Bacterial Alginate Regulators and Phage Homologs Repress CRISPR-Cas Immunity

Overview

Journal Nat Microbiol

Specialties Microbiology
Parasitology

Date 2020 Mar 24

PMID 32203410

Citations 19

Authors

Adair L Borges

Bardo Castro

Sutharsan Govindarajan

Tina Solvik

Veronica Escalante

Joseph Bondy-Denomy

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

CRISPR-Cas systems are adaptive immune systems that protect bacteria from bacteriophage (phage) infection. To provide immunity, RNA-guided protein surveillance complexes recognize foreign nucleic acids, triggering their destruction by Cas nucleases. While the essential requirements for immune activity are well understood, the physiological cues that regulate CRISPR-Cas expression are not. Here, a forward genetic screen identifies a two-component system (KinB-AlgB), previously characterized in the regulation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa alginate biosynthesis, as a regulator of the expression and activity of the P. aeruginosa Type I-F CRISPR-Cas system. Downstream of KinB-AlgB, activators of alginate production AlgU (a σ orthologue) and AlgR repress CRISPR-Cas activity during planktonic and surface-associated growth. AmrZ, another alginate regulator, is triggered to repress CRISPR-Cas immunity upon surface association. Pseudomonas phages and plasmids have taken advantage of this regulatory scheme and carry hijacked homologs of AmrZ that repress CRISPR-Cas expression and activity. This suggests that while CRISPR-Cas regulation may be important to limit self-toxicity, endogenous repressive pathways represent a vulnerability for parasite manipulation.

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