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Infection and Immunity, February 2006, p. 927-930, Vol. 74, No. 2
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.74.2.927-930.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Activation of the Vibrio cholerae SOS Response Is Not Required for Intestinal Cholera Toxin Production or Colonization

Mariam Quinones, Brigid M. Davis, and Matthew K. Waldor*

Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02111

Received 20 July 2005/ Returned for modification 4 October 2005/ Accepted 8 November 2005

Cholera toxin, one of the main virulence factors of Vibrio cholerae, is encoded in the genome of CTX{phi}, a V. cholerae-specific lysogenic filamentous bacteriophage. Although the genes encoding cholera toxin, ctxAB, are known to have their own promoter, the toxin genes can also be transcribed from an upstream CTX{phi} promoter, PrstA. The V. cholerae SOS response to DNA damage induces the CTX prophage by stimulating gene expression initiating from PrstA. Here, we investigated whether ctxA mRNA levels increase along with the levels of the transcripts for the other CTX{phi} genes following stimulation of the V. cholerae SOS response. Treatment of V. cholerae with the SOS-inducing agent mitomycin C increased the level of ctxA mRNA approximately sevenfold, apparently by augmenting the activity of PrstA. However, using suckling mice as a model host, we found that intraintestinal ctxA transcription does not depend on PrstA. In fact, the suckling mouse intestine does not appear to be a potent inducer of the V. cholerae SOS response. Furthermore, alleviation of LexA-mediated repression of the V. cholerae SOS regulon was not required for V. cholerae growth in the suckling mouse intestine. Our observations suggest that pathogenicity of V. cholerae does not depend on its SOS response.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111. Phone: (617) 636-2730. Fax: (617) 636-2723. E-mail: matthew.waldor{at}tufts.edu.

Editor: V. J. DiRita

Infection and Immunity, February 2006, p. 927-930, Vol. 74, No. 2
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.74.2.927-930.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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