Characterization of the locus responsible for the bacteriocin production in Lactobacillus plantarum C11

Abstract

Lactobacillus plantarum C11 secretes a small cationic peptide, plantaricin A, that serves as induction signal for bacteriocin production as well as transcription of plnABCD. The plnABCD operon encodes the plantaricin A precursor (PlnA) itself and determinants (PlnBCD) for a signal transducing pathway. By Northern (RNA) and sequencing analyses, four new plantaricin A-induced operons were identified. All were highly activated in concert with plnABCD upon bacteriocin induction. Two of these operons (termed plnEFI and plnJKLR) each encompass a gene pair (plnEF and plnJK, respectively) encoding two small cationic bacteriocin-like peptides with double-glycine-type leaders. The open reading frames (ORFs) encoding the bacteriocin-like peptides are followed by ORFs (plnI and -L, respectively) encoding cationic hydrophobic proteins resembling bacteriocin immunity proteins. On the third operon (termed plnMNOP), a similar bacteriocin-like ORF (plnN) and a putative immunity ORF (either plnM or -P) were identified as well. These findings suggest that two bacteriocins of two-peptide type (mature PlnEF and PlnJK) and a bacteriocin of one-peptide type (mature PlnN) could be responsible for the observed bacteriocin activity. The last operon (termed plnGHSTUV) contains two ORFs (plnGH) apparently encoding an ABC transporter and its accessory protein, respectively, known to be involved in processing and export of peptides with precursor double-glycine-type leaders. Promoter structure was established. A conserved regulatory-like box encompassing two direct repeats was identified in the promoter regions of all five plantaricin A-induced operons. These repeats may serve as regulatory elements for gene expression.

Pheromone‐induced production of antimicrobial peptides in Lactobacillus

“…Similar conserved sequence elements have been observed when analysing putative promoter regions in front of bacteriocinrelated genes in other lactic acid bacteria, for example in L. plantarum C11 (Fig. 4; Diep et al, 1996).…”

“…Ptashne, 1992;Cara and Schleif, 1993;Diep et al, 1996). The function of these regions as promoters was shown by our studies with the CAT reporter gene ( Table 1).…”

A two-component signal-transduction cascade in Carnobacterium piscicola LV17B: two signaling peptides and one sensor-transmitter

“…This observation is in contrast to what has been described for the production of bacteriocins in lactobacilli, where only a specific type II bacteriocin-like peptide (CS functional homolog) appears to be involved in regulation of production [5,6,8,14,15]. Activation of transcription of the genes under control of cbn promoters requires a two-component signal transduction system composed of the putative peptide pheromone receptor CbnK and its corresponding response regulator CbnR.…”

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“…All the strains of L. plantarum carried all the genes of plantaricin cluster described previously in L. plantarum strains C11 (Diep et al, 1996) and WCFS1 (Kleerebezem et al, 2003) suggesting similarity in gene organizations and /target sequence. Besides carrying all the genes of plantaricin cluster, isolate L. plantarum SM33 tested positive for presence of plantaricin NC8 structural gene.…”