Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) alters the activity of proteins by segregating them into membraneless compartments. In the gut commensal bacterium
Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, transcription termination factor Rho (
BtRho) undergoes LLPS during carbon starvation and in the mammalian gut, which increases its termination activity, alters gene expression, and promotes bacterial fitness. Specific short sequences within the intrinsically disordered region (IDR) of
BtRho are highly conserved in
Bacteroides Rho sequelogs and responsible for RNA-mediated
BtRho LLPS, intradomain interactions that promote or restrict
BtRho LLPS, and control of
BtRho LLPS during carbon starvation. Our findings establish a fundamental role for phase separation in host-microbe interactions and reveal how a nutritional stress governs LLPS of an essential transcription factor.
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