On other hand, a common mechanism for transcriptional regulation of phtD and phtM, due to the presence of conserved regions in promoters of these genes has been suggested Selleck CX-4945 [10], however the bioinformatic

analysis did not reveal IHF binding sites in the phtM promoter region. In addition, mobility shift competition assays showed that this region is unable to compete the retarded signal in phtD, indicating that the IHF protein does not bind to the upstream region of phtM (data not shown). Several lines of evidence have postulated that the genes of the Pht cluster form a genomic island (GI), which was acquired by horizontal gene transfer from a Gram positive bacterium [18–20]. Based on our findings, we propose that the regulation of this gene cluster (Pht cluster), became integrated into the MM-102 global regulatory mechanism this website of the host-bacterium P. syringae pv. phaseolicola NPS3121, after the horizontal transfer event. This phenomenon of foreign DNA integration into the regulatory pathway of the host cell has

been reported in other organisms and several examples of horizontally acquired genes that are regulated by global proteins exist in the literature. In Salmonella, genes within the SPI-1 pathogenicity island, which is thought to have originated outside the enteric bacteria, are positively regulated by the nucleoid protein Fis. Similarly, the virulence regulon in Vibrio cholerae, which is a mosaic of ancestral and horizontally acquired genes, uses the H-NS global regulator as a transcriptional repressor; as does enteropathogenic E. coli, where the H-NS protein represses the virulence genes in the LEE pathogenicity island

(PAI) [43, 44]. The role of the IHF protein in the regulation of transferred genes has also been reported, with this protein positively regulating ALOX15 the virulence genes TCP (Toxin-Coregulated Pilus) and CT (Cholera Toxin) in V. cholerae, alleviating H-NS repression. Similarly the IHF protein directly activates the expression of genes in the LEE PAI in enteropathogenic E. coli [30, 45]. It seems that the integration of foreign DNA into the global regulatory mechanisms of host bacterium is not unusual. Some authors suggest that this event allows the host cells to control the expression of transferred genes thus avoiding unregulated expression that could have harmful consequences besides having a high energy cost [46, 47]. Based on our results, we suggest that in P. syringae pv. phaseolicola NPS3121, the control of some genes of the Pht cluster is dependent on the IHF protein. Conclusions In this study we demonstrated that the regulatory protein IHF binds to the promoter region of the phtD operon, most likely exerting a negative control on expression of this operon.