Multi-strategies for control of motility via mora signaling pathway in pseudomonas putida

Abstract

Previously, our laboratory described MorA, a highly-conserved and membrane-localized negative sensor regulator of motility in Pseudomonas sp. Random transposon mutagenesis performed on morA knockout mutant identified three genes namely: cyaA, morC and opuAC as being involved in the control of motility via the MorA signaling pathway. Genetic studies and phenotypic characterization shows that a different strategy was deployed by each of these genes to control motility. While MorA exerts dominant effect on motility over CyaA, they interact in an antagonistic manner to control motility but do not affect biofilm formation. OpuAC functions independent of MorA to regulate motility and biofilm formation, while MorC functions downstream of MorA to control motility by modulating cell speed at the early and late-log phase; these modulations are linked to specific residues in the EAL motif.