Competition between VanU(G) repressor and VanR(G) activator leads to rheostatic control of vanG vancomycin resistance operon expression.

ABSTRACT: Enterococcus faecalis BM4518 is resistant to vancomycin by synthesis of peptidoglycan precursors ending in D-alanyl-D-serine. In the chromosomal vanG locus, transcription of the resistance genes from the PYG resistance promoter is inducible and, upstream from these genes, there is an unusual three-component regulatory system encoded by the vanURS(G) operon from the P(UG) regulatory promoter. In contrast to the other van operons in enterococci, the vanG operon possesses the additional vanU(G) gene which encodes a transcriptional regulator whose role remains unknown. We show by DNase I footprinting, RT-qPCR, and reporter proteins activities that VanU(G), but not VanR(G), binds to P(UG) and negatively autoregulates the vanURS(G) operon and that it also represses PYG where it overlaps with Van

SUBMITTER: Depardieu F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4405338 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature