Study of the response regulator Rrp1 reveals its regulatory role in chitobiose utilization and virulence of Borrelia burgdorferi.

ABSTRACT: Life cycle alternation between arthropod and mammals forces the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, to adapt to different host milieus by utilizing diverse carbohydrates. Glycerol and chitobiose are abundantly present in the Ixodes tick. B. burgdorferi can utilize glycerol as a carbohydrate source for glycolysis and chitobiose to produce N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), a key component of the bacterial cell wall. A recent study reported that Rrp1, a response regulator that synthesizes cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP), governs glycerol utilization in B. burgdorferi. In this report, we found that the rrp1 mutant had growth defects and formed membrane blebs that led to cell lysis when GlcNAc was replaced by chitobiose in the growth medium. The gene chbC encodes a key chitobiose transport

SUBMITTER: Sze CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3647990 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature