Deletion Mutants of Enhancer Binding Protein (EBP) Genes in Ralstonia Solanacearum

Abstract

R. solanacearum is a gram-negative bacterium known to cause wilt disease in crops. σ54 (RpoN) is an important transcription regulator. EBPs play a critical role in σ54 dependent transcription of target genes (Bush and Dixon, 2012). R. solanacearum and other plant pathogens have two RpoN, in the chromosome and megaplasmid, respectively In R. solanacearum, RpoN is known to play a role in plant pathogenesis (Lundgren et al., 2015). The goal of this study is to generate deletion mutants of genes encoding for EBPs to further understand their role in the bacteria, specifically plant pathogenesis. In this project, we created 6 pairs of primers for EBP genes in the chromosome and 7 pairs located in the megaplasmid. We matched target genes with σ54 promoters to known EBP genes adjacent in the genome. It was found that EBPs are predicted to help regulate genes involved in glycogen branching, glutamine synthesis, C4- dicarboxylate transport, and nitrogen assimilation.