BB3576 DIGUANILATE CYCLASE PROTEIN REGULATES MOTILITY AND BIOFILM in Bordetella bronchiseptica

SISTI, FEDERICO; FERNANDEZ, JULIETA

Mendoza

Congreso; XLVIII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2012

Cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP) is a ubiquitous second messengerthat regulates diverse cellular functions, including motility, biofilmformation, and virulence in bacteria. Components of this regulatorynetwork include GGDEF domain-containing proteins thatsynthesis c-di-GMP. In a previous work we demonstrated thatheterologous expression of a GGDEFprotein modifies biofilm formation capacity and motility in(Bb), a pathogenic bacterium that causes respiratoryinfections in a wide variety of hosts.In this work, we analyzed the expression of BB3576, a putativeGGDEF protein of . To this end, bb3576 genefrom Bb was amplified and cloned in the replicative plasmidpBBMCR5 under a constitutive promoter and transformed in Bb.Biofilm formation and motility were evaluated in the recombinantbacteria to detect possible changes in c-di-GMP concentrations. Asfound in other organisms that contain high levels of c-di-GMP, weobserved that Bb was able to form biofilm and reduce its motilityonly in the case bacteria express GGDEF domain-containingprotein. Interestingly, high mRNA expression levels weredetected by real time PCR in avirulent phase, when motility ispresent. These results demonstrate the presence of a functionalGGDEF protein in Bb and suggest a putative motility regulationfunction for Bb3576.