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DNA supercoiling and environmental regulation of virulence gene expression in Shigella flexneri

Nature volume 344, pages 789–792 (1990)Cite this article

Abstract

BACTERIAL pathogens undergo profound physiological changes when they infect their hosts, requiring coordinated regulation of gene expression in response to the stresses encountered during infection. A number of environmental stresses (such as osmotic shock and anaerobiosis) have been shown to induce changes in DNA supercoiling that can directly affect the transcription of a specific subset of bacterial genes1–6, at least some of which (the outer-membrane porins and type 1 fìmbriae) play a part in bacterial virulence7–9. Here, we demonstrate that the virR gene of S. flexneri implicated in the temperature regulation of plasmid-encoded virulence genes10–13, is equivalent to the osmZ gene of Escherichia coli, which has previously been shown to mediate its regulatory effects through changes in DNA supercoiling. Our results imply that environmentally induced changes in DNA supercoiling are important in the coordinated control of virulence gene expression in S. flexneri and have general implications for the control of bacterial virulence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry, Medical Sciences Institute, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN, UK

    Charles J. Dorman & Niamh Ni Bhriain

  2. ICRF Laboratories, Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, 0X3 9DU, UK

    Christopher F. Higgins

Authors
  1. Charles J. Dorman
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  2. Niamh Ni Bhriain
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  3. Christopher F. Higgins
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Dorman, C., Bhriain, N. & Higgins, C. DNA supercoiling and environmental regulation of virulence gene expression in Shigella flexneri. Nature 344, 789–792 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/344789a0

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