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Investigating a novel regulation on a checkpoint protein Sda that is essential for biofilm formation and sporulation in Bacillus subtilis
Author(s) -
He Yinghao,
Gozzi Kevin,
Qin Yuxuan,
Chai Yunrong
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2018.32.1_supplement.648.7
Subject(s) - biofilm , bacillus subtilis , serine , biology , mutant , phosphorylation , gene , histidine kinase , response regulator , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , bacteria , biochemistry
Bacteria have evolved various protection mechanisms, such as biofilm formation and sporulation, to help them adapt to and survive extreme environments. In the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis , Sda is a “checkpoint” protein that plays a critical role in sporulation and biofilm formation by regulating the phosphotransfer from the histidine kinase KinA that culminates in phosphorylation of the transcription factor Spo0A, a master regulator for both sporulation and biofilm formation. Recent studies have shown a serine codon hierarchy‐based novel signaling mechanism for biofilm formation in B. subtilis . Interestingly, the sda gene has a much higher percentage of serine codons (12%) compared to the genome average (5%) in B. subtilis and a biased distribution of different serine codons. We hypothesize that the serine codon hierarchybased signaling mechanism also regulates Sda in that translation of Sda will slow down during nutrient limitation at the onset of biofilm formation and sporulation. To test our hypothesis, we constructed six Sda point mutants with synonymous substitutions in three TCN serine codons. We designed biofilm and sporulation competition assays to determine the impact of those synonymous changes in serine codons. We found that the Sda mutant with AGC substitutions outcompeted other mutants and became the dominant strain after several rounds of competition in both biofilm and sporulation assays. Our data indicates that synonymously switching serine codons in sda gene can delay biofilm formation and sporulation. This study suggests that this codon‐based serine sensing mechanism may be widely present in B. subtilis . Support or Funding Information National Science Foundation Northeastern University This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .