |
| 538 | 1 | 0.9439 | The biochemical and genetic basis for high frequency thiomethyl galactoside resistance in lambda,lambdadg lysogens of Escherichia coli. In a culture of Escherichia coli K12 gal (lambdadg), cells which form large colonies on agar plates containing galactose and thiomethyl beta-D-galactoside (TMG) appear at high frequency. These clones are resistant to growth inhibition by TMG on galactose minimal medium. Biochemical studies of the steady-state levels of galactokinase and UDPgalactose 4-epimerase suggest that the resistant clones have extra copies of the genes for the galactose-metabolizing enzymes. The mutation for TMG resistance is not located in either the bacterial or the bacteriophage genome, but is probably due to an aberrant association between cell and prophage DNA. Mapping the TMG-resistant characteristic by phage P1 indicates that TMG-resistant bacteria posses at least two GAL+ OPERONS, ONE OF WHICH IS COTRANSDUCIBLe with bio+. In addition, TMG-resistant bacteria behave like lambdadg polylysogens when challenged with the phage lambdaI90c17. From these genetic experiments we conclude that TMG-resistant bacteria arise by duplication of the lambdadg prophage. Finally, gal+ bacteria which carry a single, additional, lambdadg prophage are TMG-resistant. TMG resistance is probably a gal+ gene dosage effect. | 1978 | 344832 |
| 540 | 2 | 0.9437 | Effect of ogt expression on mutation induction by methyl-, ethyl- and propylmethanesulphonate in Escherichia coli K12 strains. We have previously reported the isolation of an Escherichia coli K12 mutant that is extremely sensitive to mutagenesis by low doses of ethylating agents. We now show by Southern analysis that the mutation involves a gross deletion covering at least the ogt and fnr genes and that no O6-alkylguanine-DNA-alkyltransferase activity is present in cell-free extracts of an ada::Tn10 derivative of these bacteria. Confirmation that sensitisation to ethylation-induced mutagenesis was attributable to ogt and not to any other loci covered by the deletion was obtained by constructing derivatives. Thus an ogt::kanr disruption mutation was introduced into the parental ogt+ bacteria, and the ogt::kanr mutation was then eliminated by cotransduction of ogt+ with the closely linked Tetr marker (zcj::Tn10). The delta(ogt-fnr) deletion or ogt::kanr disruption mutants were highly sensitive to ethyl methanesulphonate-induced mutagenesis, as measured by the induction of forward mutations to L-arabinose resistance (Arar). Furthermore, the number of Arar mutants increased linearly with dose, unlike the case in ogt+ bacteria, which had a threshold dose below which no mutants accumulated. Differences in mutability were even greater with propyl methanesulphonate. Overproduction of the ogt alkyltransferase from a multicopy plasmid reduced ethylmethanesulphonate-induced mutagenesis in the ogt- mutant strains and also methylmethanesulphonate mutagenesis in ada- bacteria. A sample of AB1157 obtained from the E. coli K12 genetic stock centre also had a deletion covering the ogt and fnr genes. Since such deletions greatly influence the mutagenic responses to alkylating agents, a survey of the presence of the ogt gene in the E. coli K12 strain being used is advisable. | 1994 | 8152424 |
| 338 | 3 | 0.9436 | Repair by genetic recombination in bacteria: overview. DNA molecules that have been damaged in both strands at the same level are not subject to repair by excision but instead can be repaired through recombination with homologous molecules. Examples of two-strand damage include postreplication gaps opposite pyrimidine dimers, two-strand breaks produced by X-rays, and chemically induced interstrand cross-links. In ultraviolet-irradiated bacteria, the newly synthesized DNA is of length equal to the interdimer spacing. With continued incubation, this low-molecular-weight DNA is joined into high-molecular-weight chains (postreplication repair), a process associated with sister exchanges in bacteria. Recombination is initiated by pyrimidine dimers opposite postreplication gaps and by interstrand cross-links that have been cut by excision enzymes. The free ends at the resulting gaps presumably initiate the exchanges. Postreplication repair in Escherichia coli occurs in recB- AND RECC but is greatly