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Methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs) are receptors that play an important role in bacterial chemotaxis. Methylation of Tsr, the MCP that mediates chemotaxis towards serine in Escherichia coli, is thought to be facilitated by binding of the methyltransferase to a flexible tether region at the C-terminal end of Tsr. This study analysed natural length variants of the tether that occur in E. coli due to genetic instability in tandem repeat DNA sequences that code for glutaminyl (Q) residues, creating polyQ sequences of variable lengths in the tether region. The tsr gene of E. coli K-12 (strain MG1655) codes for 4Q at the beginning of its 35 aa tether region. The tether varies in length from 35 to 47 residues among pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains of Escherichia, Shigella spp., Salmonella, Yersinia and Photorhabdus. Among previous sequences, Escherichia and Shigella mostly have 4Q and 7Q variants, and one strain (E. coli HS) has 10Q. In E. coli isolated from 50 humans and 75 animals (dogs, cats, horses, birds, etc.), polyQ up to 13Q (44 aa tether) were identified (6 strains); relative frequencies were 7Q ( approximately 77 % of the total) &gt;4Q (14 %) &gt;13Q (5 %) &gt;10Q (4 %). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that E. coli strains with 10Q or 13Q largely fell within two clusters. Serine chemotaxis was not significantly different among 7Q, 10Q and 13Q strains, and was comparable to chemotaxis in the frequently studied K-12 strain. These results are consistent with models indicating that polyQ sequences from 7Q to 13Q are flexible, and that longer tethers, within this range, would not change the precision of adaptation mediated by methylation. Studies of this naturally variable polyQ region in E. coli may also have relevance to mechanisms that mediate polyQ instability in human genetic diseases.

Variable length tandem repeat polyglutamine sequences in the flexible tether region of the Tsr chemotaxis receptor of Escherichia coli