Involvement of the CasK/R two-component system in optimal unsaturation of the Bacillus cereus fatty acids during low-temperature growth.
Bacillus cereus sensu lato is composed of a set of ubiquitous strains including human pathogens that can survive a range of food processing conditions, grow in refrigerated food, and sometimes cause food poisoning. We previously identified the two-component system CasK/R that plays a key role in cold adaptation. To better understand the CasK/R-controlled mechanisms that support low-temperature adaptation, we performed a transcriptomic analysis on the ATCC 14579 strain and its isogenic ∆casK/R mutant grown at 12°C. Several genes involved in fatty acid (FA) metabolism were downregulated in the mutant, including desA and desB encoding FA acyl-lipid desaturases that catalyze the formation of a double-bond on the FA chain in positions ∆5 and ∆10, respectively. A lower proportion of FAs presumably unsaturated by DesA was observed in the ΔcasK/R strain compared to the parental strain while no difference was found for FAs presumably unsaturated by DesB. Addition of phospholipids from egg yolk lecithin rich in unsaturated FAs, to growth medium, abolished the cold-growth impairment of ΔcasK/R suggesting that exogenous unsaturated FAs can support membrane-level modifications and thus compensate for the decreased production of these FAs in the B. cereus ∆casK/R mutant during growth at low temperature. Our findings indicate that CasK/R is involved in the regulation of FA metabolism, and is necessary for cold adaptation of B. cereus unless an exogenous source of unsaturated FAs is available.
['Diomandé|Sara Esther|SE|', 'Nguyen-the|Christophe|C|', 'Abee|Tjakko|T|', 'Tempelaars|Marcel H|MH|', 'Broussolle|Véronique|V|', 'Brillard|Julien|J|']
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological D001409:Bacillus cereus D003080:Cold Temperature D003470:Culture Media D044943:Fatty Acid Desaturases D005227:Fatty Acids D005516:Food Microbiology D005517:Foodborne Diseases D020869:Gene Expression Profiling D051528:Guanylate Kinases D006801:Humans D010743:Phospholipids D044169:Receptors, Calcium-Sensing
Cold adaptation Desaturase Unsaturated FA B. cereus TCS