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RppA, a transducer homologue, and MmrA, a multidrug transporter homologue, are involved in the biogenesis and/or assembly of polysaccharide in Myxococcus xanthus

Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagawa University, Miki-Cho, Kagawa 761-0795, Japan

Correspondence
Yoshio Kimura
kimura{at}ag.kagawa-u.ac.jp

Myxococcus xanthus cells move by gliding, and form multicellular fruiting bodies under conditions of starvation. The authors cloned a gene, designated rppA (for receptor for polysaccharide production), which encodes a methyl-accepting protein homologous to the chemotaxis transducers in eubacteria. The rppA gene was co-transcribed with mmrA, a gene homologous to various multidrug transporter genes. The rppA or mmrA single mutants showed almost identical phenotypes to the wild-type strain; however, the rppA-mmrA double mutant exhibited reduced colony expansion, cell–cell agglutination and cellular reversal frequency. The double-mutant cells also showed less binding to Congo red, which mainly binds to fibril polysaccharide, than wild-type cells. Analysis of total polysaccharide in stationary-phase cells demonstrated that in the double mutant, polysaccharide levels were decreased by about 30 % as compared with the wild-type strain. These results indicated that RppA and MmrA play a role in the biogenesis and/or assembly of polysaccharide, and the phenotypes of the double mutant may be due to the reduction in fibril polysaccharide.

The GenBank/DDBJ accession numbers for the sequences reported in this paper are AB111917 (rppA) and AB111918 (mmrA).

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