slowed in recF- mutants. RecB and recC are the structural genes for exonuclease V, which digests two-stranded DNA by releasing oligonucleotides first from one strand and then from the other. The postreplication sister exchanges in ultra-violet-irradiated bacteria result in the distribution of pyrimidine dimers between parental and daughter strands, indicating that long exchanges involving both strands of each duplex occur. The R1 restriction endonuclease from E. COli has been used to cut the DNA of a bacterial drug-resistance transfer factor with one nuclease-sensitive site, and also DNA from the frog Xenopus enriched for ribosomal 18S and 28S genes. The fragments were annealed with the cut plasmid DNA and ligated, producing a new larger plasmid carrying the eukaryotic rDNA and able to infect and replicate in E. coli. | 1975 | 1103833 |
| 606 | 4 | 0.9434 | Coexistence of SOS-Dependent and SOS-Independent Regulation of DNA Repair Genes in Radiation-Resistant Deinococcus Bacteria. Deinococcus bacteria are extremely resistant to radiation and able to repair a shattered genome in an essentially error-free manner after exposure to high doses of radiation or prolonged desiccation. An efficient, SOS-independent response mechanism to induce various DNA repair genes such as recA is essential for radiation resistance. This pathway, called radiation/desiccation response, is controlled by metallopeptidase IrrE and repressor DdrO that are highly conserved in Deinococcus. Among various Deinococcus species, Deinococcus radiodurans has been studied most extensively. Its genome encodes classical DNA repair proteins for error-free repair but no error-prone translesion DNA polymerases, which may suggest that absence of mutagenic lesion bypass is crucial for error-free repair of massive DNA damage. However, many other radiation-resistant Deinococcus species do possess translesion polymerases, and radiation-induced mutagenesis has been demonstrated. At least dozens of Deinococcus species contain a mutagenesis cassette, and some even two cassettes, encoding error-prone translesion polymerase DnaE2 and two other proteins, ImuY and ImuB-C, that are probable accessory factors required for DnaE2 activity. Expression of this mutagenesis cassette is under control of the SOS regulators RecA and LexA. In this paper, we review both the RecA/LexA-controlled mutagenesis and the IrrE/DdrO-controlled radiation/desiccation response in Deinococcus. | 2021 | 33923690 |
| 8268 | 5 | 0.9426 | Sustained coevolution of phage Lambda and Escherichia coli involves inner- as well as outer-membrane defences and counter-defences. Bacteria often evolve resistance to phage through the loss or modification of cell surface receptors. In Escherichia coli and phage λ, such resistance can catalyze a coevolutionary arms race focused on host and phage structures that interact at the outer membrane. Here, we analyse another facet of this arms race involving interactions at the inner membrane, whereby E. coli evolves mutations in mannose permease-encoding genes manY and manZ that impair λ's ability to eject its DNA into the cytoplasm. We show that these man mutants arose concurrently with the arms race at the outer membrane. We tested the hypothesis that λ evolved an additional counter-defence that allowed them to infect bacteria with deleted man genes. The deletions severely impaired the ancestral λ, but some evolved phage grew well on the deletion mutants, indicating that they regained infectivity by evolving the ability to infect hosts independently of the mannose permease. This coevolutionary arms race fulfils the model of an inverse gene-for-gene infection network. Taken together, the interactions at both the outer and inner membranes reveal that coevolutionary arms races can be richer and more complex than is often appreciated. | 2021 | 34032565 |
