%0 Journal Article %A Megan McDonald %A Benjamin Schwessinger %A Valley Stewart %A Pamela C. Ronald %T Distribution and inheritance of a gene cluster encoding a sulfated tyrosine peptide in Xanthomonas spp %D 2017 %R 10.1101/149930 %J bioRxiv %P 149930 %X Tyrosine sulfation is a post-translational modification that influences interaction specificity between certain receptors and their protein ligands in diverse biological processes. For example, rice XA21 receptor-mediated recognition of the sulfated bacterial protein RaxX activates an immune response and triggers resistance to the phytopathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). A five kb raxX-raxSTAB gene cluster of Xoo encodes RaxX, the RaxST tyrosylprotein sulfotransferasea and the RaxA and RaxB components of a predicted proteolytic maturation and ATP-dependent peptide secretion complex. The complete raxX-raxSTAB gene cluster was found only in Xanthomonas species, and its distribution is consistent with multiple gain and loss events during Xanthomonas speciation. Homologs of the raxST gene are present in genome sequences of diverse bacterial species. Together, these results establish a foundation for investigating biological roles for tyrosine sulfation in bacteria. %U https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2017/06/14/149930.full.pdf