The contribution of BvgR, RisA, and RisS to global gene regulation, intracellular cyclic-di-GMP levels, motility, and biofilm formation in Bordetella bronchiseptica

Tracy L Nicholson; Ursula Waack; Damarius S Fleming; Qing Chen; Laura C Miller; Tod J Merkel; Scott Stibitz

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1305097

The contribution of BvgR, RisA, and RisS to global gene regulation, intracellular cyclic-di-GMP levels, motility, and biofilm formation in Bordetella bronchiseptica

Front Microbiol. 2024 Mar 7:15:1305097. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1305097. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Tracy L Nicholson¹, Ursula Waack^{1

2}, Damarius S Fleming³, Qing Chen⁴, Laura C Miller⁵, Tod J Merkel⁴, Scott Stibitz⁴

Affiliations

¹ Agricultural Research Service, USDA, National Animal Disease Center, Ames, IA, United States.
² United States Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, TN, United States.
³ USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD, United States.
⁴ Division of Bacterial, Parasitic, and Allergenic Products, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA, Silver Spring, MD, United States.
⁵ Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, United States.

Abstract

Bordetella bronchiseptica is a highly contagious respiratory bacterial veterinary pathogen. In this study the contribution of the transcriptional regulators BvgR, RisA, RisS, and the phosphorylation of RisA to global gene regulation, intracellular cyclic-di-GMP levels, motility, and biofilm formation were evaluated. Next Generation Sequencing (RNASeq) was used to differentiate the global gene regulation of both virulence-activated and virulence-repressed genes by each of these factors. The BvgAS system, along with BvgR, RisA, and the phosphorylation of RisA served in cyclic-di-GMP degradation. BvgR and unphosphorylated RisA were found to temporally regulate motility. Additionally, BvgR, RisA, and RisS were found to be required for biofilm formation.

Keywords: Bordetella bronchiseptica; RNA-seq; biofilm; cyclic-di-GMP; motility.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service project number 5030-32000-119-00-D. This research used resources provided by the SCINet project of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, ARS project number 0500-00093-001-00-D. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.