Bacteria evolve their capacity to cause disease by acquiring virulence genes that are usually clustered in discrete genetic modules termed pathogenicity islands (PAI). Stable integration of PAIs into preexisting transcriptional networks coordinates expression from PAIs with ancestral genes in response to diverse environmental cues. Such transcriptional controls are evident in the regulation of the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE), a PAI of enteropathogenic and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli. However, recent reports indicate that global posttranscriptional and posttranslational regulators, including CsrA, Hfq and ClpXP, fine-tune the transcriptional output from the LEE. Here, we highlight recent advances in understanding posttranscriptional and posttranslational regulation in attaching and effacing pathogens.
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