In Mycobacterium abscessus, the stringent factor Rel regulates metabolism, but is not the only (p)ppGpp synthase

The stringent response is a broadly conserved stress response system that exhibits functional variability across bacterial clades. Here, we characterize the role of the stringent factor Rel in the non-tuberculous mycobacterial pathogen, Mycobacterium abscessus (Mab). We found that deletion of rel do...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inbioRxiv
Main Authors Hunt-Serracin, Augusto Cesar, Kazi, Misha I, Boll, Joseph M, Boutte, Cara C
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 17.12.2021
Subjects
Antibiotic resistance
Antibiotics
Cellular stress response
Drug resistance
Monoclonal antibodies
Mycobacterium abscessus
Stringent response
Survival
Transcription
Tuberculosis
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Summary:The stringent response is a broadly conserved stress response system that exhibits functional variability across bacterial clades. Here, we characterize the role of the stringent factor Rel in the non-tuberculous mycobacterial pathogen, Mycobacterium abscessus (Mab). We found that deletion of rel does not ablate (p)ppGpp synthesis, and that rel does not provide a survival advantage in several stress conditions, or in antibiotic treatment. Transcriptional data show that RelMab is involved in regulating expression of anabolism and growth genes in stationary phase. However, it does not activate transcription of stress response or antibiotic resistance genes, and actually represses transcription of many antibiotic resistance genes. This work shows that there is an unannotated (p)ppGpp synthetase in Mab. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
DOI:10.1101/2020.11.07.372714