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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #418929
Research Project: Advancing Knowledge of the Biology and Etiology of Bacterial Plant Pathogens Towards Management Strategies

Location: Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research

Title: Understanding how Dickeya senses its environment: the importance of untranslated regions

Author
item GONZALEZ-TOBON, JULIANA - Cornell University
item Stodghill, Paul
item Filiatrault, Melanie

Submitted to: Plant Pathogenic Bacteria International Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/21/2024
Publication Date: 7/5/2024
Citation: Gonzalez-Tobon, J., Stodghill, P., Filiatrault, M.J. 2024. Understanding how Dickeya senses its environment: the importance of untranslated regions. Plant Pathogenic Bacteria International Conference Proceedings. https://iobc-wprs.org/meeting/icppb-biocontrol-2024/.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Many bacteria sense their surrounding environment and move accordingly via chemoreceptor proteins in a process known as chemotaxis. Members of the Dickeya genus, which cause disease on numerous crops and ornamental plants, present notoriously more methyl-accepting chemoreceptors (MCPs) than other closely related bacteria. However, the functions and signals of many of these MCPs remain unknown. Interestingly, long untranslated regions exist upstream of the coding regions of these MCPs in Dickeya. We hypothesized these regions harbor small non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). Transcription start sites (TSSs) were identified using Cappable-seq and aligned well with the areas being transcribed (detected via RNAseq and validated via qRT-PCR). Using biocomputational methods we identified their potential promoters and terminators. Together these results suggest that these Regions of Activity (ROAs) are being transcribed independently from their associated MCP genes. Mutants lacking the ROAs or the MCP genes, were constructed and tested for their ability to swim and swarm in vitro, their chemotaxis capability towards serine, and their virulence in potato stems and tubers. Differences in motility, chemotaxis and virulence were found between some of the mutants and the wild-type. Further analyses are being performed for three mutant pairs (ROA and MCP), including assessing their chemotaxis towards other compounds and complementing their mutations to then test for phenotype recovery. Our results provide new insight into the sensing and signalling mechanisms used by Dickeya and may provide targets for disease control.