ABSTRACTCpxRA is an envelope stress response system found in all members of the familyEnterobacteriaceae; CpxA has kinase activity for CpxR and phosphatase activity for phospho-CpxR, a transcription factor. CpxR also accepts phosphate groups from acetyl phosphate, a glucose metabolite. Activation of CpxR increases the transcription of genes encoding membrane repair and downregulates virulence determinants. We hypothesized that activation of CpxR could serve as an antimicrobial/antivirulence strategy and discovered compounds that activate CpxR inEscherichia coliby inhibiting CpxA phosphatase activity. As a prelude to testing such compoundsin vivo, here we constructedcpxA(in the presence of glucose, CpxR is activated because of a lack of CpxA phosphatase) andcpxR(system absent) deletion mutants of uropathogenicE. coli(UPEC) CFT073. By RNA sequencing, few transcriptional differences were noted between thecpxRmutant and its parent, but in thecpxAmutant, several UPEC virulence determinants were downregulated, including thefimandpapoperons, and it exhibited reduced mannose-sensitive hemagglutination of guinea pig red blood cellsin vitro. In competition experiments with mice, both mutants were less fit than the parent in the urine, bladder, and kidney; these fitness defects were complemented intrans. Unexpectedly, in single-strain challenges, only thecpxAmutant was attenuated for virulence in the kidney but not in the bladder or urine. For thecpxAmutant, this may be due to the preferential use of amino acids over glucose as a carbon source in the bladder and urine by UPEC. These studies suggest that CpxA phosphatase inhibitors may have some utility for treating complex urinary tract infections.
Functional Metagenomics Reveals an Overlooked Diversity and Novel Features of Soil-Derived Bacterial Phosphatases and Phytases
