| Title: | Intensive targeting of regulatory competence genes by transposable elements in streptococci |
| Author(s): | Flechard M; Lucchetti-Miganeh C; Hallet B; Hols P; Gilot P; |
| Address: | "Bacteries et Risque Materno-Foetal, UMR1282 Infectiologie et Sante Publique, Universite de Tours, INRA, 37032, Tours, France. maud.flechard@yahoo.com. Biochimie, Biophysique et Genetique des Microorganismes, Louvain Institute of Biomolecular Science and Technology, Universite Catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. maud.flechard@yahoo.com. Genostar, 60 rue Lavoisier, 38330, Montbonnot, France. Biochimie, Biophysique et Genetique des Microorganismes, Louvain Institute of Biomolecular Science and Technology, Universite Catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Bacteries et Risque Materno-Foetal, UMR1282 Infectiologie et Sante Publique, Universite de Tours, INRA, 37032, Tours, France. philippe.gilot@univ-tours.fr" |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00438-018-1507-5 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1617-4623 (Electronic) 1617-4623 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Competence for natural transformation is a widespread developmental process of streptococci. By allowing the uptake and recombination of exogenous naked DNA into the genome, natural transformation, as transposable elements, plays a key role in the plasticity of bacterial genomes. We previously analysed the insertion sites of IS1548, an insertion sequence present in Streptococcus agalactiae and S. pyogenes, and showed that some targeted loci are involved in competence induction. In this work, we investigated on a large scale if loci coding for early competence factors (ComX and the two pheromone-dependent signalling systems ComCDE and ComRS) of streptococci are especially targeted by transposable elements. The transposable elements inserted in regions surrounding these genes and housekeeping genes used for Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) were systematically searched for. We found numerous insertion events in the close vicinity of early competence genes, but only very few into the MLST loci. The incidence of transposable elements, mainly insertion sequences, is particularly high in the intergenic regions surrounding comX alleles in numerous species belonging to most streptococcal groups. The identification of scarce disruptive insertions inside early competence genes indicates that the maintenance of competence is essential for streptococci. The specific association of transposable elements with intergenic regions bordering the main regulatory genes of competence may impact on the induction of transformability and so, on the genome plasticity and adaptive evolution of streptococci. This widespread phenomenon brings new perspectives on our understanding of competence regulation and its role in the bacterial life cycle" |
| Keywords: | "Binding Sites/genetics DNA Transposable Elements/*genetics DNA, Intergenic/genetics Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial Genes, Bacterial/*genetics Genome, Bacterial/*genetics Multilocus Sequence Typing Mutagenesis, Insertional Phylogeny Species Specific;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineFlechard, Maud Lucchetti-Miganeh, Celine Hallet, Bernard Hols, Pascal Gilot, Philippe eng PDR n degrees T.0080.13/Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS/ PDR n degrees T.0082.13/Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS/ ARC n degrees 12/17-046/Communaute francaise de Belgique (Research department)/ Germany 2018/11/09 Mol Genet Genomics. 2019 Jun; 294(3):531-548. doi: 10.1007/s00438-018-1507-5. Epub 2018 Nov 7" |
