A defense-offense multi-layered regulatory switch in a pathogenic bacterium.

ABSTRACT: Cells adapt to environmental changes by efficiently adjusting gene expression programs. Staphylococcus aureus, an opportunistic pathogenic bacterium, switches between defensive and offensive modes in response to quorum sensing signal. We identified and studied the structural characteristics and dynamic properties of the core regulatory circuit governing this switch by deterministic and stochastic computational methods, as well as experimentally. This module, termed here Double Selector Switch (DSS), comprises the RNA regulator RNAIII and the transcription factor Rot, defining a double-layered switch involving both transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulations. It coordinates the inverse expression of two sets of target genes, immuno-modulators and exotoxins, expressed during the def

SUBMITTER: Nitzan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4330369 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature