2. Academic Validation
  3. A secreted effector with a dual role as a toxin and as a transcriptional factor

A secreted effector with a dual role as a toxin and as a transcriptional factor

  • Nat Commun. 2022 Dec 16;13(1):7779. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-35522-9.
Dandan Wang # 1,  Lingfang Zhu # 1,  Xiangkai Zhen # 2,  Daoyan Yang 1,  Changfu Li 1,  Yating Chen 1,  Huannan Wang 2,  Yichen Qu 1,  Xiaozhen Liu 1,  Yanling Yin 3,  Huawei Gu 1,  Lei Xu 1,  Chuanxing Wan 3,  Yao Wang 1,  Songying Ouyang 4,  Xihui Shen 5 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Agricultural and Environmental Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China.
  • 2 The Key Laboratory of Innate Immune Biology of Fujian Province, Provincial University Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Response and Metabolic Regulation, Biomedical Research Center of South China, Key Laboratory of OptoElectronic Science and Technology for Medicine of the Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350117, China.
  • 3 Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Key Laboratory of Protection and Utilization of Biological Resources in Tarim Basin, College of Life Science, Tarim University, Alar, 843300, Xinjiang, China.
  • 4 The Key Laboratory of Innate Immune Biology of Fujian Province, Provincial University Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Response and Metabolic Regulation, Biomedical Research Center of South China, Key Laboratory of OptoElectronic Science and Technology for Medicine of the Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350117, China. [email protected].
  • 5 State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Agricultural and Environmental Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China. [email protected].
  • 6 College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China. [email protected].
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 36522324 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35522-9
Abstract

Bacteria have evolved multiple secretion systems for delivering effector proteins into the cytosol of neighboring cells, but the roles of many of these effectors remain unknown. Here, we show that Yersinia pseudotuberculosis secretes an effector, CccR, that can act both as a toxin and as a transcriptional factor. The effector is secreted by a type VI secretion system (T6SS) and can enter nearby cells of the same species and other species (such as Escherichia coli) via cell-cell contact and in a contact-independent manner. CccR contains an N-terminal FIC domain and a C-terminal DNA-binding domain. In Y. pseudotuberculosis cells, CccR inhibits its own expression by binding through its DNA-binding domain to the cccR promoter, and affects the expression of other genes through unclear mechanisms. In E. coli cells, the FIC domain of CccR AMPylates the cell division protein FtsZ, inducing cell filamentation and growth arrest. Thus, our results indicate that CccR has a dual role, modulating gene expression in neighboring cells of the same species, and inhibiting the growth of competitors.

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