The results suggested SypA interacted with an additional unknown target to control biofilm production and thereby host colonization. Our data suggest that RbaV may similarly interact with other, as-of-yet unidentified, targets to affect RcGTA gene expression (Figure 8). The general stress response in studied α-proteobacterial species is under the control of the ECF σG. This ECF is controlled by the anti-σ factor

NepR, and the OICR-9429 anti-anti-σ factor, PhyR [63, 66–70]. We found no support for involvement of this system in RcGTA production as separate mutants carrying Selleck SIS3 disruptions of a putative phyR orthologue (rcc02289) and predicted cognate EcfG-like σ factor (rcc02291) demonstrated wild type RcGTA activity. Based on the phenotypes of strains with disruptions of the relevant genes, we have determined that individual knockouts of RpoHI (rcc02811), RpoHII (rcc00458), and putative ECF (rcc02724) σ factors have no effect on RcGTA production. In R. capsulatus, RpoHI shares the highest sequence homology with σB and this protein has been studied in the related species R. sphaeroides where it is involved in responding to heat and photooxidative stress [39, 40]. It was previously suggested that

RpoHI is essential for growth at 32°C in R. capsulatus[71]. There is no indication from the R. sphaeroides studies that its RsbV, W or Y homologues DZNeP cell line have any role related to RpoHI and RpoHII function. The two-hybrid experiments did not provide any evidence of interactions between RbaW and the σ factor proteins tested. This could be due to experimental conditions as expression of R. capsulatus σ factors in E. coli may yield insoluble proteins as found with R. sphaeroides RpoD and RpoE [72, 73], subverting the two-hybrid assays. It is also possible that the R. capsulatus proteins interact with native E. coli proteins, which could also interfere with the two-hybrid assays. Structural interaction studies in E. coli have led to hypotheses that currently unknown small

regulatory molecules affect the binding between the anti-σ factor Rsd and σ70[74]. The interaction of R. capsulatus RbaW with a cognate σ factor may require co-factors and specific interactions might not occur without supplementing an experiment appropriately. It is also possible that RbaW may not function as an antagonist of Glutamate dehydrogenase σ factor activity, and that this system modulates RcGTA production in some other way (Figure 8), as found in other systems such as S. coelicolor[75] and Bordetella[64] where no cognate σ factor was identified and the regulatory activities were predicted to occur through unknown pathways. We have identified a sequence in the RcGTA gene cluster promoter region that was required for expression of the tested RcGTA-lacZ fusion construct. The sequence is designated as an “rpoD17” site, which is the most common type of promoter sequence for RpoD in E.