Plastic Circuits: Regulatory Flexibility in Fine Tuning Pathogen Success

The zinc-finger bearing xenogeneic silencer MucR in α-proteobacteria balances adaptation and regulatory integrity

Foreign AT-rich genes drive bacterial adaptation to new niches while challenging the existing regulation network. Here we report that MucR, a conserved regulator in α-proteobacteria, balances adaptation and regulatory integrity in Sinorhizobium fredii, a facultative microsymbiont of legumes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing coupled with transcriptomic data reveal that average transcription levels of both target and non-target genes, under free-living and symbiotic conditions, increase with their conservation levels. Targets involved in environmental adaptation and symbiosis belong to genus or species core and can be repressed or activated by MucR in a condition-dependent manner, implying regulatory integrations. However, most targets are enriched in strain-specific genes of lower expression levels and higher AT%. Within each conservation levels, targets have higher AT% and average transcription levels than non-target genes and can be further up-regulated in the mucR mutant. This is consistent with higher AT% of spacers between -35 and -10 elements of promoters for target genes, which enhances transcription. The MucR recruitment level linearly increases with AT% and the number of a flexible pattern (with periodic repeats of Ts) of target sequences. Collectively, MucR directly represses AT-rich foreign genes with predisposed high transcription potential while progressive erosions of its target sites facilitate regulatory integrations of foreign genes.

The CovR regulatory network drives the evolution of Group B Streptococcus virulence

Virulence of the neonatal pathogen Group B Streptococcus is under the control of the master regulator CovR. Inactivation of CovR is associated with large-scale transcriptome remodeling and impairs almost every step of the interaction between the pathogen and the host. However, transcriptome analyses suggested a plasticity of the CovR signaling pathway in clinical isolates leading to phenotypic heterogeneity in the bacterial population. In this study, we characterized the CovR regulatory network in a strain representative of the CC-17 hypervirulent lineage responsible of the majority of neonatal meningitis. Transcriptome and genome-wide binding analysis reveal the architecture of the CovR network characterized by the direct repression of a large array of virulence-associated genes and the extent of co-regulation at specific loci. Comparative functional analysis of the signaling network links strain-specificities to the regulation of the pan-genome, including the two specific hypervirulent adhesins and horizontally acquired genes, to mutations in CovR-regulated promoters, and to variability in CovR activation by phosphorylation. This regulatory adaptation occurs at the level of genes, promoters, and of CovR itself, and allows to globally reshape the expression of virulence genes. Overall, our results reveal the direct, coordinated, and strain-specific regulation of virulence genes by the master regulator CovR and suggest that the intra-species evolution of the signaling network is as important as the expression of specific virulence factors in the emergence of clone associated with specific diseases.

Streptococcus agalactiae, commonly known as the Group B Streptococcus (GBS), is a commensal bacterium of the intestinal and vaginal tracts found in approximately 30% of healthy adults. However, GBS is also an opportunistic pathogen and the leading cause of neonatal invasive infections. Epidemiologic data have identified a particular GBS clone, designated the CC-17 hypervirulent clonal complex, as responsible for the overwhelming majority of neonatal meningitis. The hypervirulence of CC-17 has been linked to the expression of two specific surface proteins increasing their abilities to cross epithelial and endothelial barriers. In this study, we characterized the role of the major regulator of virulence gene expression, the CovR response regulator, in a representative hypervirulent strain. Transcriptome and genome-wide binding analysis reveal the architecture of the CovR signaling network characterized by the direct repression of a large array of virulence-associated genes, including the specific hypervirulent adhesins. Comparative analysis in a non-CC-17 wild type strain demonstrates a high level of plasticity of the regulatory network, allowing to globally reshape pathogen-host interaction. Overall, our results suggest that the intra-species evolution of the regulatory network is an important factor in the emergence of GBS clones associated with specific pathologies.

Resolving the Rules of Robustness and Resilience in Biology Across Scales

Why do some biological systems and communities persist while others fail? Robustness, a system's stability, and resilience, the ability to return to a stable state, are key concepts that span multiple disciplines within and outside the biological sciences. Discovering and applying common rules that govern the robustness and resilience of biological systems is a critical step toward creating solutions for species survival in the face of climate change, as well as the for the ever-increasing need for food, health, and energy for human populations. We propose that network theory provides a framework for universal scalable mathematical models to describe robustness and resilience and the relationship between them, and hypothesize that resilience at lower organization levels contribute to robust systems. Insightful models of biological systems can be generated by quantifying the mechanisms of redundancy, diversity, and connectivity of networks, from biochemical processes to ecosystems. These models provide pathways towards understanding how evolvability can both contribute to and result from robustness and resilience under dynamic conditions. We now have an abundance of data from model and non-model systems and the technological and computational advances for studying complex systems. Several conceptual and policy advances will allow the research community to elucidate the rules of robustness and resilience. Conceptually, a common language and data structure that can be applied across levels of biological organization needs to be developed. Policy advances such as cross-disciplinary funding mechanisms, access to affordable computational capacity, and the integration of network theory and computer science within the standard biological science curriculum will provide the needed research environments. This new understanding of biological systems will allow us to derive ever more useful forecasts of biological behaviors and revolutionize the engineering of biological systems that can survive changing environments or disease, navigate the deepest oceans, or sustain life throughout the solar system.

The force awakens: The dark side of mechanosensing in bacterial pathogens

For many bacteria, the ability to sense physical stimuli such as contact with a surface or a potential host cell is vital for survival and proliferation. This ability, and subsequent attachment, confers a wide range of benefits to bacteria and many species have evolved to take advantage of this. Despite the impressive diversity of bacterial pathogens and their virulence factors, mechanosensory mechanisms are often conserved. These include sensing impedance of flagellar rotation and resistance to type IV pili retraction. There are additional mechanisms that rely on the use of specific membrane-bound adhesins to sense either surface proximity or shear forces. This review aims to examine these mechanosensors, and how they are used by pathogenic bacteria to sense physical features in their environment. We will explore how these sensors generate and transmit signals which can trigger modulation of virulence-associated gene expression in some of the most common bacterial pathogens: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis, Escherichia coli and Vibrio species.

Widespread Strain-Specific Distinctions in Chromosomal Binding Dynamics of a Highly Conserved Escherichia coli Transcription Factor

Bacterial gene regulation is governed by often hundreds of transcription factors (TFs) that bind directly to targets on the chromosome. Global studies of TFs usually make assumptions that regulatory targets within model strains will be conserved between members of the same species harboring common genetic targets. We recently discovered that YhaJ of Escherichia coli is crucial for virulence in two different pathotypes but binds to distinct regions of their genomes and regulates no common genes. This surprising result leads to strain-specific mechanisms of virulence regulation, but the implications for other E. coli pathotypes or commensals were unclear. Here, we report that heterogenous binding of YhaJ is widespread within the E. coli species. We analyzed the global YhaJ binding dynamics of four evolutionarily distinct E. coli isolates under two conditions, revealing 78 significant sites on the core genome as well as horizontally acquired loci. Condition-dependent dosage of YhaJ correlated with the number of occupied sites in vivo but did not significantly alter its enrichment at regions bound in both conditions, explaining the availability of this TF to occupy accessory sites in response to the environment. Strikingly, only ∼15% of YhaJ binding sites were common to all strains. Furthermore, differences in enrichment of uncommon sites were observed largely in chromosomal regions found in all strains and not explained exclusively by binding to strain-specific horizontally acquired elements or mutations in the DNA binding sequence. This observation suggests that intraspecies distinctions in TF binding dynamics are a widespread phenomenon and represent strain-specific gene regulatory potential.IMPORTANCE In bacterial cells, hundreds of transcription factors coordinate gene regulation and thus are a major driver of cellular processes. However, the immense diversity in bacterial genome structure and content makes deciphering regulatory networks challenging. This is particularly apparent for the model organism Escherichia coli as evolution has driven the emergence of species members with highly distinct genomes, which occupy extremely different niches in nature. While it is well-known that transcription factors must integrate horizontally acquired DNA into the regulatory network of the cell, the extent of regulatory diversity beyond single model strains is unclear. We have explored this concept in four evolutionarily distinct E. coli strains and show that a highly conserved transcription factor displays unprecedented diversity in chromosomal binding sites. Importantly, this diversity is not restricted to strain-specific DNA or mutation in binding sites. This observation suggests that strain-specific regulatory networks are potentially widespread within individual bacterial species.