Regulation of htrA expression in Yersinia enterocolitica

In Escherichia coli, envelope stress is regulated by the alternative sigma factor sigma(E) and the two-component regulatory system CpxRA. Both systems overlap in the transcriptional regulation of the htrA gene encoding a protease that degrades misfolded proteins in the periplasm. In Yersinia enterocolitica, HtrA is important for intracellular survival and full virulence in animal models. Here we show that regulation of htrA expression in Y. enterocolitica is dependent on CpxR and putatively also on RpoE. However, the stimuli inducing both systems were different from E. coli. Most strikingly, we found that overproduction of an outer membrane protein, a typical stimulus for the induction of htrA expression via RpoE in E. coli, led to the induction of htrA expression via the Cpx system in Y. enterocolitica. Interestingly, a Y. enterocolitica CpxR mutant strain was not impaired for virulence in a mouse model of infection.