Summary The decision to initiate DNA replication is a critical step in the cell cycle of all organisms. Cells often delay replication in the face of stressful conditions, but the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely defined. Here, we demonstrate in Caulobacter crescentus that proteotoxic stress induces a cell cycle arrest by triggering the degradation of DnaA, the conserved replication initiator. A depletion of available Hsp70 chaperone, DnaK, either through genetic manipulation or heat shock, induces synthesis of the Lon protease, which can directly degrade DnaA. Unexpectedly, we find that unfolded proteins, which accumulate following a loss of DnaK, also allosterically activate Lon to degrade DnaA, thereby ensuring a cell cycle arrest. Our work reveals a new mechanism for regulating DNA replication under adverse growth conditions. Additionally, our data indicate that unfolded proteins can actively and directly alter substrate recognition by cellular proteases.

SummaryThe carbon storage regulator CsrA is an RNA binding protein that controls carbon metabolism, biofilm formation and motility in various eubacteria. Nevertheless, in Escherichia coli only five target mRNAs have been shown to be directly regulated by CsrA at the post-transcriptional level. Here we identified two new direct targets for CsrA, ycdT and ydeH, both of which encode proteins with GGDEF domains. A csrA mutation caused mRNA levels of ycdT and ydeH to increase more than 10-fold. RNA mobility shift assays confirmed the direct and specific binding of CsrA to the mRNA leaders of ydeH and ycdT. Overexpression of ycdT and ydeH resulted in a more than 20-fold increase in the cellular concentration of the second messenger c-di-GMP, implying that both proteins possess diguanylate cyclase activity. Phenotypic characterization revealed that both proteins are involved in the regulation of motility in a c-di-GMP dependent manner. CsrA was also found to regulate the expression of five additional GGDEF/EAL proteins and a csrA mutation led to modestly increased cellular levels of c-di-GMP. All together, these data demonstrate a global role for CsrA in the regulation of c-di-GMP metabolism by regulating the expression of GGDEF proteins at the post-transcriptional level.

Background: Curli, cellulose and the cell surface protein BapA are matrix components in Salmonella biofilms. In this study we have investigated the roles of these components for the morphology of bacteria grown as colonies on agar plates and within a biofilm on submerged mica surfaces by applying atomic force microscopy (AFM) and light microscopy.