| 339 | 6 | 0.9426 | Multiple mechanisms of resistance to cisplatin toxicity in an Escherichia coli K12 mutant. The mechanisms underlying cellular resistance to the antitumor drug cis-diamminedichloro-platinum(II) (CDDP) were studied in Escherichia coli K12. A bacterial strain (MC4100/DDP) was selected from the MC4100 wild-type strain after growth for four cycles in CDDP. MC4100/DDP bacteria showed a high level of resistance and exhibited various modifications including (1) a decrease in drug uptake and platinum/DNA binding which only partly contributed to resistance, (2) an increase in glutathione content not involved in the resistant phenotype, (3) an increase in DNA repair capacity. Resistance was unmodified by introducing a uvrA mutation which neutralizes the excision-repair pathway. In contrast, it was abolished by deletion of the recA gene which abolishes recombination and SOS repair but also by a mutation in the recA gene leading to RecA co-protease minus (no SOS induction). RecA protein was unchanged in MC4100/DDP but the expression of RecA-dependent gene(s) was required for CDDP resistance. The regulation of genes belonging to the SOS regulon was analysed in MC4100/DDP by monitoring the expression of sfiA and recA::lacZ gene fusions after UV irradiation. These gene fusions were derepressed faster and the optimal expression was obtained for a lower number of UV lesions in MC4100/DDP, suggesting a role of RecA co-protease activity in the mechanism of resistance to CDDP in this E. coli strain. | 1994 | 7974517 |
| 575 | 7 | 0.9420 | Identification and characterization of uvrA, a DNA repair gene of Deinococcus radiodurans. Deinococcus radiodurans is extraordinarily resistant to DNA damage, because of its unusually efficient DNA repair processes. The mtcA+ and mtcB+ genes of D. radiodurans, both implicated in excision repair, have been cloned and sequenced, showing that they are a single gene, highly homologous to the uvrA+ genes of other bacteria. The Escherichia coli uvrA+ gene was expressed in mtcA and mtcB strains, and it produced a high degree of complementation of the repair defect in these strains, suggesting that the UvrA protein of D. radiodurans is necessary but not sufficient to produce extreme DNA damage resistance. Upstream of the uvrA+ gene are two large open reading frames, both of which are directionally divergent from the uvrA+ gene. Evidence is presented that the proximal of these open reading frames may be irrB+. | 1996 | 8955293 |
| 342 | 8 | 0.9420 | Heat-shock-increased survival to far-UV radiation in Escherichia coli is wavelength dependent. Heat-shock-induced resistance to far-UV (FUV) radiation was studied in Escherichia coli. The induction of FUV resistance was shown to be dependent on the products of the genes uvrA and polA in bacteria irradiated at 254 nm. Heat shock increased the resistance to 280 nm radiation in a uvrA6 recA13 mutant. Heat shock lowered the mutation frequency (reversion to tryptophan proficiency) in wild-type or uvrA strains irradiated at 254 nm. When these strains were irradiated at 280 nm, heat shock did not interfere with the mutation frequency in the wild-type strain, but greatly enhanced mutations in the uvrA mutant. After heat-shock treatment, the wild-type strain irradiated at 254 nm showed increased DNA degradation, indicating enhanced repair activity. However, heat shock did not stimulate SOS repair triggered by FUV. An increased survival of bacteriophages irradiated with FUV and inoculated into heat-shock-treated bacteria was not detected. The possibility that heat shock enhances excision repair activity in a wavelength-dependent manner is discussed. | 1994 | 8176549 |
| 6169 | 9 | 0.9419 | The effect of mating on immunity can be masked by experimental piercing in female Drosophila melanogaster. Mating and immunity are two major components of fitness and links between them have been demonstrated in a number of recent investigations. In Drosophila melanogaster, a seminal fluid protein, sex-peptide (SP), up-regulates a number of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) genes in females after mating but the resulting effect on pathogen resistance is unclear. In this study, we tested (1) whether SP-induced changes in gene expression affect the ability of females to kill injected non-pathogenic bacteria and (2) how the injection process per se affects the expression of AMP genes relative to SP. The ability of virgin females and females mated to SP lacking or control males to clear bacteria was assayed using an established technique in which Escherichia coli are injected directly into the fly body and the rate of clearance of the injected bacteria is determined. We found no repeatable differences in clearance rates between virgin females and females mated to SP producing or SP lacking males. However, we found that the piercing of the integument, as occurs during injection, up-regulates AMP gene expression much more strongly than SP. Thus, assays that involve piercing, which are commonly used in immunity studies, can mask more subtle and biologically relevant changes in immunity, such as those induced by mating. | 2008 | 18068720 |
| 582 | 10 | 0.9418 | Sulfane Sulfur Is a Strong Inducer of the Multiple Antibiotic Resistance Regulator MarR in Escherichia coli. Sulfane sulfur, including persulfide and polysulfide, is produced from the metabolism of sulfur-containing organic compounds or from sulfide oxidation. It is a normal cellular component, participating in signaling. In bacteria, it modifies gene regulators to activate the expression of genes involved in sulfur metabolism. However, to determine whether sulfane sulfur is a common signal in bacteria, additional evidence is required. The ubiquitous multiple antibiotic resistance regulator (MarR) family of regulators controls the expression of numerous genes, but the intrinsic inducers are often elusive. Recently, two MarR family members, Pseudomonas aeruginosa MexR and Staphylococcus aureus MgrA, have been reported to sense sulfane sulfur. Here, we report that Escherichia coli MarR, the prototypical member of the family, also senses sulfane sulfur to form one or two disulfide or trisulfide bonds between two dimers. Although the tetramer with two disulfide bonds does not bind to its target DNA, our results suggest that the tetramer with one disulfide bond does bind to its target DNA, with reduced affinity. An MarR-repressed mKate reporter is strongly induced by polysulfide in E. coli. Further investigation is needed to determine whether sulfane sulfur is a common signal of the family members, but three members sense cellular sulfane sulfur to turn on antibiotic resistance genes. The findings offer additional support for a general signaling role of sulfane sulfur in bacteria. | 2021 | 34829649 |
| 674 | 11 | 0.9418 | Interplay between Two-Component Regulatory Systems Is Involved in Control of Cupriavidus metallidurans Metal Resistance Genes. Metal resistance of Cupriavidus metallidurans is based on determinants that were acquired in the past by horizontal gene transfer during evolution. Some of these determinants encode transmembrane metal efflux systems. Expression of most of the respective genes is controlled by two-component regulatory systems composed of a membrane-bound sensor/sensory histidine kinase (HK) and a cytoplasmic, DNA-binding response regulator (RR). Here, we investigated the interplay between the three closely related two-component regulatory systems CzcRS, CzcR(2)S(2), and AgrRS. All three systems regulate the response regulator CzcR, while the RRs AgrR and CzcR(2) were not involved in czc regulation. Target promoters were czcNp and czcPp for genes upstream and downstream of the central czc gene region. The two systems together repressed CzcRS-dependent upregulation of czcP-lacZ at low zinc concentrations in the presence of CzcS but activated this signal transmission at higher zinc concentrations. AgrRS and CzcR(2)S(2) interacted to quench CzcRS-mediated expression of czcNp-lacZ and czcPp-lacZ. Together, cross talk between the three two-component regulatory systems enhanced the capabilities of the Czc systems by controlling expression of the additional genes czcN and czcP. IMPORTANCE Bacteria are able to acquire genes encoding resistance to metals and antibiotics by horizontal gene transfer. To bestow an evolutionary advantage on their host cell, new genes must be expressed, and their expression should be regulated so that resistance-mediating proteins are produced only when needed. Newly acquired regulators may interfere with those already present in a host cell. Such an event was studied here in the metal-resistant bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans. The results demonstrate how regulation by the acquired genes interacts with the host's extant regulatory network. This leads to emergence of a new system level of complexity that optimizes the response of the cell to periplasmic signals. | 2023 | 36892288 |
