PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Xinyi Cheng
AU  - Lu Pu
AU  - Shengwei Fu
AU  - Aiguo Xia
AU  - Shuqiang Huang
AU  - Lei Ni
AU  - Xiaochen Xing
AU  - Shuai Yang
AU  - Fan Jin
TI  - Engineering Gac/Rsm signaling cascade for optogenetic induction of pathogenicity switch in <em>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</em>
AID  - 10.1101/2020.10.28.358515
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.10.28.358515
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/26/2020.10.28.358515.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/26/2020.10.28.358515.full
AB  - Bacterial pathogens operate by tightly controlling the pathogenicity to facilitate invasion and survival in host. While small molecule inducers can be designed to modulate pathogenicity to perform studies of pathogen-host interaction, these approaches, due to the diffusion property of chemicals, may have unintended, or pleiotropic effects that can impose limitations on their use. By contrast, light provides superior spatial and temporal resolution. Here, using optogenetics we reengineered GacS of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, signal transduction protein of the global Gac/Rsm cascade which is of central importance for regulation of infection factors. The resultant protein YGS24 displayed significant light-dependent activity of GacS kinases in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. When introduced in Caenorhabditis elegans host systems, YGS24 stimulated the pathogenicity of PAO1 in BHI and of PA14 in SK medium progressively upon blue-light exposure. This optogenetic system provides an accessible way to spatiotemporally control bacterial pathogenicity in defined host even specific tissues to develop new pathogenesis systems, which may in turn expedite development of innovative therapeutics.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.