Virulence gene regulation inside and outside

Much knowledge about microbial gene regulation and virulence is derived from genetic and biochemical studies done outside of hosts. The aim of this review is to correlate observations made in vitro and in vivo with two different bacterial pathogens in which the nature of regulated gene expression leading to virulence is quite different. The first is Vibrio cholerae, in which the concerted action of a complicated regulatory cascade involving several transcription activators lead ultimately to expression of cholera toxin and the toxin-coregulated pilus. The regulatory cascade is active in vivo and is also required for maintenance of V. cholerae in the intestinal tract during experimental infection. Nevertheless, specific signals predicted to be generated in vivo, such as bile and a temperature of 37 degrees C, have a severe down-modulating effect on activation of toxin and pilus expression. Another unusual aspect of gene regulation in this system is the role played by inner membrane proteins that activate transcription. Although the topology of these proteins suggests an appealing model for signal transduction leading to virulence gene expression, experimental evidence suggests that such a model may be simplistic. In Streptococcus pyogenes, capsule production is critical for virulence in an animal model of necrotizing skin infection. Yet capsule is apparently produced to high levels only from mutation in a two-component regulatory system, CsrR and CrsS. Thus it seems that in V. cholerae a complex regulatory pathway has evolved to control virulence by induction of gene expression in vivo, whereas in S. pyogenes at least one mode of pathogenicity is potentiated by the absence of regulation.