Phasevarions in Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius control expression of multiple proteins

biogroup is a human-adapted pathogen and the causative agent of Brazilian purpuric fever (BPF), an invasive disease with high mortality, that sporadically manifests in children previously suffering conjunctivitis. Phase variation is a rapid and reversible switching of gene expression found in many b...

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Veröffentlicht in:Microbiology spectrum 2024-01, Vol.12 (1), p.e0260123-e0260123
Hauptverfasser: Tram, Greg, Jen, Freda E-C, Phillips, Zachary N, Lancashire, John F, Timms, Jamie, Poole, Jessica, Jennings, Michael P, Atack, John M
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:biogroup is a human-adapted pathogen and the causative agent of Brazilian purpuric fever (BPF), an invasive disease with high mortality, that sporadically manifests in children previously suffering conjunctivitis. Phase variation is a rapid and reversible switching of gene expression found in many bacterial species, and typically associated with outer-membrane proteins. Phase variation of cytoplasmic DNA methyltransferases has been shown to play important roles in bacterial gene regulation and can act as epigenetic switches, regulating the expression of multiple genes as part of systems called phasevarions (phase-variable regulons). This study characterized two alleles of the ModA phasevarion present in biogroup , ModA13, found in non-BPF causing strains and ModA16, unique to BPF causing isolates. Phase variation of ModA13 and ModA16 led to genome-wide changes to DNA methylation resulting in altered protein expression. These changes did not affect serum resistance in biogroup strains.
ISSN:2165-0497
2165-0497
DOI:10.1128/spectrum.02601-23