Journal
JOURNAL OF BACTERIOLOGY
Volume 194, Issue 11, Pages 2781-2790Publisher
AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY
DOI: 10.1128/JB.06780-11
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) [2T32GM070104-30]
- EMBO
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [30871753]
- NIH Public Health Service from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [AI48616]
- UCLA
- BBSRC [BB/H002340/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/H002340/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Biofilms of microbial cells encased in an exopolymeric matrix can form on solid surfaces, but how bacteria sense a solid surface and upregulate biofilm genes is largely unknown. We investigated the role of the Bacillus subtilis signal peptidase, SipW, which has a unique role in forming biofilms on a solid surface and is not required at an air-liquid interface. Surprisingly, we found that the signal peptidase activity of SipW was not required for solid-surface biofilms. Furthermore, a SipW mutant protein was constructed that lacks the ability to form a solid-surface biofilm but still retains signal peptidase activity. Through genetic and gene expression tests, the non-signal peptidase role of SipW was found to activate biofilm matrix genes specifically when cells were on a solid surface. These data provide the first evidence that a signal peptidase is bifunctional and that SipW has a regulatory role in addition to its role as a signal peptidase.
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