Altering gene expression by aminocoumarin (novobiocin) treatment: Role of DNA supercoiling in Staphylococcus aureus

For Staphylococcus aureus it was shown previously that aminocoumarinecoumarin antibiotics such as novobiocin lead to immediate down-regulation of recA expression and thereby inhibition of the SOS response, the mutation frequency and the recombination capacity. Aminocoumarinecoumarin function by inhibition of the ATPase activity of the gyrase subunit B. Here we analysed the global impact of the DNA relaxing agent novobiocin on gene expression in S. aureus. By use of a novobiocin resistant mutant, it became evident that the change in recA expression is due to gyrase inhibition. Microarray analysis and Northern blot hybridization revealed that the expression of a distinct set of genes is increased (e.g. recF-gyrB-gyrA, rib operon and ure operon )), or decreased (e.g. arlRS, recA, lukA, hlgC, fnbA) by novobiocin. The two-component ArlRS system was previously found to decrease the supercoiling level in S. aureus. Thus, down-regulation of arlRS might in part compensate for the relaxing effect of novobiocin. Novobiocin resulted in down-regulation of several of arlRS repressed target genes in an arl mutant. Global analysis and gene mapping of supercoiling sensitive genes did not give indications that they are clustered in the genome. Promoter fusion assays confirmed that responsiveness of a given gene is intrinsic to the promoter region but independent of the chromosomal location. The results indicate that molecular property of the spacers of a given promoter dictatesa given promoter rather than chromosomal topology dictates the responsiveness towards changes in supercoiling rather than chromosomal topology.

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Schröder W, Bernhardt J, Marincola G, Klein-Hitpass L, Herbig A, Krupp G, Nieselt K, Wolz C