Transcriptional analysis of the sfa determinant revealing multiple mRNA processing events in the biogenesis of S fimbriae in pathogenic Escherichia coli

Among the virulence factors present in pathogenic extraintestinal Escherichia coli strains, expression of fimbrial adhesins is necessary for attachment to the host tissues and subsequent colonization. Occurrence of the sfa determinant coding for the S fimbriae is widespread among the uropathogens and meningitis isolates. The sfa operon consists of nine genes. In the biogenesis of S fimbriae, the proteins encoded by the sfa genes are presumably required in a specific stoichiometry. In the present work we studied how differential expression of the sfa operon genes occurs. Our findings indicate that a number of endoribonucleolytic cleavages occur in the mRNA from the sfa operon, and we detected the presence of different distinct transcriptional products, including sfaBA, sfaA, sfaADE, and sfaGSH. The sfaGSH transcript represents the three distal genes of the sfa operon, which code for the minor subunits of the S fimbriae. Analysis of the proteins in S fimbriae suggested that expression of the sfaGSH transcript provides equimolar amounts of the minor subunits. Furthermore, we showed that in the generation of the major sfaA transcript, the processing included RNase E endoribonuceolytic cleavage of the precursor sfaBA transcript. We suggest that posttranscriptional mRNA processing events result in differential gene expression important to achieve the stoichiometry necessary for fimbrial adhesin biogenesis.