The diguanylate cyclase SadC is a central player of the Gac/Rsm-mediated biofilm formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative opportunistic human pathogen and a threat for immune-compromised and Cystic Fibrosis patients. It is responsible for acute and chronic infections and can switch between these lifestyles upon taking an informed decision involving complex regulatory networks. The RetS/LadS/Gac/Rsm network and the c-di-GMP signaling pathways are both central to this phenomenon redirecting the P. aeruginosa population towards a biofilm mode of growth, which is associated with chronic infections. While these two pathways were traditionally studied independently from each other, we recently showed that cellular levels of c-di-GMP are increased in the hyperbiofilm retS mutant. Here, we have formally established the link between the two networks by showing that the SadC diguanylate cyclase is central to the Gac/Rsm-associated phenotypes, notably biofilm formation. Importantly, SadC is involved in the signaling that converges onto the RsmA translational repressor either via RetS/LadS or via HptB/HsbR. Although the level of expression of the sadC gene does not seem impacted by the regulatory cascade, the production of the SadC protein is tightly repressed by RsmA. This adds to the growing complexity of the signaling network associated with c-di-GMP in P. aeruginosa. While this organism possesses more than forty c-di-GMP-related enzymes it remains unclear how signaling specificity is maintained within the c-di-GMP network. The finding that SadC but no other diguanylate cyclase is related to the formation of biofilm governed by the Gac/Rsm pathway further contributes to understand this insulation mechanism.

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