FliT Acts as an Anti-FlhD ₂ C ₂ Factor in the Transcriptional Control of the Flagellar Regulon in <i>Salmonella enterica</i> Serovar Typhimurium

Abstract

Flagellar operons are divided into three classes with respect to their transcriptional hierarchy in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. The class 1 gene products FlhD and FlhC act together in an FlhD(2)C(2) heterotetramer, which binds upstream of the class 2 promoters to facilitate binding of RNA polymerase. Class 2 expression is known to be enhanced by a disruption mutation in a flagellar gene, fliT. In this study, we purified FliT protein in a His-tagged form and showed that the protein prevented binding of FlhD(2)C(2) to the class 2 promoter and inhibited FlhD(2)C(2)-dependent transcription. Pull-down and far-Western blotting analyses revealed that the FliT protein was capable of binding to FlhD(2)C(2) and FlhC and not to FlhD alone. We conclude that FliT acts as an anti-FlhD(2)C(2) factor, which binds to FlhD(2)C(2) through interaction with the FlhC subunit and inhibits its binding to the class 2 promoter.