GacA regulates symbiotic colonization traits of Vibrio fischeri and facilitates a beneficial association with an animal host.

ABSTRACT: The GacS/GacA two-component system regulates the expression of bacterial traits during host association. Although the importance of GacS/GacA as a regulator of virulence is well established, its role in benign associations is not clear, as mutations in either the gacS or gacA gene have little impact on the success of colonization in nonpathogenic associations studied thus far. Using as a model the symbiotic association of the bioluminescent marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri with its animal host, the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, we investigated the role of GacA in this beneficial animal-microbe interaction. When grown in culture, gacA mutants were defective in several traits important for symbiosis, including luminescence, growth in defined media, growth yield, siderophore acti

SUBMITTER: Whistler CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC296250 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature