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Updated: Sep 26, 2025

A Fluorescence-based Method to Study Bacterial Gene Regulation in Infected Tissues
Published on: February 19, 2019
A dual-function phage regulator controls the response of cohabiting phage elements via regulation of the bacterial
Gil Azulay1, Anna Pasechnek1, Olga Stadnyuk1
1The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
Abstract:
Listeria monocytogenes strain 10403S harbors two phage elements in its chromosome; one produces infective virions and the other tailocins. It was previously demonstrated that induction of the two elements is coordinated, as they are regulated by the same anti-repressor. In this study, we identified AriS as another phage regulator that controls the two elements, bearing the capacity to inhibit their lytic induction under SOS conditions. AriS is a two-domain protein that possesses two distinct activities, one regulating the genes of its encoding phage and the other downregulating the bacterial SOS response. While the first activity associates with the AriS N-terminal AntA/AntB domain, the second associates with its C-terminal ANT/KilAC domain. The ANT/KilAC domain is conserved in many AriS-like proteins of listerial and non-listerial prophages, suggesting that temperate phages acquired such dual-function regulators to align their response with the other phage elements that cohabit the genome.
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