RNA-mediated control of cell shape modulates antibiotic resistance in Vibrio cholerae

Nikolai Peschek, Roman Herzog, Praveen K. Singh, Marcel Sprenger, Fabian Meyer, Kathrin S. Fröhlich, Luise Schröger, Marc Bramkamp, Knut Drescher and Kai Papenfort ()
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Nikolai Peschek: Friedrich Schiller University
Roman Herzog: Friedrich Schiller University
Praveen K. Singh: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
Marcel Sprenger: Friedrich Schiller University
Fabian Meyer: Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Kathrin S. Fröhlich: Friedrich Schiller University
Luise Schröger: Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Marc Bramkamp: Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Knut Drescher: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
Kai Papenfort: Friedrich Schiller University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Vibrio cholerae, the cause of cholera disease, exhibits a characteristic curved rod morphology, which promotes infectivity and motility in dense hydrogels. Periplasmic protein CrvA determines cell curvature in V. cholerae, yet the regulatory factors controlling CrvA are unknown. Here, we discover the VadR small RNA (sRNA) as a post-transcriptional inhibitor of the crvA mRNA. Mutation of vadR increases cell curvature, whereas overexpression has the inverse effect. We show that vadR transcription is activated by the VxrAB two-component system and triggered by cell-wall-targeting antibiotics. V. cholerae cells failing to repress crvA by VadR display decreased survival upon challenge with penicillin G indicating that cell shape maintenance by the sRNA is critical for antibiotic resistance. VadR also blocks the expression of various key biofilm genes and thereby inhibits biofilm formation in V. cholerae. Thus, VadR is an important regulator for synchronizing peptidoglycan integrity, cell shape, and biofilm formation in V. cholerae.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19890-8

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