Type 3 fimbriae and biofilm formation are regulated by the transcriptional regulators MrkHI in Klebsiella pneumoniae.
Publication/Presentation Date
7-1-2011
Abstract
Klebsiella pneumoniae is an opportunistic pathogen which frequently causes hospital-acquired urinary and respiratory tract infections. K. pneumoniae may establish these infections in vivo following adherence, using the type 3 fimbriae, to indwelling devices coated with extracellular matrix components. Using a colony immunoblot screen, we identified transposon insertion mutants which were deficient for type 3 fimbrial surface production. One of these mutants possessed a transposon insertion within a gene, designated mrkI, encoding a putative transcriptional regulator. A site-directed mutant of this gene was constructed and shown to be deficient for fimbrial surface expression under aerobic conditions. MrkI mutants have a significantly decreased ability to form biofilms on both abiotic and extracellular matrix-coated surfaces. This gene was found to be cotranscribed with a gene predicted to encode a PilZ domain-containing protein, designated MrkH. This protein was found to bind cyclic-di-GMP (c-di-GMP) and regulate type 3 fimbrial expression.
Volume
193
Issue
14
First Page
3453
Last Page
3460
ISSN
1098-5530
Published In/Presented At
Johnson, J. G., Murphy, C. N., Sippy, J., Johnson, T. J., & Clegg, S. (2011). Type 3 fimbriae and biofilm formation are regulated by the transcriptional regulators MrkHI in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Journal of bacteriology, 193(14), 3453–3460. https://doi.org/10.1128/JB.00286-11
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
PubMedID
21571997
Department(s)
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Document Type
Article