Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

A Family Of Genus-Specific Rnas In Tandem With Dna-Binding Proteins Control Expression Of The Bada Major Virulence Factor Gene In Bartonella Henselae, Nhan Tu, Ronan K. Carroll, Andy Weiss, Lindsey N. Shaw, Gael Nicolas, Sarah Thomas, Amorce Lima, Udoka Okaro, Burt Anderson

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

Bartonella henselae is a gram-negative zoonotic bacterium that causes infections in humans including endocarditis and bacillary angiomatosis. B. henselae has been shown to grow as large aggregates and form biofilms in vitro. The aggregative growth and the angiogenic host response requires the trimeric autotransporter adhesin BadA. We examined the transcriptome of the Houston-1 strain of B. henselae using RNA-seq revealing nine novel, highly-expressed intergenic transcripts (Bartonella regulatory transcript, Brt1-9). The Brt family of RNAs is unique to the genus Bartonella and ranges from 194 to 203 nucleotides with high homology and stable predicted secondary structures. Immediately downstream of each …