ArticleNature communications2024
The virulence regulator VirB from Shigella flexneri uses a CTP-dependent switch mechanism to activate gene expression.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- TrbA binds and locks a sliding clamp KorB to repress transcription on multi-drug resistance plasmids.Journal of bacteriology · 2026Article
- Initial identification of genomic islands in Taylorella equigenitalis and Taylorella asinigenitalis and their distribution in isolates from around the world.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- The role of the VirB ligand CTP in the molecular mechanism of transcriptional anti-silencing in Shigella flexneri.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Novel Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitory Peptides fromPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Versatile NTP recognition and domain fusions expand the functional repertoire of the ParB-CTPase fold beyond chromosome segregation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Application of Brucella type IV secretion proteins VirB1, VirB5, and VirB6 in the serological diagnosis of brucellosis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Orchestrated long-distance gene activation by a ParB-like BisD-CTP DNA clamp in low-frequency transfer competence development in Pseudomonas putida.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Expanding the diversity of bacterial DNA partitioning: A CTP-independent ParABProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Remote Regulation by VirB, the Transcriptional Anti-Silencer of Shigella Virulence Genes, Provides Mechanistic Information.Molecular microbiology · 2025Article
- KorB switching from DNA-sliding clamp to repressor mediates long-range gene silencing in a multi-drug resistance plasmid.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Post-translational modifications of the nucleoid protein H-NS: sites, mechanisms, and regulatory cues.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Connecting the dots: key insights on ParB for chromosome segregation from single-molecule studies.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- VirB, a transcriptional activator of virulence in Shigella flexneri, uses CTP as a cofactor.Communications biology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The transcriptional antisilencer VirB acts as a master regulator of virulence gene expression in the human pathogen Shigella flexneri. It binds DNA sequences (virS) upstream of VirB-dependent promoters and counteracts their silencing by the nucleoid-organizing protein H-NS. However, its precise mode of action remains unclear. Notably, VirB is not a classical transcription factor but related to ParB-type DNA-partitioning proteins, which have recently been recognized as DNA-sliding clamps using CTP binding and hydrolysis to control their DNA entry gate. Here, we show that VirB binds CTP, embraces DNA in a clamp-like fashion upon its CTP-dependent loading at virS sites and slides laterally on DNA after clamp closure. Mutations that prevent CTP-binding block VirB loading in vitro and abolish the formation of VirB nucleoprotein complexes as well as virulence gene expression in vivo. Thus, VirB represents a CTP-dependent molecular switch that uses a loading-and-sliding mechanism to control transcription during bacterial pathogenesis.
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