| 8935 | 12 | 0.9416 | The Molecular and Genetic Basis of Repeatable Coevolution between Escherichia coli and Bacteriophage T3 in a Laboratory Microcosm. The objective of this study was to determine the genomic changes that underlie coevolution between Escherichia coli B and bacteriophage T3 when grown together in a laboratory microcosm. We also sought to evaluate the repeatability of their evolution by studying replicate coevolution experiments inoculated with the same ancestral strains. We performed the coevolution experiments by growing Escherichia coli B and the lytic bacteriophage T3 in seven parallel continuous culture devices (chemostats) for 30 days. In each of the chemostats, we observed three rounds of coevolution. First, bacteria evolved resistance to infection by the ancestral phage. Then, a new phage type evolved that was capable of infecting the resistant bacteria as well as the sensitive bacterial ancestor. Finally, we observed second-order resistant bacteria evolve that were resistant to infection by both phage types. To identify the genetic changes underlying coevolution, we isolated first- and second-order resistant bacteria as well as a host-range mutant phage from each chemostat and sequenced their genomes. We found that first-order resistant bacteria consistently evolved resistance to phage via mutations in the gene, waaG, which codes for a glucosyltransferase required for assembly of the bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Phage also showed repeatable evolution, with each chemostat producing host-range mutant phage with mutations in the phage tail fiber gene T3p48 which binds to the bacterial LPS during adsorption. Two second-order resistant bacteria evolved via mutations in different genes involved in the phage interaction. Although a wide range of mutations occurred in the bacterial waaG gene, mutations in the phage tail fiber were restricted to a single codon, and several phage showed convergent evolution at the nucleotide level. These results are consistent with previous studies in other systems that have documented repeatable evolution in bacteria at the level of pathways or genes and repeatable evolution in viruses at the nucleotide level. Our data are also consistent with the expectation that adaptation via loss-of-function mutations is less constrained than adaptation via gain-of-function mutations. | 2015 | 26114300 |
| 518 | 13 | 0.9416 | Bacitracin and nisin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus: a novel pathway involving the BraS/BraR two-component system (SA2417/SA2418) and both the BraD/BraE and VraD/VraE ABC transporters. Two-component systems (TCSs) are key regulatory pathways allowing bacteria to adapt their genetic expression to environmental changes. Bacitracin, a cyclic dodecylpeptide antibiotic, binds to undecaprenyl pyrophosphate, the lipid carrier for cell wall precursors, effectively inhibiting peptidoglycan biosynthesis. We have identified a novel and previously uncharacterized TCS in the major human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus that we show to be essential for bacitracin and nisin resistance: the BraS/BraR system (Bacitracin resistance associated; SA2417/SA2418). The braRS genes are located immediately upstream from genes encoding an ABC transporter, accordingly designated BraDE. We have shown that the BraSR/BraDE module is a key bacitracin and nisin resistance determinant in S. aureus. In the presence of low antibiotic concentrations, BraSR activate transcription of two operons encoding ABC transporters: braDE and vraDE. We identified a highly conserved imperfect palindromic sequence upstream from the braDE and vraDE promoter sequences, essential for their transcriptional activation by BraSR, suggesting it is the likely BraR binding site. We demonstrated that the two ABC transporters play distinct and original roles in antibiotic resistance: BraDE is involved in bacitracin sensing and signalling through BraSR, whereas VraDE acts specifically as a detoxification module and is sufficient to confer bacitracin and nisin resistance when produced on its own. We show that these processes require functional BraD and VraD nucleotide-binding domain proteins, and that the large extracellular loop of VraE confers its specificity in bacitracin resistance. This is the first example of a TCS associated with two ABC transporters playing separate roles in signal transduction and antibiotic resistance. | 2011 | 21696458 |
