Open AccessTranscriptional analysis of the flagellar regulon of Salmonella typhimurium
Author(s) -
Kazuhiro Kutsukake,
Yoshikazu Ohya,
Tetsuo Iino
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.652
H-Index - 246
eISSN - 1067-8832
pISSN - 0021-9193
DOI - 10.1128/jb.172.2.741-747.1990
Subject(s) - operon , regulon , biology , genetics , gene , escherichia coli , mutant
In Salmonella typhimurium, nearly 50 genes are involved in flagellar formation and function and constitute at least 13 different operons. In this study, we examined the transcriptional interaction among the flagellar operons by combined use of Mu d1(Apr Lac) cts62 and Tn10 insertion mutants in the flagellar genes. The results showed that the flagellar operons can be divided into three classes: class I contains only the flhD operon, which is controlled by the cAMP-CAP complex and is required for expression of all of the other flagellar operons; class II contains seven operons, flgA, flgB, flhB, fliA, fliE, fliF, and fliL, which are under control of class I and are required for the expression of class III; class III contains five operons, flgK, fliD fliC, motA, and tar. This ordered cascade of transcription closely parallels the assembly of the flagellar structure. In addition, we found that the fliD defect enhanced expression of the class III operons. This suggests that the fliD gene product may be responsible for repression of the class III operons in the mutants in the class II genes. These results are compared with the cascade model of the flagellar regulon of Escherichia coli proposed previously (Y. Komeda, J. Bacteriol. 170:1575-1581, 1982).