Lon protease functions as a negative regulator of type III protein secretion in Pseudomonas syringae

The central conserved region of the Pseudomonas syringae hrp pathogenicity island encodes a type III protein secretion system (TTSS) that is required for pathogenicity in plants. Expression of the hrp TTSS is controlled by the alternative sigma factor, HrpL, whose expression, in turn, is positively controlled by two truncated enhancer binding proteins, HrpR and HrpS. Although a number of environmental conditions are known to modulate hrp TTSS expression, such as stringent conditions and pathogenesis, the mechanism by which the activities of these transcriptional factors are modulated had not been established. In this study, HrpR and HrpS were found to be constitutively expressed under conditions in which the hrpL promoter was inactive. To identify a postulated negative regulator of hrpL expression, transposome (Tz) mutagenesis was used to isolate hrp constitutive mutants. P. syringae Pss61 and DC3000 hrp constitutive mutants were identified that carried lon::Tz insertions and exhibited increased cell length and UV sensitivity typical of Delta lon mutants. The P. syringae Lon protease retained structural features of its homologues found in other bacteria and was capable of complementing an Escherichia coli Delta lon mutant. P. syringae lon::Tz mutants exhibited enhanced expression of the hrpL promoter, suggesting an effect on HrpR and/or HrpS. HrpR was observed to be unstable in wild-type P. syringae strains grown in non-inductive media. However, the apparent half-life increased more than 10-fold in the P. syringae lon::Tz mutants or upon transfer to an inductive medium. The P. syringae lon mutants elicited rapidly developing plant responses and were shown to hypersecrete effector proteins, such as AvrPto. These results indicate that expression of the hrp regulon and type III secretion are negatively regulated by Lon-mediated degradation of HrpR.