BrgE is a regulator of Myxococcus xanthus development

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary We report here the identification and characterization of a member of the Myxococcus xanthus SdeK signal transduction pathway, BrgE. This protein was identi- fied as an SdeK-interacting component using a yeast two-hybrid screen, and we further confirmed this interaction by the glutathione S-transferase (GST) pulldown assay. Additional yeast two-hybrid analyses revealed that BrgE preferentially interacts with the putative amino-terminal sensor domain of SdeK, but not with the carboxy-terminal kinase domain. A brgE insertion strain was shown to be blocked in develop- ment between aggregation and mound formation, and decreased by 50-fold in viable spore production com- pared with the parental wild type. These phenotypes are similar to those of sdeK mutants. The brgE muta- tion also altered expression of a sample of Tn 5 lac developmental markers that are also SdeK regulated. Finally, we demonstrated that a brgE sdeK double mutant has a more severe sporulation defect than either of the two single mutants, suggesting that BrgE and SdeK act synergistically to regulate wild- type levels of sporulation. In sum, these data suggest that BrgE operates as an auxiliary factor to stimulate the SdeK signal transduction pathway by directly binding to the amino-terminal sensor domain of SdeK.

This publication has 52 references indexed in Scilit: