Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1995 Nov;177(21):6201–6210. doi: 10.1128/jb.177.21.6201-6210.1995

hrpL activates Erwinia amylovora hrp gene transcription and is a member of the ECF subfamily of sigma factors.

Z M Wei 1, S V Beer 1
PMCID: PMC177461  PMID: 7592386

Abstract

hrpL of Erwinia amylovora Ea321 encodes a 21.7-kDa regulatory protein, similar to members of the ECF (extra cytoplasmic functions) subfamily of eubacterial RNA polymerase sigma factors. hrpL is a single-gene operon in complementation group VI of the E. amylovora hrp gene cluster. Its product is required by Ea321 to elicit the hypersensitive response (HR) and to cause disease. HrpL controls the expression of five independent hrp loci, including hrpN, which encodes harpin, a proteinaceous elicitor of the HR. hrpL is environmentally regulated, and its expression is affected by hrpS, another regulatory gene of the hrp gene cluster of E. amylovora. pCPP1078, a multicopy plasmid carrying hrpL, is able to restore HR-eliciting ability to hrpS mutants. A conserved motif was identified upstream of the hrpI and hrpN operons, which are transcriptionally regulated by hrpL. This conserved motif shares a high degree of similarity with other biochemically defined or putative ECF-dependent promoter sequences, including sequences upstream of Streptomyces coelicolor dagA P2, Pseudomonas aeruginosa algD, Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae 61 hrpZ, and P. syringae pv. tomato avrD. In spite of the similarity between the hrpL genes of E. amylovora and P. syringae 61, no functional cross-complementation was observed.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (705.7 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Buttner M. J., Chater K. F., Bibb M. J. Cloning, disruption, and transcriptional analysis of three RNA polymerase sigma factor genes of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). J Bacteriol. 1990 Jun;172(6):3367–3378. doi: 10.1128/jb.172.6.3367-3378.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Buttner M. J., Smith A. M., Bibb M. J. At least three different RNA polymerase holoenzymes direct transcription of the agarase gene (dagA) of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). Cell. 1988 Feb 26;52(4):599–607. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90472-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Deretic V., Gill J. F., Chakrabarty A. M. Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in cystic fibrosis: nucleotide sequence and transcriptional regulation of the algD gene. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Jun 11;15(11):4567–4581. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.11.4567. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Devereux J., Haeberli P., Smithies O. A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 11;12(1 Pt 1):387–395. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.1part1.387. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dubnau E., Weir J., Nair G., Carter L., 3rd, Moran C., Jr, Smith I. Bacillus sporulation gene spo0H codes for sigma 30 (sigma H). J Bacteriol. 1988 Mar;170(3):1054–1062. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.3.1054-1062.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Erickson J. W., Gross C. A. Identification of the sigma E subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase: a second alternate sigma factor involved in high-temperature gene expression. Genes Dev. 1989 Sep;3(9):1462–1471. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.9.1462. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. He S. Y., Huang H. C., Collmer A. Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae harpinPss: a protein that is secreted via the Hrp pathway and elicits the hypersensitive response in plants. Cell. 1993 Jul 2;73(7):1255–1266. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(93)90354-s. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Huynh T. V., Dahlbeck D., Staskawicz B. J. Bacterial blight of soybean: regulation of a pathogen gene determining host cultivar specificity. Science. 1989 Sep 22;245(4924):1374–1377. doi: 10.1126/science.2781284. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Innes R. W., Bent A. F., Kunkel B. N., Bisgrove S. R., Staskawicz B. J. Molecular analysis of avirulence gene avrRpt2 and identification of a putative regulatory sequence common to all known Pseudomonas syringae avirulence genes. J Bacteriol. 1993 Aug;175(15):4859–4869. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.15.4859-4869.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. KLEMENT Z. RAPID DETECTION OF THE PATHOGENICITY OF PHYTOPATHOGENIC PSEUDOMONADS. Nature. 1963 Jul 20;199:299–300. doi: 10.1038/199299b0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Lakso J. U., Starr M. P. Comparative injuriousness to plants of Erwinia spp. and other enterobacteria from plants and animals. J Appl Bacteriol. 1970 Dec;33(4):692–707. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1970.tb02252.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Liesegang H., Lemke K., Siddiqui R. A., Schlegel H. G. Characterization of the inducible nickel and cobalt resistance determinant cnr from pMOL28 of Alcaligenes eutrophus CH34. J Bacteriol. 1993 Feb;175(3):767–778. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.3.767-778.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Lindgren P. B., Peet R. C., Panopoulos N. J. Gene cluster of Pseudomonas syringae pv. "phaseolicola" controls pathogenicity of bean plants and hypersensitivity of nonhost plants. J Bacteriol. 1986 Nov;168(2):512–522. doi: 10.1128/jb.168.2.512-522.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lonetto M. A., Brown K. L., Rudd K. E., Buttner M. J. Analysis of the Streptomyces coelicolor sigE gene reveals the existence of a subfamily of eubacterial RNA polymerase sigma factors involved in the regulation of extracytoplasmic functions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Aug 2;91(16):7573–7577. