IrvA-dependent and IrvA-independent pathways for mutacin gene regulation in Streptococcus mutans

Phoebe Tsang, Justin Merritt, Wenyuan Shi, Fengxia Qi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Streptococcus mutans is a primary pathogen associated with dental caries. Its bacteriocin (mutacin) production ability is thought to play an important role in maintaining competitiveness in the multispecies oral biofilm. Previous studies have demonstrated that the production of the lantibiotic, mutacin I, is responsive to multiple input signals and that a putative inducible repressor, irvA, seems to be involved in the luxS-mediated mutacin I gene regulation pathway. In this study, we demonstrate that these multiple inputs can be divided into two pathways: irvA-dependent and irvA-independent. Similar to luxS, signals mediated through vicK, pttB and hk03 exert their effect possibly through modulating irvA transcription, whereas signals mediated through ciaH, hrcA, adhE, and Smu1281 exert their effect through an unknown mechanism independent of irvA.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)231-234
Number of pages4
JournalFEMS Microbiology Letters
Volume261
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2006
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bacteriocin
  • Gene regulation
  • Mutacin I
  • Streptococcus mutans
  • irvA

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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