The Phasevarion: A Genetic System Controlling Coordinated, Random Switching of Expression of Multiple Genes

Several host-adapted bacterial pathogens contain methyltransferases associated with type III restriction-modification (R-M) systems that are subject to reversible, high-frequency on/off switching of expression (phase variation). To investigate the role of phase-variable expression of R-M systems, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2005-04, Vol.102 (15), p.5547-5551
Main Authors: Srikhanta, Yogitha N., Maguire, Tina L., Stacey, Katryn J., Grimmond, Sean M., Jennings, Michael P., Adhya, Sankar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacterial Proteins - genetics
Biological Sciences
Codon, Initiator - genetics
DNA
DNA Methylation
DNA Modification Methylases - genetics
DNA, Bacterial - genetics
DNA, Bacterial - metabolism
Enzymes
Experimental procedures
Gene expression
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial - genetics
Genes
Genes, Bacterial - genetics
Genetic variation
Genetics
Haemophilus influenzae
Haemophilus influenzae - cytology
Haemophilus influenzae - enzymology
Haemophilus influenzae - genetics
Haemophilus influenzae - immunology
Heat shock proteins
Heat-Shock Proteins - genetics
Heat-Shock Response
Host-Parasite Interactions
Macrophage Activation
Methylation
Mutation - genetics
Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
Open reading frames
Pathogens
Phenotype
Polymerase chain reaction
RNA
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Summary:Several host-adapted bacterial pathogens contain methyltransferases associated with type III restriction-modification (R-M) systems that are subject to reversible, high-frequency on/off switching of expression (phase variation). To investigate the role of phase-variable expression of R-M systems, we made a mutant strain lacking the methyltransferase (mod) associated with a type III R-M system of Haemophilus influenzae and analyzed its phenotype. By microarray analysis, we identified a number of genes that were either up- or down-regulated in the mod mutant strain. This system reports the coordinated random switching of a set of genes in a bacterial pathogen and may represent a widely used mechanism.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0501169102