The Pseudomonas aeruginosa rmlBDAC operon, encoding dTDP-L-rhamnose biosynthetic enzymes, is regulated by the quorum-sensing transcriptional regulator RhlR and the alternative sigma factor s Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces as biosurfactants rhamnolipids, containing one (monorhamnolipid) or two (di-rhamnolipid) L-rhamnose molecules. The rhamnosyltransferase RhlB catalyses the synthesis of mono-rhamnolipid using as precursors dTDP-L-rhamnose and 3-(3-hydroxyalkanoyloxy)alkanoic acids (HAAs) produced by RhlA, while the rhamnosyltransferase RhlC synthesizes di-rhamnolipid using mono-rhamnolipid and dTDP-L-rhamnose as substrates. The Las and Rhl quorum-sensing systems coordinately regulate the production of these surfactants, as well as that of other exoproducts involved in bacterial virulence, at the transcriptional level in a cell density-dependent manner. In this work we study the transcriptional regulation of the rmlBDAC operon, encoding the enzymes involved in the production of dTDP-Lrhamnose, the substrate of both rhamnosyltransferases, RhlB and RhlC, and also a component of P. aeruginosa lipopolysaccharide. Here we show that the rmlBDAC operon possesses three promoters. One of these transcriptional start sites (P2) is responsible for most of its expression and is dependent on the stationary phase sigma factor s S and on RhlR/C 4 -HSL through its binding to an atypical 'las box'.
INTRODUCTIONPseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that causes serious nosocomial infections. The secretion of numerous toxic compounds and hydrolytic enzymes that are involved in its pathogenicity is coordinately regulated at the transcriptional level by the so-called quorum-sensing Besides being a rhamnolipid precursor, dTDP-L-rhamnose is a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) precursor in a variety of bacteria, including P. aeruginosa (Rahim et al., 2000). This activated sugar has been implicated in bacterial pathogenicity (Ma et al., 1997(Ma et al., , 2001Bozue et al., 2005; EngelsDeutsch et al., 2003). The dTDP-L-rhamnose biosynthetic pathway consists of the conversion of glucose 1-phosphate to dTDP-L-rhamnose via dTDP-glucose, dTDP-6-deoxy-Dxylo-4-hexulose and dTDP-6-deoxy-L-xylo-4-hexulose Abbreviations: C 4 -HSL, butanoyl-homoserine lactone; 3O-C 12 -HSL, 3-oxo-dodecanoyl homoserine lactone; RNAP, RNA polymerase; QS, quorum sensing; QSR, quorum-sensing response.A supplementary table, showing oligonucleotides used in this study, is available with the online version of this paper.Microbiology ( 2012), 158, 908-916