Gene for survival and colonization of commensal Streptococcus in urinary tract
- In bacteria, the gene guaA encodes guanosine monophosphate synthetase.
- Guanosine monophosphate synthetase facilitates the production of guanine nucleotides.
- Guanine is one of the four main nucleobases found in DNA or RNA.
- The encoding of guanosine monophosphate synthetase allows bacteria to colonize many different environments.
- The gene guaA is widely distributed among Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes.
- However, the contribution of guaA to the inhabitation of the human microbiome by commensal bacteria is not well understood.
- Researchers studied Streptococcus of the urogenital tract and investigated the role of guaA in survival and colonization of urine.
- Using Streptococcus deficient in guaA, they observed that guanine utilization is important for bacterial colonization of this niche.
- The genomic location of guaA is conserved among other commensal bacteria of the human urogenital tract.
- The results suggest that the gene guaA of Streptococcus in urinary tract is an important element for the survival and colonization in the host as part of the human microbiome.
Source:
Ipe, D.S., Sullivan, M.J., Goh, K.G.K. et al. Conserved bacterial de novo guanine biosynthesis pathway enables microbial survival and colonization in the environmental niche of the urinary tract. ISME J (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-021-00934-w
