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Infect. Immun. doi:10.1128/IAI.01010-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Regulatory interactions among adhesin gene systems of uropathogenic Escherichia coli

Department of Molecular Biology, and Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), Umeå University, S-90187 Umeå, Sweden

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: bernt.eric.uhlin{at}molbiol.umu.se.

	Abstract

The uropathogenic Escherichia coli strain J96 carries multiple determinants for fimbrial adhesins. The regulatory protein PapB of P-fimbriae has previously been implicated in potential co-regulatory events. The focB gene in the F1C fimbriae determinant is highly homologous to papB, the translated sequences share 81% identity. In this study we have investigated the role of PapB and FocB in the regulation of the F1C fimbriae. By gel mobility shift assays we show that FocB binds to sequences in both the pap and foc operons in a somewhat different manner than PapB. The results of both in vitro cross-linking and in vivo oligomerization tests indicated that FocB could function in an oligomeric fashion. Furthermore, our results suggest that PapB and FocB can form hetero-dimers and that these complexes can repress the expression of the foc operon. The effect of FocB on the expression of type 1 fimbriae was also tested. Taken together, the results we present expand the knowledge about a regulatory network among different adhesin gene systems in uropathogenic E. coli and suggest a hierarchy in the expression of the fimbrial adhesins.