Brucella MucR acts as an H-NS-like protein to silence virulence genes and structure the nucleoid.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Histone-like nucleoid structuring (H-NS) and H-NS-like proteins coordinate host-associated behaviors in many pathogenic bacteria, often through forming silencer/counter-silencer pairs with signal-responsive transcriptional activators to tightly control gene expression. Brucella and related bacteria do not encode H-NS or homologs of known H-NS-like proteins, and it is unclear if they have other proteins that perform analogous functions during pathogenesis. In this work, we provide compelling evidence for the role of MucR as a novel H-NS-like protein in Brucella. We show that MucR possesses many of the known functions attributed to H-NS and H-NS-like proteins, including the formation of silencer/counter-silencer pairs to control virulence gene expression and

SUBMITTER: Barton IS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10746212 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature