Morphological analysis of the sheathed flagellum of Brucella melitensis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It was recently shown that <it>B. melitensis </it>is flagellated. However, the flagellar structure remains poorly described.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>We analyzed the structure of the polar sheathed flagellum of <it>B. melitensis </it>by TEM analysis and demonstrated that the Ryu staining is a good method to quickly visualize the flagellum by optical microscopy. The TEM analysis demonstrated that an extension of the outer membrane surrounds a filament ending by a club-like structure. The Δ<it>ftcR</it>, Δ<it>fliF</it>, Δ<it>flgE </it>and Δ<it>fliC </it>flagellar mutants still produce an empty sheath.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results demonstrate that the flagellum of <it>B. melitensis </it>has the characteristics of the sheathed flagella. Our results also suggest that the flagellar sheath production is not directly linked to the flagellar structure assembly and is not regulated by the FtcR master regulator.</p

Active Suppression of Early Immune Response in Tobacco by the Human Pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium

The persistence of enteric pathogens on plants has been studied extensively, mainly due to the potential hazard of human pathogens such as Salmonella enterica being able to invade and survive in/on plants. Factors involved in the interactions between enteric bacteria and plants have been identified and consequently it was hypothesized that plants may be vectors or alternative hosts for enteric pathogens. To survive, endophytic bacteria have to escape the plant immune systems, which function at different levels through the plant-bacteria interactions. To understand how S. enterica survives endophyticaly we conducted a detailed analysis on its ability to elicit or evade the plant immune response. The models of this study were Nicotiana tabacum plants and cells suspension exposed to S. enterica serovar Typhimurium. The plant immune response was analyzed by looking at tissue damage and by testing oxidative burst and pH changes. It was found that S. Typhimurium did not promote disease symptoms in the contaminated plants. Live S. Typhimurium did not trigger the production of an oxidative burst and pH changes by the plant cells, while heat killed or chloramphenicol treated S. Typhimurium and purified LPS of Salmonella were significant elicitors, indicating that S. Typhimurium actively suppress the plant response. By looking at the plant response to mutants defective in virulence factors we showed that the suppression depends on secreted factors. Deletion of invA reduced the ability of S. Typhimurium to suppress oxidative burst and pH changes, indicating that a functional SPI1 TTSS is required for the suppression. This study demonstrates that plant colonization by S. Typhimurium is indeed an active process. S. Typhimurium utilizes adaptive strategies of altering innate plant perception systems to improve its fitness in the plant habitat. All together these results suggest a complex mechanism for perception of S. Typhimurium by plants

Abscisic acid induces CBF gene transcription and subsequent induction of cold-regulated genes via the CRT promoter element

Many cold-regulated genes of Arabidopsis are inducible by abscisic acid (ABA) as well as by cold. This has been thought to occur via two separate signaling pathways, with ABA acting via ABA-responsive promoter elements and low temperature activating the C-repeat element (CRT; dehydration-responsive) promoter element via CBF (DREB1) transcription factors. We show here that ABA is also capable of activating the CRT promoter element. Although the more recently discovered ABA-inducible CBF4 transcription factor might have accounted for this, we show here that CBF1-3 transcript levels also increase in response to elevated ABA levels. This increase in CBF1-3 transcript levels appears to be at least in part due to increased activity of the CBF promoters in response to ABA. A total of 125 bp of the CBF2 promoter, which has previously been shown to be sufficient for cold-, mechanical-, and cycloheximide-induced expression, was also sufficient for ABA-induced expression. However, the ABA-responsive promoter element-like motif within this region is not needed for ABA-induced expression. An observed increase in CBF protein levels after ABA treatment, together with previous data showing that increased CBF levels are sufficient for cold-regulated gene induction, suggests that ABA-induced increases in CBF1-3 transcript levels do have the potential to activate the CRT. Our data indicate therefore that activation of the CRT may also occur via a novel ABA-inducible signaling pathway using the normally cold-inducible CBFs