| 347 | 14 | 0.9415 | A novel plasmid gene involved in bacteriophage PRD1 infection and conjugative host-range. PRD1 infects bacteria carrying IncN plasmids by binding to their conjugative pili. Mutations in a plasmid locus kikA close to the pilus region result in PRD1 resistance and reduced conjugation proficiency to Klebsiella but not to Escherichia coli. One of the two genes of kikA is sufficient to restore both normal phenotypes. PRD1 binds to cells carrying the mutant plasmid but fails to inject its genome. | 1996 | 8812786 |
| 556 | 15 | 0.9414 | An ArsR/SmtB family member regulates arsenic resistance genes unusually arranged in Thermus thermophilus HB27. Arsenic resistance is commonly clustered in ars operons in bacteria; main ars operon components encode an arsenate reductase, a membrane extrusion protein, and an As-sensitive transcription factor. In the As-resistant thermophile Thermus thermophilus HB27, genes encoding homologues of these proteins are interspersed in the chromosome. In this article, we show that two adjacent genes, TtsmtB, encoding an ArsR/SmtB transcriptional repressor and, TTC0354, encoding a Zn(2+) /Cd(2+) -dependent membrane ATPase are involved in As resistance; differently from characterized ars operons, the two genes are transcribed from dedicated promoters upstream of their respective genes, whose expression is differentially regulated at transcriptional level. Mutants defective in TtsmtB or TTC0354 are more sensitive to As than the wild type, proving their role in arsenic resistance. Recombinant dimeric TtSmtB binds in vitro to both promoters, but its binding capability decreases upon interaction with arsenate and, less efficiently, with arsenite. In vivo and in vitro experiments also demonstrate that the arsenate reductase (TtArsC) is subjected to regulation by TtSmtB. We propose a model for the regulation of As resistance in T. thermophilus in which TtSmtB is the arsenate sensor responsible for the induction of TtArsC which generates arsenite exported by TTC0354 efflux protein to detoxify cells. | 2017 | 28696001 |
| 564 | 16 | 0.9414 | Mycobacterium tuberculosis possesses an unusual tmRNA rescue system. Trans-translation is a key process in bacteria which recycles stalled ribosomes and tags incomplete nascent proteins for degradation. This ensures the availability of ribosomes for protein synthesis and prevents the accumulation of dysfunctional proteins. The tmRNA, ssrA, is responsible for both recovering stalled ribosomes and encodes the degradation tag; ssrA associates and functions with accessory proteins such as SmpB. Although ssrA and smpB are ubiquitous in bacteria, they are not essential for the viability of many species. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome has homologues of both ssrA and smpB. We demonstrated that ssrA is essential in M. tuberculosis, since the chromosomal copy of the gene could only be deleted in the presence of a functional copy integrated elsewhere. However, we were able to delete the proteolytic tagging function by constructing strains carrying a mutant allele (ssrADD). This demonstrates that ribosome rescue by ssrA is the essential function in M. tuberculosis, SmpB was not required for aerobic growth, since we were able to construct a deletion strain. However, the smpBΔ strain was more sensitive to antibiotics targeting the ribosome. Strains with deletion of smpB or mutations in ssrA did not show increased sensitivity (or resistance) to pyrazinamide suggesting that this antibiotic does not directly target these components of the tmRNA tagging system. | 2014 | 24145139 |
