VirB, a key transcriptional regulator of virulence plasmid genes in Shigella flexneri, forms DNA-binding site dependent foci in the bacterial cytoplasm.

ABSTRACT: VirB is a key regulator of genes located on the large virulence plasmid (pINV) in the bacterial pathogen Shigella flexneri VirB is unusual; it is not related to other transcriptional regulators, instead, it belongs to a family of proteins that primarily function in plasmid and chromosome partitioning; exemplified by ParB. Despite this, VirB does not function to segregate DNA, but rather counters transcriptional silencing mediated by the nucleoid structuring protein, H-NS. Since ParB localizes subcellularly as discrete foci in the bacterial cytoplasm, we chose to investigate the subcellular localization of VirB to gain novel insight into how VirB functions as a transcriptional anti-silencer. To do this, a GFP-VirB fusion that retains the regulatory activity of VirB and yet, does not undergo

SUBMITTER: Socea JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8117518 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature