Virulence regulation
Participants:
Carmen Beuzón López (IP), Javier Ruiz Albert (IP), Jose S. Rufián, Nieves López Pagán, Laura Mancera Miranda
Collaborators:
Mª Antonia Sánchez Romero (US), Fernando Govantes Romero (UPO); Adam Schikora (Julius Kühn-Institut)
About the line
In this research line we investigate the mechanisms underlying phenotypic heterogeneity in the phytopathogenic bacteria Pseudomonas syringae, and its role in bacterial adaptation to the plant environment. We have described for the first time in a plant pathogen the existence of phenotypic heterogeneity in the expression of the T3SS, leading to the formation of phenotypic bacterial lineages differing in these key aspects of P. syringae virulence. Phenotypic heterogeneity is integrated into the bacterial regulatory network through an epigenetic mechanism, likely based on DNA methylation.
Recent publications (last 5 years)
- Rufián, JS; Ruiz-Albert, J; Beuzón, CR (2022). Fluorescently labeled Pseudomonas syringae DC3000 and 1449b wild-type strains constitutively expressing either eGFP, eCFP, or dsRED. microPublication Biology. 10.17912/micropub.
biology.000595. - Zarkani AA, López-Pagán N, Grimm M, Sánchez-Romero MA, Ruiz-Albert J, Beuzón CR, Schikora A (2020) Salmonella heterogeneously expresses flagellin during colonization of plants. Microorganisms. DOI:10.3390/microorganisms8060815
- Rufián JS, López-Márquez D, López-Pagán N, Grant M, Ruiz‑Albert J, Beuzón CR (2018) Generating Chromosome-Located Transcriptional Fusions to Fluorescent Proteins for Single-Cell Gene Expression Analysis in Pseudomonas syringae. Methods in Molecular Biology. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7604-1_15
- Rufián JS, Sanchez-Romero MA, Lopez-Marquez D, Macho AP, Mansfield JW, Arnold DL, Ruiz‑Albert J, Casadesus J, Beuzon CR (2016) Pseudomonas syringae differentiates into phenotypically distinct subpopulations during colonization of a plant host. Environmental Microbiology. DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.13497