| 519 | 17 | 0.9412 | The Ruegeria pomeroyi acuI gene has a role in DMSP catabolism and resembles yhdH of E. coli and other bacteria in conferring resistance to acrylate. The Escherichia coli YhdH polypeptide is in the MDR012 sub-group of medium chain reductase/dehydrogenases, but its biological function was unknown and no phenotypes of YhdH(-) mutants had been described. We found that an E. coli strain with an insertional mutation in yhdH was hyper-sensitive to inhibitory effects of acrylate, and, to a lesser extent, to those of 3-hydroxypropionate. Close homologues of YhdH occur in many Bacterial taxa and at least two animals. The acrylate sensitivity of YhdH(-) mutants was corrected by the corresponding, cloned homologues from several bacteria. One such homologue is acuI, which has a role in acrylate degradation in marine bacteria that catabolise dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) an abundant anti-stress compound made by marine phytoplankton. The acuI genes of such bacteria are often linked to ddd genes that encode enzymes that cleave DMSP into acrylate plus dimethyl sulfide (DMS), even though these are in different polypeptide families, in unrelated bacteria. Furthermore, most strains of Roseobacters, a clade of abundant marine bacteria, cleave DMSP into acrylate plus DMS, and can also demethylate it, using DMSP demethylase. In most Roseobacters, the corresponding gene, dmdA, lies immediately upstream of acuI and in the model Roseobacter strain Ruegeria pomeroyi DSS-3, dmdA-acuI were co-regulated in response to the co-inducer, acrylate. These observations, together with findings by others that AcuI has acryloyl-CoA reductase activity, lead us to suggest that YdhH/AcuI enzymes protect cells against damaging effects of intracellular acryloyl-CoA, formed endogenously, and/or via catabolising exogenous acrylate. To provide "added protection" for bacteria that form acrylate from DMSP, acuI was recruited into clusters of genes involved in this conversion and, in the case of acuI and dmdA in the Roseobacters, their co-expression may underpin an interaction between the two routes of DMSP catabolism, whereby the acrylate product of DMSP lyases is a co-inducer for the demethylation pathway. | 2012 | 22563425 |
| 9364 | 18 | 0.9412 | Predictable properties of fitness landscapes induced by adaptational tradeoffs. Fitness effects of mutations depend on environmental parameters. For example, mutations that increase fitness of bacteria at high antibiotic concentration often decrease fitness in the absence of antibiotic, exemplifying a tradeoff between adaptation to environmental extremes. We develop a mathematical model for fitness landscapes generated by such tradeoffs, based on experiments that determine the antibiotic dose-response curves of Escherichia coli strains, and previous observations on antibiotic resistance mutations. Our model generates a succession of landscapes with predictable properties as antibiotic concentration is varied. The landscape is nearly smooth at low and high concentrations, but the tradeoff induces a high ruggedness at intermediate antibiotic concentrations. Despite this high ruggedness, however, all the fitness maxima in the landscapes are evolutionarily accessible from the wild type. This implies that selection for antibiotic resistance in multiple mutational steps is relatively facile despite the complexity of the underlying landscape. | 2020 | 32423531 |
| 605 | 19 | 0.9411 | Conservation and diversity of the IrrE/DdrO-controlled radiation response in radiation-resistant Deinococcus bacteria. The extreme radiation resistance of Deinococcus bacteria requires the radiation-stimulated cleavage of protein DdrO by a specific metalloprotease called IrrE. DdrO is the repressor of a predicted radiation/desiccation response (RDR) regulon, composed of radiation-induced genes having a conserved DNA motif (RDRM) in their promoter regions. Here, we showed that addition of zinc ions to purified apo-IrrE, and short exposure of Deinococcus cells to zinc ions, resulted in cleavage of DdrO in vitro and in vivo, respectively. Binding of IrrE to RDRM-containing DNA or interaction of IrrE with DNA-bound DdrO was not observed. The data are in line with IrrE being a zinc peptidase, and indicate that increased zinc availability, caused by oxidative stress, triggers the in vivo cleavage of DdrO unbound to DNA. Transcriptomics and proteomics of Deinococcus deserti confirmed the IrrE-dependent regulation of predicted RDR regulon genes and also revealed additional members of this regulon. Comparative analysis showed that the RDR regulon is largely well conserved in Deinococcus species, but also showed diversity in the regulon composition. Notably, several RDR genes with an important role in radiation resistance in Deinococcus radiodurans, for example pprA, are not conserved in some other radiation-resistant Deinococcus species. | 2017 | 28397370 |