The Yersiniabactin Biosynthetic Gene Cluster of Yersinia enterocolitica : Organization and Siderophore-Dependent Regulation

Abstract

The ability to synthesize and uptake the Yersiniasiderophore yersiniabactin is a hallmark of the highly pathogenic, mouse-lethal species Yersinia pestis, Y. pseudotuberculosis, and Y. enterocolitica 1B. We have identified four genes, irp1, irp3,irp4, and irp5, on a 13-kb chromosomal DNA fragment of Y. enterocolitica O8, WA-314. These genes constitute the yersiniabactin biosynthetic gene cluster together with the previously defined irp2. The irp1 gene consists of 9,486 bp capable of encoding a 3,161-amino-acid high-molecular-weight protein 1 (HMWP1) polypeptide with a predicted mass of 384.6 kDa. The first 3,000 bp of irp1 show similarity to the corresponding regions of the polyketide synthase genes of Bacillus subtilis and Streptomyces antibioticus. The remaining part of irp1 is most similar to irp2, encoding HMWP2, which might be the reason for immunological cross-reactivity of the two polypeptides. Irp4 was found to have 41.7% similarity to thioesterase-like protein of the anguibactin biosynthetic genes of Vibrio anguillarum. Irp5 shows 41% similarity to EntE, the 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid-activating enzyme utilized in enterobactin synthesis of Escherichia coli. Irp4 and Irp5 are nearly identical to YbtT and YbtE, recently identified in Y. pestis. irp3 has no similarity to any known gene. Inactivation of either irp1 orirp2 abrogates yersiniabactin synthesis. Mutations inirp1 or fyuA (encoding yersiniabactin/pesticin receptor) result in downregulation of irp2 that can be upregulated by the addition of yersiniabactin. A FyuA-green fluorescent protein translational fusion was downregulated in an irp1mutant. Upregulation was achieved by addition of yersiniabactin but not desferal, pesticin, or pyochelin, which indicates high specificity of the FyuA receptor and autoregulation of genes involved in synthesis and uptake of yersiniabactin.

Substrate induction of siderophore transport in Bacillus subtilis mediated by a novel one‐component regulator

“…Siderophore-mediated regulation by AraC-type transcription factors has been best documented in Yersinia pestis (YbtA), P. aeruginosa (PchR) and Bordetella spp. (AlcR and BfeR), and similar regulators have been described in other Pseudomonads (PdtC, QbsA), Sinorhizobium meliloti (RhrA) and Vibrio vulnificans (DesR) (Heinrichs and Poole, 1993;Fetherston et al, 1996;Beaumont et al, 1998;Pelludat et al, 1998;Lynch et al, 2001;Anderson and Armstrong, 2004). The few AraC family regulators studied to date appear to respond to a broad range of chemical inducers.…”

Iron acquisition in the marine actinomycete genusSalinisporais controlled by the desferrioxamine family of siderophores

“…Because of the differential transcriptional response of sid2 to iron in the des mutants, however, it is unlikely that this additional iron chelator is associated with sid2. Sid2 possesses similarity to ybt (Bearden et al, 1997;Pelludat et al, 1998); however, there are several differences between the two gene clusters (Fig. 1b).…”

Siderophore‐mediated cell signalling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: divergent pathways regulate virulence factor production and siderophore receptor synthesis

“…Other systems have also been identified in which the presence of a ferri-siderophore induces the production of the corresponding receptor, although the signalling mechanisms are quite different. These include pyochelin and enterobactin transport systems in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Dean and Poole, 1993;Heinrichs and Poole, 1996), alcaligin transport in Bordetella pertussis (Brickman et al ., 2001) and yersiniabactin transport in Yersinia pestis (Pelludat et al ., 1998). Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that is able to cause severe infections in patients suffering from cystic fibrosis, severe burns or some cancers (Fick, 1993).…”