A Mn-sensing riboswitch activates expression of a Mn2+/Ca2+ ATPase transporter in Streptococcus

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Maintaining manganese (Mn) homeostasis is important for the virulence of numerous bacteria. In the human respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae, the Mn-specific importer PsaBCA, exporter MntE, and transcriptional regulator PsaR establish Mn homeostasis. In other bacteria, Mn homeostasis is controlled by yybP-ykoY family riboswitches. Here, we characterize a yybP-ykoY family riboswitch upstream of the mgtA gene encoding a PII-type ATPase in S. pneumoniae, suggested previously to function in Ca2+ efflux. We show that the mgtA riboswitch aptamer domain adopts a canonical yybP-ykoY structure containing a three-way junction that is compacted in the presence of Ca2+ or Mn2+ at a physiological Mg2+ concentration. Although Ca2+ binds to the RNA aptamer with higher affinity than Mn2+, in vitro activation of transcription read-through of mgtA by Mn2+ is much greater than by Ca2+. Consistent with this result, mgtA mRNA and protein levels increase ≈5-fold during cellular Mn stress, but only in genetic backgrounds of S. pneumoniae and Bacillus subtilis that exhibit Mn2+ sensitivity, revealing that this riboswitch functions as a failsafe 'on' signal to prevent Mn2+ toxicity in the presence of high cellular Mn2+. In addition, our results suggest that the S. pneumoniae yybP-ykoY riboswitch functions to regulate Ca2+ efflux under these conditions.

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