Quorum sensing and RsaM regulons of the rice pathogen Pseudomonas fuscovaginae

Pseudomonas fuscovaginae (Pfv) is an emerging plant pathogen causing sheath brown rot in rice, as well as diseases in other gramineae food crops including maize, sorghum and wheat. Pfv possesses two conserved N-acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) quorum sensing (QS) systems called PfvI/R and PfsI/R, which are repressed by RsaL and RsaM, respectively. The two systems are not hierarchically organized and are involved in plant virulence. In this study the AHL QS PfsI/R, PfvI/R and RsaM regulons were determined by transcriptomic analysis. The PfsI/R system regulates 98 genes, whereas 26 genes are regulated by the PfvI/R AHL QS system; only two genes are regulated by both systems. RsaM, on the other hand, regulates over 400 genes: 206 are negatively regulated and 260 are positively regulated. More than half of the genes controlled by the PfsI/R system and 65% by the PfvI/R system are also part of the RsaM regulon; this is due to RsaM being involved in the regulation of both systems. It is concluded that the two QS systems regulate a unique set of genes and that RsaM is a global regulator mediating the expression of different genes through the two QS systems as well as genes independently of QS.