A GntR-type transcriptional repressor controls sialic acid utilization in Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003

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Abstract

Bifidobacterium breve strains are numerically prevalent among the gut microbiota of healthy, breast-fed infants. Themetabolism of sialic acid, a ubiquitous monosaccharide in the infant and adult gut, by B. breve UCC2003 is dependent on alarge gene cluster, designated the nan/nag cluster. This study describes the transcriptional regulation of the nan/nag clusterand thus sialic acid metabolism in B. breve UCC2003. Insertion mutagenesis and transcriptome analysis revealed that thenan/nag cluster is regulated by a GntR family transcriptional repressor, designated NanR. Crude cell extract of Escherichia coliEC101 in which the nanR gene had been cloned and overexpressed was shown to bind to two promoter regions within thiscluster, each of which containing an imperfect inverted repeat that is believed to act as the NanR operator sequence.Formation of the DNA-NanR complex is prevented in the presence of sialic acid, which we had previously shown to inducetranscription of this gene cluster.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberfnu056
JournalFEMS Microbiology Letters
Volume362
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2015

Keywords

  • Bifidobacteria
  • Human milk oligosaccharides
  • Mucin
  • Neuraminic acid
  • Transcriptional repression

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