Elimination of PknL and MSMEG_4242 in Mycobacterium smegmatis alters the character of the outer cell envelope and selects for mutations in Lsr2.

ABSTRACT: Four serine/threonine kinases are present in all mycobacteria: PknA, PknB, PknG and PknL. PknA and PknB are essential for growth and replication, PknG regulates metabolism, but little is known about PknL. Inactivation of pknL and adjacent regulator MSMEG_4242 in rough colony M. smegmatis mc²155 produced both smooth and rough colonies. Upon restreaking rough colonies, smooth colonies appeared at a frequency of ~ 1/250. Smooth mutants did not form biofilms, showed increased sliding motility and anomalous lipids on thin-layer chromatography, identified by mass spectrometry as lipooligosaccharides and perhaps also glycopeptidolipids. RNA-seq and Sanger sequencing revealed that all smooth mutants had inactivated lsr2 genes due to mutations and different IS

SUBMITTER: Baez-Ramirez E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8408660 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature