1 research outputs found
Role of a Vibrio cholerae exo-chitinase ChiA2 in Horizontal Gene Transfer
No full textVibrio cholerae exo-chitinase ChiA2 play a key role in acquisition of nutrients by chitin hydrolysis in the natural environment as well as in pathogenesis in the intestinal milieu. In this study we demonstrate the importance of ChiA2 in horizontal gene transfer in the natural environment. We found the expression of ChiA2 and TfoX, the central regulator of V. cholerae horizontal gene transfer, varied with changes in environmental conditions. The activity of ChiA2 was also dependent on these conditions. In three different environmental conditions tested here, we observed that the supporting environmental condition for the maximum expression and activity of ChiA2 was at 20 °C, pH 5.5 and 100 mM salinity in presence of chitin. The same condition also induced TfoX expression and was favorable for horizontal gene transfer in V. cholerae. HPLC analysis showed ChiA2 released significant amount of (GlcNAc)2 from chitin hydrolysis under the favorable condition. We hypothesized that under the favorable environmental condition, ChiA2 was up-regulated and maximally active to produce significant amount of (GlcNAc)2 from chitin. The same environmental condition also induced tfoX expression followed by its translational activation by (GlcNAc)2 produced leading to efficient horizontal gene transfer.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author
