AUTHOR=Yin Yu , Li Rui , Liang Wei-Ting , Zhang Wen-Bin , Hu Zhe , Ma Jin-Cheng , Wang Hai-Hong 

TITLE=Of its five acyl carrier proteins, only AcpP1 functions in Ralstonia solanacearum fatty acid synthesis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.1014971

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.1014971

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>The fatty acid synthesis (FAS) pathway is essential for bacterial survival. Acyl carrier proteins (ACPs), donors of acyl moieties, play a central role in FAS and are considered potential targets for the development of antibacterial agents. <italic>Ralstonia solanacearum</italic>, a primary phytopathogenic bacterium, causes bacterial wilt in more than 200 plant species. The genome of <italic>R. solanacearum</italic> contains five annotated <italic>acp</italic> genes, <italic>acpP1</italic>, <italic>acpP2</italic>, <italic>acpP3</italic>, <italic>acpP4</italic>, and <italic>acpP5</italic>. In this study, we characterized the five putative ACPs and confirmed that only AcpP1 is involved in FAS and is necessary for the growth of <italic>R. solanacearum</italic>. We also found that AcpP2 and AcpP4 participate in the polyketide synthesis pathway. Unexpectedly, the disruption of four <italic>acp</italic> genes (<italic>acpP2</italic>, <italic>acpP3</italic>, <italic>acpP4</italic>, and <italic>acpP5</italic>) allowed the mutant strain to grow as well as the wild-type strain, but attenuated the bacterium’s pathogenicity in the host plant tomato, suggesting that these four ACPs contribute to the virulence of <italic>R. solanacearum</italic> through mechanisms other than the FAS pathway.</p>