Oral Presentation BACPATH 2017

The role of the RNA chaperone ProQ in Pasteurella multocida (#41)

Emily Gulliver 1 , Brandon Sy 2 , Julia Wong 2 , Deanna Deveson Lucas 1 , Ralf B. Schittenhelm 3 , David Powell 4 , Jai Tree 2 , Marina Harper 1 , John Boyce 1
  1. Infection and Immunity Program, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Clayton, Vic, Australia
  2. School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  3. Monash Biomedical Proteomics Facility, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University , Clayton, Vic, Australia
  4. Monash Bioinformatics Platform, Monash University, Clayton, Vic, Australlia

Pasteurella multocida is the causative agent of many diseases, including; fowl cholera in chickens. Riboregulation is an important mechanism by which bacteria regulate transcript abundance and protein production. This mechanism involves small RNA molecules binding to mRNA transcripts to alter transcript stability and/or translational efficiency. Hfq is a well-characterized RNA chaperone that is required for many of these sRNA/mRNA interactions. Recently, ProQ has been identified as a second RNA chaperone that plays a critical role in stabilizing some sRNA/mRNA interactions. To assess the role of ProQ in P. multocida, we constructed a proQ mutant strain by TargeTron® insertional mutagenesis. The proteome of the proQ mutant was compared with the wild-type VP161 strain using high-throughput liquid proteomics, where 21 proteins showed differential production in the proQ mutant. Of these; seven proteins showed increased production, 14 showed decreased production, and 11 of the 21 were involved in transport or metabolism of amino acids, lipids or carbohydrates. The transcriptome of the proQ mutant was also analysed using RNA-seq; 35 transcripts showed increased expression and 96 showed decreased expression. Of these, 18 were predicted sRNAs. Direct interaction between ProQ and two sRNAs of this group (Prrc10 and Prrc37) and a further three sRNAs (Prrc14, Prrc13, and Prrc02), was confirmed using UV-CLASH (UV-crosslinking, ligation, and sequencing of hybrids). The hfq gene showed decreased expression in the proQ mutant, while 17 tRNA genes showed increased expression. Thus, P. multocida ProQ may be a master regulator of genes/proteins involved in the regulation of protein production.