Control of type III protein secretion using a minimal genetic system
Author(s)
Ciccarelli, Luciano; Mayr, Julia; Gordon, D. Benjamin; Marlovits, Thomas C.; Song, Miryoung; Sukovich, David; Fernandez-Rodriguez, Jesus; Mirsky, Ethan A.; Tucker, Alex C.; Voigt, Christopher A.; ... Show more Show less
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Gram-negative bacteria secrete proteins using a type III secretion system (T3SS), which functions as a needle-like molecular machine. The many proteins involved in T3SS construction are tightly regulated due to its role in pathogenesis and motility. Here, starting with the 35 kb Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1), we eliminated internal regulation and simplified the genetics by removing or recoding genes, scrambling gene order and replacing all non-coding DNA with synthetic genetic parts. This process results in a 16 kb cluster that shares no sequence identity, regulation or organizational principles with SPI-1. Building this simplified system led to the discovery of essential roles for an internal start site (SpaO) and small RNA (InvR). Further, it can be controlled using synthetic regulatory circuits, including under SPI-1 repressing conditions. This work reveals an incredible post-transcriptional robustness in T3SS assembly and aids its control as a tool in biotechnology.
Date issued
2017-05Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceJournal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Song, Miryoung et al. “Control of Type III Protein Secretion Using a Minimal Genetic System.” Nature Communications 8 (May 2017): 14737 © 2017 The Author(s)
Version: Final published version
ISSN
2041-1723