A transferred regulator that contributes to Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzicola oxidative stress adaptation and virulence by regulating the expression of cytochrome bd oxidase genes

摘要

Horizontal gene transfer(HGT)has been well documented as a driving force in the evolution of bacteria.It has been shown that a horizontally acquired gene,xoc_2868,involved in the global response against oxidative stress and pathogenicity of Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzicola strain BLS256.However,as a transcriptional factor(TF),the regulatory mechanism of XOC_2868 has not yet been revealed.Here,evolutionary analysis suggested XOC_2868 might be co-transferred with its physically proximate downstream genes from a Burkholderiaceae ancestor.Interestingly,RNA-seq data of wild-type(BLS256)andΔxoc_2868 strains under oxidative stress showed that XOC_2868 did not regulate the expression of its adjacent genes,but remarkably influenced the expression of several genes involved in the extracellular polysaccharide(EPS)production and xanthan biosynthesis.Chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequence(ChIP-seq)combined with transcriptome analysis revealed that XOC_2868 directly regulates a cydAB operon,encoding two subunits of cytochrome bd oxidase and involved in redox balance.Consistent withΔxoc_2868 strain,cydA-and cydAB-knockout mutants also showed a higher sensitivity to H_(2)O_(2)along with a reduced bacterial virulence compared with the wild-type strain.Overall,our findings raise the possibility of regulatory circuit evolution shaped by HGT and driven by selection and reveal a novel regulatory pathway that regulates the expression of cytochrome bd oxidase and thus contributes to the virulence of BLS256.