Gac Is a Transcriptional Repressor of the Lyme Disease Spirochete’s OspC Virulence-Associated Surface Protein

1Citations
Citations of this article
12Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

The OspC outer-surface lipoprotein is essential for the Lyme disease spirochete’s initial phase of vertebrate infection. Bacteria within the midguts of unfed ticks do not express OspC but produce high levels when ticks begin to ingest blood. Lyme disease spirochetes cease production of OspC within 1 to 2 weeks of vertebrate infection, and bacteria that fail to downregulate OspC are cleared by host antibodies. Thus, tight regulation of OspC levels is critical for survival of Lyme borreliae and, therefore, an attractive target for development of novel treatment strategies. Previous studies determined that a DNA region 59 of the ospC promoter, the ospC operator, is required for control of OspC production. Hypothesizing that the ospC operator may bind a regulatory factor, DNA affinity pulldown was performed and identified binding by the Gac protein. Gac is encoded by the C-terminal domain of the gyrA open reading frame from an internal promoter, ribosome-binding site, and initiation codon. Our analyses determined that Gac exhibits a greater affinity for ospC operator and promoter DNAs than for other tested borrelial sequences. In vitro and in vivo analyses demonstrated that Gac is a transcriptional repressor of ospC. These results constitute a substantial advance to our understanding of the mechanisms by which the Lyme disease spirochete controls production of OspC.

References Powered by Scopus

Lyme disease - A tick-borne spirochetosis?

2334Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Genomic sequence of a Lyme disease spirochaete, Borrelia burgdorferi

1818Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Induction of an outer surface protein on Borrelia burgdorferi during tick feeding

729Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, as a model vector-borne pathogen: insights on regulation of gene and protein expression

11Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Castro-Padovani, T. N., Saylor, T. C., Husted, O. T., Krusenstjerna, A. C., Jusufovic, N., & Stevenson, B. (2023). Gac Is a Transcriptional Repressor of the Lyme Disease Spirochete’s OspC Virulence-Associated Surface Protein. Journal of Bacteriology, 205(4). https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.00440-22

Readers over time

‘23‘24‘2502468

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 1

100%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Immunology and Microbiology 1

100%

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free
0