A Salmonella Typhi RNA thermosensor regulates virulence factors and innate immune evasion in response to host temperature.

ABSTRACT: Sensing and responding to environmental signals is critical for bacterial pathogens to successfully infect and persist within hosts. Many bacterial pathogens sense temperature as an indication they have entered a new host and must alter their virulence factor expression to evade immune detection. Using secondary structure prediction, we identified an RNA thermosensor (RNAT) in the 5' untranslated region (UTR) of tviA encoded by the typhoid fever-causing bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi). Importantly, tviA is a transcriptional regulator of the critical virulence factors Vi capsule, flagellin, and type III secretion system-1 expression. By introducing point mutations to alter the mRNA secondary structure, we demonstrate that the 5' UTR of tviA contains a functional RNAT

SUBMITTER: Brewer SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7954313 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature