Nick Neubacher1, Nicholas J Tobias1,2,3, Michaela Huber4,5,6, Xiaofeng Cai1, Timo Glatter7, Sacha J Pidot8, Timothy P Stinear8, Anna Lena Lütticke1, Kai Papenfort4,5, Helge B Bode9,10,11,12. 1. Molekulare Biotechnologie, Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany. 2. LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity in Genomics (TBG), Frankfurt, Germany. 3. Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt, Germany. 4. Institute of Microbiology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany. 5. Microverse Cluster, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany. 6. Faculty of Biology I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Martinsried, Germany. 7. Core Facility for Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany. 8. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 9. Molekulare Biotechnologie, Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany. h.bode@bio.uni-frankfurt.de. 10. LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity in Genomics (TBG), Frankfurt, Germany. h.bode@bio.uni-frankfurt.de. 11. Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt, Germany. h.bode@bio.uni-frankfurt.de. 12. Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany. h.bode@bio.uni-frankfurt.de.
Abstract
Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus species have mutualistic associations with nematodes and an entomopathogenic stage1,2 in their life cycles. In both stages, numerous specialized metabolites are produced that have roles in symbiosis and virulence3,4. Although regulators have been implicated in the regulation of these specialized metabolites3,4, how small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) are involved in this process is not clear. Here, we show that the Hfq-dependent sRNA, ArcZ, is required for specialized metabolite production in Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus. We discovered that ArcZ directly base-pairs with the mRNA encoding HexA, which represses the expression of specialized metabolite gene clusters. In addition to specialized metabolite genes, we show that the ArcZ regulon affects approximately 15% of all transcripts in Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus. Thus, the ArcZ sRNA is crucial for specialized metabolite production in Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus species and could become a useful tool for metabolic engineering and identification of commercially relevant natural products.
Photorhabdus and pan class="Species">Xenorhabdus species have mutualistic associations with nematodes and an entomopathogenic stage1,2 in their life cycles. In both stages, numerous specialized metabolites are produced that have roles in symbiosis and virulence3,4. Although regulators have been implicated in the regulation of these specialized metabolites3,4, how small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) are involved in this process is not clear. Here, we show that the Hfq-dependent sRNA, ArcZ, is required for specialized metabolite production in Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus. We discovered that ArcZ directly base-pairs with the mRNA encoding HexA, which represses the expression of specialized metabolite gene clusters. In addition to specialized metabolite genes, we show that the ArcZ regulon affects approximately 15% of all transcripts in Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus. Thus, the ArcZ sRNA is crucial for specialized metabolite production in Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus species and could become a useful tool for metabolic engineering and identification of commercially relevant natural products.
Authors: Colin P Corcoran; Dimitri Podkaminski; Kai Papenfort; Johannes H Urban; Jay C D Hinton; Jörg Vogel Journal: Mol Microbiol Date: 2012-03-28 Impact factor: 3.501
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