by Keyword: STPA
Hüttener, Mario, Paytubi, Sonia, Juárez, Antonio, (2015). Success in incorporating horizontally transferred genes: the H-NS protein 
Trends in Microbiology , 23, (2), 67-69
The nucleoid-associated protein H-NS silences unwanted expression of acquired foreign DNA. Ali and colleagues recently identified which horizontally-acquired genes are targeted by H-NS in Salmonella to avoid fitness loss. The reported data strengthen our view about the role of H-NS in bacterial evolution driven by horizontal gene transfer.
The nucleoid-associated protein H-NS silences unwanted expression of acquired foreign DNA. Ali and colleagues recently identified which horizontally-acquired genes are targeted by H-NS in Salmonella to avoid fitness loss. The reported data strengthen our view about the role of H-NS in bacterial evolution driven by horizontal gene transfer.
JTD Keywords: HGT, H-NS, StpA, Salmonella, SPI1
Solórzano, Carla, Srikumar, Shabarinath, Canals, Rocío, Juárez, Antonio, Paytubi, Sonia, Madrid, Cristina, (2015). Hha has a defined regulatory role that is not dependent upon H-NS or StpA Frontiers in Microbiology 6, Article 773 
The Hha family of proteins is involved in the regulation of gene expression in enterobacteria by forming complexes with H-NS-like proteins. Whereas several amino acid residues of both proteins participate in the interaction, some of them play a key role. Residue D48 of Hha protein is essential for the interaction with H-NS, thus the D48N substitution in Hha protein abrogates H-NS/Hha interaction. Despite being a paralog of H-NS protein, StpA interacts with HhaD48N with higher affinity than with the wild type Hha protein. To analyze whether Hha is capable of acting independently of H-NS and StpA, we conducted transcriptomic analysis on the hha and stpA deletion strains and the hhaD48N substitution strain of Salmonella Typhimurium using a custom microarray. The results obtained allowed the identification of 120 genes regulated by Hha in an H-NS/StpA-independent manner, 38% of which are horizontally acquired genes. A significant number of the identified genes are involved in functions related to cell motility, iron uptake, and pathogenicity. Thus, motility assays, siderophore detection and intra-macrophage replication assays were performed to confirm the transcriptomic data. Our findings point out the importance of Hha protein as an independent regulator in S. Typhimurium, highlighting a regulatory role on virulence.
JTD Keywords: Salmonella, Gene regulation, Motility, Pathogenicity island, H-NS, HHA, STPA
