Two transmembrane transcriptional regulators coordinate to activate chitin-induced natural transformation in Vibrio cholerae.

ABSTRACT: Transcriptional regulators are a broad class of proteins that alter gene expression in response to environmental stimuli. Transmembrane transcriptional regulators (TTRs) are a subset of transcriptional regulators in bacteria that can directly regulate gene expression while remaining anchored in the membrane. Whether this constraint impacts the ability of TTRs to bind their DNA targets remains unclear. Vibrio cholerae uses two TTRs, ChiS and TfoS, to activate horizontal gene transfer by natural transformation in response to chitin by inducing the tfoR promoter (PtfoR). While TfoS was previously shown to bind and regulate PtfoR directly, the role of ChiS in PtfoR activation remains unclear. Here, we show that ChiS directly binds PtfoR upstream of TfoS, and that ChiS directly interacts with T

SUBMITTER: Hullinger AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11856585 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature