Negative feedback loops have been invoked as a way to control and decrease transcriptional noise. Here, we have built three circuits to test the effect of negative feedback loops on transcriptional noise of an autoregulated gene encoding a transcription factor (TF) and a downstream gene (DG), regulated by this TF. Experimental analysis shows that self-repression decreases noise compared to expression from a non-regulated promoter. Interestingly enough, we find that noise minimization by negative feedback loop is optimal within a range of repression strength. Repression values outside this range result in noise increase producing a U-shaped behaviour. This behaviour is the result of external noise probably arising from plasmid fluctuations as shown by simulation of the network. Regarding the target gene of a self-repressed TF (sTF), we find a strong decrease of noise when repression by the sTF is strong and a higher degree of noise anti-correlation between sTF and its target. Simulations of the circuits indicate that the main source of noise in these circuits could come from plasmid variation and therefore that negative feedback loops play an important role in suppressing both external and internal noise. An important observation is that DG expression without negative feedback exhibits bimodality at intermediate TF repression values. This bimodal behaviour seems to be the result of external noise as it can only be found in those simulations that include plasmid variation.

Flagella are the bacterial organelles of motility and can play important roles in pathogenesis. Flagella biosynthesis requires the coordinated export of huge protein amounts from the cytosol to the nascent flagellar structure at the cell surface and employs a type III secretion system (T3SS). Here we show that the integral membrane protein FlhA from the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis acts as an adaptor for late export substrates at the T3SS. The major filament protein (flagellin) and the filament-cap protein (FliD) bind to the FlhA cytoplasmic domain (FlhA-C) only in complex with their cognate chaperones (FliS and FliT). To understand the molecular details of these interactions we determined the FlhA-C crystal structure at 2.3 Å resolution. FlhA-C consists of an N-terminal linker region, three subdomains with a novel fold, and a disordered region essential for the adaptor function. We show that the export protein FliJ associates with the linker region and modulates the binding properties of FlhA-C. While the interaction of FliD/FliT is enhanced, flagellin/FliS is not affected. FliJ also keeps FliT associated with FlhA-C and excess of FliT inhibits binding of FliD/FliT, suggesting that empty FliT chaperones stay associated with FliJ after export of FliD. Taken together, these results allow to propose a model that explains how the T3SS may switch from the stoichiometric export of FliD to the high-throughput secretion of flagellin.

SIMIBI-class (named after the signal recognition particle, MinD, BioD) nucleotide-binding proteins appeared early in evolution 1 and contain GTPases, as well as ATPases, involved in the correct localization of cellular constituents. The MinD ATPase, as the central part of the Min system, regulates the determination of the cell division site in all bacterial species 2 . SRP-GTPases form a subfamily of the SIMIBI class, with only three members: the signal sequence-binding protein Ffh (SRP54 in Eukarya and Archaea), the SRP receptor FtsY (SR in Eukarya) and FlhF, which is involved in flagella biosynthesis [3][4][5] . They share the conserved NG domain, which contains two major additions to the conserved fold of small G proteins. First, an --element (I-box) is inserted in the effector region; second, the N domain, comprising four -helices, is attached to the N terminus of the G domain. SRP (Ffh together with the SRP RNA) and FtsY constitute the universally conserved co-translational protein-targeting machinery 6,7 . When bound to GTP, Ffh and FtsY form, through interactions between their NG domains 8,9 , a heterodimeric complex that regulates the transfer of a ribosome-nascent chain complex to a vacant translocon in the membrane with a series of conformational rearrangements 10,11 . The two GTPases share a composite active site between their G domains in which GTP hydrolysis is reciprocally activated 12 . The SRP RNA [13][14][15] and membrane lipids 16,17 play fundamental roles in activating the Ffh-FtsY GTPases. The recent structure of the SRP-FtsY complex, together with biochemical implications, suggest that the distal end of the hairpin-like SRP RNA may be involved in this activation 18 . The third SRP-GTPase FlhF, together with the MinD-type protein YlxH (also known as FlhG, FleN, motR or MinD2), is essential for the placement and assembly of flagella 19 in many polar and peritrichous flagellated bacteria [20][21][22][23][24] . FlhF is required for the targeting of the first flagellar protein, FliF, to the cell pole 25 by a mechanism that is so far poorly understood. FlhF is associated with the membrane 25,26 and localizes at the cell pole 20 . The FlhF protein (Fig. 1a) contains an N-terminal B domain that seems to be involved in FliF targeting 25 ; it shares the NG domain fold with the other two members of the SRP-GTPase subfamily. FlhF forms a stable homodimer with GTP and a composite active site that is basically identical to the active site of the Ffh-FtsY heterodimer 5 . In both the homo-and heterodimer, the two nucleotides are bound in a head-to-tail manner, with the -phosphate of one nucleotide interacting with the 3 -OH of the ribose moiety of the other. However, for the homo-and heterodimers formed by the three SRP-GTPases, the molecular mechanism of activation is still unknown. We set out to understand the activation of SRPGTPases by studying FlhF. RESULTS The SRP-GTPase FlhF is activated by YlxHAs FlhF (Fig. 1) forms a stable homodimer, and reciprocal activation has not been observed 5 , we reasoned ...

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