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.16.7573. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Lonetto M., Gribskov M., Gross C. A. The sigma 70 family: sequence conservation and evolutionary relationships. J Bacteriol. 1992 Jun;174(12):3843–3849. doi: 10.1128/jb.174.12.3843-3849.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Martin D. W., Holloway B. W., Deretic V. Characterization of a locus determining the mucoid status of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: AlgU shows sequence similarities with a Bacillus sigma factor. J Bacteriol. 1993 Feb;175(4):1153–1164. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.4.1153-1164.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. McGowan S. J., Gorham H. C., Hodgson D. A. Light-induced carotenogenesis in Myxococcus xanthus: DNA sequence analysis of the carR region. Mol Microbiol. 1993 Nov;10(4):713–735. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1993.tb00943.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. North A. K., Klose K. E., Stedman K. M., Kustu S. Prokaryotic enhancer-binding proteins reflect eukaryote-like modularity: the puzzle of nitrogen regulatory protein C. J Bacteriol. 1993 Jul;175(14):4267–4273. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.14.4267-4273.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Pearson W. R., Lipman D. J. Improved tools for biological sequence comparison. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Apr;85(8):2444–2448. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.8.2444. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Plano G. V., Barve S. S., Straley S. C. LcrD, a membrane-bound regulator of the Yersinia pestis low-calcium response. J Bacteriol. 1991 Nov;173(22):7293–7303. doi: 10.1128/jb.173.22.7293-7303.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rahme L. G., Mindrinos M. N., Panopoulos N. J. Plant and environmental sensory signals control the expression of hrp genes in Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola. J Bacteriol. 1992 Jun;174(11):3499–3507. doi: 10.1128/jb.174.11.3499-3507.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Ronson C. W., Nixon B. T., Ausubel F. M. Conserved domains in bacterial regulatory proteins that respond to environmental stimuli. Cell. 1987 Jun 5;49(5):579–581. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90530-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Salmeron J. M., Staskawicz B. J. Molecular characterization and hrp dependence of the avirulence gene avrPto from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato [corrected]. Mol Gen Genet. 1993 May;239(1-2):6–16. doi: 10.1007/BF00281595. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Shen H., Keen N. T. Characterization of the promoter of avirulence gene D from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. J Bacteriol. 1993 Sep;175(18):5916–5924. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.18.5916-5924.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Sorokin A., Zumstein E., Azevedo V., Ehrlich S. D., Serror P. The organization of the Bacillus subtilis 168 chromosome region between the spoVA and serA genetic loci, based on sequence data. Mol Microbiol. 1993 Oct;10(2):385–395. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1993.tb02670.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Strickland M. S., Thompson N. E., Burgess R. R. Structure and function of the sigma-70 subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. Monoclonal antibodies: localization of epitopes by peptide mapping and effects on transcription. Biochemistry. 1988 Jul 26;27(15):5755–5762. doi: 10.1021/bi00415a054. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Tabor S., Richardson C. C. A bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase/promoter system for controlled exclusive expression of specific genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Feb;82(4):1074–1078. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.4.1074. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Van Hove B., Staudenmaier H., Braun V. Novel two-component transmembrane transcription control: regulation of iron dicitrate transport in Escherichia coli K-12. J Bacteriol. 1990 Dec;172(12):6749–6758. doi: 10.1128/jb.172.12.6749-6758.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Wei Z. M., Beer S. V. HrpI of Erwinia amylovora functions in secretion of harpin and is a member of a new protein family. J Bacteriol. 1993 Dec;175(24):7958–7967. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.24.7958-7967.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Wei Z. M., Laby R. J., Zumoff C. H., Bauer D. W., He S. Y., Collmer A., Beer S. V. Harpin, elicitor of the hypersensitive response produced by the plant pathogen Erwinia amylovora. Science. 1992 Jul 3;257(5066):85–88. doi: 10.1126/science.1621099. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Wei Z. M., Sneath B. J., Beer S. V. Expression of Erwinia amylovora hrp genes in response to environmental stimuli. J Bacteriol. 1992 Mar;174(6):1875–1882. doi: 10.1128/jb.174.6.1875-1882.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Xiao Y., Heu S., Yi J., Lu Y., Hutcheson S. W. Identification of a putative alternate sigma factor and characterization of a multicomponent regulatory cascade controlling the expression of Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae Pss61 hrp and hrmA genes. J Bacteriol. 1994 Feb;176(4):1025–1036. doi: 10.1128/jb.176.4.1025-1036.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Xiao Y., Hutcheson S. W. A single promoter sequence recognized by a newly identified alternate sigma factor directs expression of pathogenicity and host range determinants in Pseudomonas syringae. J Bacteriol. 1994 May;176(10):3089–3091. doi: 10.1128/jb.176.10.3089-3091.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES