DevI is an evolutionarily young negative regulator of Myxococcus xanthus development.

ABSTRACT:

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During starvation-induced development of Myxococcus xanthus, thousands of rod-shaped cells form mounds in which they differentiate into spores. The dev locus includes eight genes followed by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs), comprising a CRISPR-Cas system (Cas stands for CRISPR associated) typically involved in RNA interference. Mutations in devS or devR of a lab reference strain permit mound formation but impair sporulation. We report that natural isolates of M. xanthus capable of normal development are highly polymorphic in the promoter region of the dev operon. We show that the dev promoter is predicted to be nonfunctional in most natural isolates and is dispensable for development of a laboratory reference strain. Moreover, deletion

SUBMITTER: Rajagopalan R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4352663 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature