Suppressor mutations in ribosomal proteins and FliY restore Bacillus subtilis swarming motility in the absence of EF-P.

ABSTRACT: Translation elongation factor P (EF-P) alleviates ribosome pausing at a subset of motifs encoding consecutive proline residues, and is required for growth in many organisms. Here we show that Bacillus subtilis EF-P also alleviates ribosome pausing at sequences encoding tandem prolines and ribosomes paused within several essential genes without a corresponding growth defect in an efp mutant. The B. subtilis efp mutant is instead impaired for flagellar biosynthesis which results in the abrogation of a form of motility called swarming. We isolate swarming suppressors of efp and identify mutations in 8 genes that suppressed the efp mutant swarming defect, many of which encode conserved ribosomal proteins or ribosome-associated factors. One mutation abolished a translational pause site within t

SUBMITTER: Hummels KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6613710 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature