The Hybrid Histidine Kinase LadS Forms a Multicomponent Signal Transduction System with the GacS/GacA Two-Component System in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

International audienceIn response to environmental changes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is able to switch from a planktonic (free swimming) to a sessile (biofilm) lifestyle. The two-component system (TCS) GacS/GacA activates the production of two small non-coding RNAs, RsmY and RsmZ, but four histidine kinases (HKs), RetS, GacS, LadS and PA1611, are instrumental in this process. RetS hybrid HK blocks GacS unorthodox HK autophosphorylation through the formation of a heterodimer. PA1611 hybrid HK, which is structurally related to GacS, interacts with RetS in P. aeruginosa in a very similar manner to GacS. LadS hybrid HK phenotypically antagonizes the function of RetS by a mechanism that has never been investigated. The four sensors are found in most Pseudomonas species but their characteristics and mode of signaling may differ from one species to another. Here, we demonstrated in P. aeruginosa that LadS controls both rsmY and rsmZ gene expression and that this regulation occurs through the GacS/GacA TCS. We additionally evidenced that in contrast to RetS, LadS signals through GacS/GacA without forming heterodimers, either with GacS or with RetS. Instead, we demonstrated that LadS is involved in a genuine phosphorelay, which requires both transmitter and receiver LadS domains. LadS signaling ultimately requires the alternative histidine-phosphotransfer domain of GacS, which is here used as an Hpt relay by the hybrid kinase. LadS HK thus forms, with the GacS/GacA TCS, a multicomponent signal transduction system with an original phosphorelay cascade, i.e. H1LadS→D1LadS→H2GacS→D2GacA. This highlights an original strategy in which a unique output, i.e. the modulation of sRNA levels, is controlled by a complex multi-sensing network to fine-tune an adapted biofilm and virulence response

Comparison of three-jet and two-jet cross sections in pp? collisions at the CERN SPS pp? collider

Results are presented on two-jet and three-jet cross sections, measured in the UA1 experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) pp̄ Collider, at the highest available subprocess cms energies ( s ̂>150 GeV). Precise measurements of the two-jet angular distribution are consistent with previous results but show significant scale-breaking effects. The three-jet Dalitz plot and the three-jet angular distributions show evidence for final- and initial-state bremsstrahlung processes, in agreement with the leading-order QCD predictions. A comparison of the yield of wide-angle three-jet events with the yield of two-jet events at smaller scattering angles gives for the strong interaction coupling constant: αs( K3J K2J)=0.16±0.02±0.03 at Q2≈4000 GeV2, where the factor K3J K2J may plausibly be assumed to be close to unity. © 1985

Analysis of the fragmentation properties of quark and gluon jets at the CERN SPS pp̄ collider

A sample of two-jet events from the UA1 experiment at the CERN pp̄ Collider has been used to study the fragmentation of high-energy quark and gluon jets into charged hadrons. Compared with lower-energy jets observed in e+e- and pp collisions, the fragmentation function measured in the present experiment is softer (i.e. peaked to smaller values of z) and the mean internal transverse momentum is larger, mainly because of the effects of the QCD scaling violations. Using our knowledge of the quark and gluon structure functions in the proton, together with the QCD matrix elements, a statistical separation of quark and gluon jets is achieved within the present experiment. The fragmentation function for the gluon jets is found to be softer, and the angular spread of the fragmentation products larger, than is the case for quark jets. © 1986