Inactivation of lsr2 results in a hypermotile phenotype in Mycobacterium smegmatis.

ABSTRACT: Mycobacterial species are characterized by the presence of lipid-rich, hydrophobic cell envelopes. These cell envelopes contribute to properties such as roughness of colonies, aggregation of cells in liquid culture without detergent, and biofilm formation. We describe here a mutant strain of Mycobacterium smegmatis, called DL1215, which demonstrates marked deviations from the above-mentioned phenotypes. DL1215 arose spontaneously from a strain deficient for the stringent response (M. smegmatis Delta rel(Msm) strain) and is not a reversion to a wild-type phenotype. The nature of the spontaneous mutation was a single base-pair deletion in the lsr2 gene, leading to the formation of a truncated protein product. The DL1215 strain was complicated by having both inactivated rel(Msm) and lsr2 gene

SUBMITTER: Arora K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2446759 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature