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Transcriptional Regulation of hmsB, A Temperature-Dependent Small RNA, by RovM in Yersinia pestis Biovar Microtus

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Abstract

HmsB, a temperature-dependent sRNA, promotes biofilm formation by Yersinia pestis, but whether its own expression is regulated by other regulators is still poorly understood. RovM is a global regulator that activates biofilm formation but represses the virulence of Y. pestis. In this work, the results of primer extension, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), and LacZ fusion demonstrated that RovM was able to activate hmsB expression. However, the results of electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showed that His-RovM did not bind to the upstream DNA region of hmsB. Thus, RovM may exert its regulatory action on hmsB expression in an indirect manner. The data presented here enriched the content of the regulatory circuits that control gene expression in Y. pestis.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Basic Application Research Project of Science and Technology Department of Qinghai province (2020-ZJ-788), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81801984) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M664008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Transfusion Medicine, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of the PLA, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei, China

    Lei Liu, Wanbing Liu, Yingyu He & Yan Liu

  2. Qinghai Institute for Endemic Disease Prevention and Control, Xining, 811602, China

    Haisheng Wu, Yiquan Zhang & Qinwen Zhang

  3. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Affiliated Nantong Hospital 3 of Nantong University, Nantong, 226006, Jiangsu, China

    Yiquan Zhang

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  1. Lei Liu
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Contributions

YZ and QZ: designed, organized and supervised the experiments, interpreted the results, and edited the manuscript. LL, WL, YH, YL and HW: performed the laboratory experiments. LL and YZ: drafted the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yiquan Zhang or Qinwen Zhang.

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Liu, L., Liu, W., He, Y. et al. Transcriptional Regulation of hmsB, A Temperature-Dependent Small RNA, by RovM in Yersinia pestis Biovar Microtus. Curr Microbiol 80, 182 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-023-03293-1

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