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Spatiotemporal control of FlgZ activity impacts Pseudomonas aeruginosa flagellar motility
Author(s) -
Bense Sarina,
Bruchmann Sebastian,
Steffen Anika,
Stradal Theresia E. B.,
Häussler Susanne,
Düvel Juliane
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
molecular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 247
eISSN - 1365-2958
pISSN - 0950-382X
DOI - 10.1111/mmi.14236
Subject(s) - motility , biology , flagellum , microbiology and biotechnology , swarming motility , pseudomonas aeruginosa , effector , gliding motility , bacteria , quorum sensing , genetics , biofilm
Summary The c‐di‐GMP‐binding effector protein FlgZ has been demonstrated to control motility in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa and it was suggested that c‐di‐GMP‐bound FlgZ impedes motility via its interaction with the MotCD stator. To further understand how motility is downregulated in P. aeruginosa and to elucidate the general control mechanisms operating during bacterial growth, we examined the spatiotemporal activity of FlgZ. We re‐annotated the P. aeruginosaflgZ open reading frame and demonstrated that FlgZ‐mediated downregulation of motility is fine‐tuned via three independent mechanisms. First, we found that flgZ gene is transcribed independently from flgMN in stationary growth phase to increase FlgZ protein levels in the cell. Second, FlgZ localizes to the cell pole upon c‐di‐GMP binding and third, we describe that FimV, a cell pole anchor protein, is involved in increasing the polar localized c‐di‐GMP bound FlgZ to inhibit both, swimming and swarming motility. Our results shed light on the complex dynamics and spatiotemporal control of c‐di‐GMP‐dependent bacterial motility phenotypes and on how the polar anchor protein FimV, the motor brake FlgZ and the stator proteins function to repress flagella‐driven swimming and swarming motility.