DNA methylation in Yersinia enterocolitica: role of the DNA adenine methyltransferase in mismatch repair and regulation of virulence factors

Microbiology ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 151 (7) ◽  
pp. 2291-2299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Fälker ◽  
M. Alexander Schmidt ◽  
Gerhard Heusipp

DNA adenine methyltransferase (Dam) plays an important role in physiological processes of Gram-negative bacteria such as mismatch repair and replication. In addition, Dam regulates the expression of virulence genes in various species. The authors cloned the dam gene of Yersinia enterocolitica and showed that Dam is essential for viability. Dam overproduction in Y. enterocolitica resulted in an increased frequency of spontaneous mutation and decreased resistance to 2-aminopurine; however, these effects were only marginal compared to the effect of overproduction of Escherichia coli-derived Dam in Y. enterocolitica, implying different roles or activities of Dam in mismatch repair of the two species. These differences in Dam function are not the cause for the essentiality of Dam in Y. enterocolitica, as Dam of E. coli can complement a dam defect in Y. enterocolitica. Instead, Dam seems to interfere with expression of essential genes. Furthermore, Dam mediates virulence of Y. enterocolitica. Dam overproduction results in increased tissue culture invasion of Y. enterocolitica, while the expression of specifically in vivo-expressed genes is not altered.

2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (12) ◽  
pp. 3556-3563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Heusipp ◽  
Glenn M. Young ◽  
Virginia L. Miller

ABSTRACT The role of proteases in pathogenesis is well established for several microorganisms but has not been described for Yersinia enterocolitica. Previously, we identified a gene,hreP, which showed significant similarity to proteases in a screen for chromosomal genes of Y. enterocoliticathat were exclusively expressed during an infection of mice. We cloned this gene by chromosome capture and subsequently determined its nucleotide sequence. Like inv, the gene encoding the invasin protein of Y. enterocolitica,hreP is located in a cluster of flagellum biosynthesis and chemotaxis genes. The genomic organization of this chromosomal region is different in Escherichia coli, Salmonella, andYersinia pestis than in Y. enterocolitica. Analysis of the distribution ofhreP between different Yersinia isolates and the relatively low G+C content of the gene suggests acquisition by horizontal gene transfer. Sequence analysis also revealed that HreP belongs to a family of eukaryotic subtilisin/kexin-like proteases. Together with the calcium-dependent protease PrcA of Anabaena variabilis, HreP forms a new subfamily of bacterial subtilisin/kexin-like proteases which might have originated from a common eukaryotic ancestor. Like other proteases of this family, HreP is expressed with an N-terminal prosequence. Expression of an HreP-His6 tag fusion protein in E. coli revealed that HreP undergoes autocatalytic processing at a consensus cleavage site of subtilisin/kexin-like proteases, thereby releasing the proprotein.


2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (15) ◽  
pp. 4975-4983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianhua Yin ◽  
James R. Chambers ◽  
Roger Wheatcroft ◽  
Roger P. Johnson ◽  
Jing Zhu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT There are contradictory literature reports on the role of verotoxin (VT) in adherence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 (O157 EHEC) to intestinal epithelium. There are reports that putative virulence genes of O island 7 (OI-7), OI-15, and OI-48 of this pathogen may also affect adherence in vitro. Therefore, mutants of vt2 and segments of OI-7 and genes aidA 15 (gene from OI-15) and aidA 48 (gene from OI-48) were generated and evaluated for adherence in vitro to cultured human HEp-2 and porcine jejunal epithelial (IPEC-J2) cells and in vivo to enterocytes in pig ileal loops. VT2-negative mutants showed significant decreases in adherence to both HEp-2 and IPEC-J2 cells and to enterocytes in pig ileal loops; complementation only partially restored VT2 production but fully restored the adherence to the wild-type level on cultured cells. Deletion of OI-7 and aidA 48 had no effect on adherence, whereas deletion of aidA 15 resulted in a significant decrease in adherence in pig ileal loops but not to the cultured cells. This investigation supports the findings that VT2 plays a role in adherence, shows that results obtained in adherence of E. coli O157:H7 in vivo may differ from those obtained in vitro, and identified AIDA-15 as having a role in adherence of E. coli O157:H7.


2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna D Arczewska ◽  
Jarosław T Kuśmierek

Since the discovery of the first E. coli mutator gene, mutT, most of the mutations inducing elevated spontaneous mutation rates could be clearly attributed to defects in DNA repair. MutT turned out to be a pyrophosphohydrolase hydrolyzing 8-oxodGTP, thus preventing its incorporation into DNA and suppresing the occurrence of spontaneous AT-->CG transversions. Most of the bacterial mutator genes appeared to be evolutionarily conserved, and scientists were continuously searching for contribution of DNA repair deficiency in human diseases, especially carcinogenesis. Yet a human MutT homologue--hMTH1 protein--was found to be overexpressed rather than inactivated in many human diseases, including cancer. The interest in DNA repair contribution to human diseases exploded with the observation that germline mutations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes predispose to hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). Despite our continuously growing knowledge about DNA repair we still do not fully understand how the mutator phenotype contributes to specific forms of human diseases.


2005 ◽  
Vol 187 (8) ◽  
pp. 2801-2809 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Davidsen ◽  
M. Bjørås ◽  
E. C. Seeberg ◽  
T. Tønjum

ABSTRACT Genome alterations due to horizontal gene transfer and stress constantly generate strain on the gene pool of Neisseria meningitidis, the causative agent of meningococcal (MC) disease. The DNA glycosylase MutY of the base excision repair pathway is involved in the protection against oxidative stress. MC MutY expressed in Escherichia coli exhibited base excision activity towards DNA substrates containing A:7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine and A:C mismatches. Expression in E. coli fully suppressed the elevated spontaneous mutation rate found in the E. coli mutY mutant. An assessment of MutY activity in lysates of neisserial wild-type and mutY mutant strains showed that both MC and gonococcal (GC) MutY is expressed and active in vivo. Strikingly, MC and GC mutY mutants exhibited 60- to 140-fold and 20-fold increases in mutation rates, respectively, compared to the wild-type strains. Moreover, the differences in transitions and transversions in rpoB conferring rifampin resistance observed with the wild type and mutants demonstrated that the neisserial MutY enzyme works in preventing GC→AT transversions. These findings are important in the context of models linking mutator phenotypes of disease isolates to microbial fitness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6865
Author(s):  
Eun Seon Lee ◽  
Joung Hun Park ◽  
Seong Dong Wi ◽  
Ho Byoung Chae ◽  
Seol Ki Paeng ◽  
...  

The thioredoxin-h (Trx-h) family of Arabidopsis thaliana comprises cytosolic disulfide reductases. However, the physiological function of Trx-h2, which contains an additional 19 amino acids at its N-terminus, remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the molecular function of Trx-h2 both in vitro and in vivo and found that Arabidopsis Trx-h2 overexpression (Trx-h2OE) lines showed significantly longer roots than wild-type plants under cold stress. Therefore, we further investigated the role of Trx-h2 under cold stress. Our results revealed that Trx-h2 functions as an RNA chaperone by melting misfolded and non-functional RNAs, and by facilitating their correct folding into active forms with native conformation. We showed that Trx-h2 binds to and efficiently melts nucleic acids (ssDNA, dsDNA, and RNA), and facilitates the export of mRNAs from the nucleus to the cytoplasm under cold stress. Moreover, overexpression of Trx-h2 increased the survival rate of the cold-sensitive E. coli BX04 cells under low temperature. Thus, our data show that Trx-h2 performs function as an RNA chaperone under cold stress, thus increasing plant cold tolerance.


Genetics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 154 (2) ◽  
pp. 503-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongbo Liu ◽  
Stephen R Hewitt ◽  
John B Hays

Abstract Previous studies have demonstrated that the Escherichia coli MutHLS mismatch-repair system can process UV-irradiated DNA in vivo and that the human MSH2·MSH6 mismatch-repair protein binds more strongly in vitro to photoproduct/base mismatches than to “matched” photoproducts in DNA. We tested the hypothesis that mismatch repair directed against incorrect bases opposite photoproducts might reduce UV mutagenesis, using two alleles at E. coli lacZ codon 461, which revert, respectively, via CCC → CTC and CTT → CTC transitions. F′ lacZ targets were mated from mut+ donors into mutH, mutL, or mutS recipients, once cells were at substantial densities, to minimize spontaneous mutation prior to irradiation. In umu+ mut+ recipients, a range of UV fluences induced lac+ revertant frequencies of 4–25 × 10−8; these frequencies were consistently 2-fold higher in mutH, mutL, or mutS recipients. Since this effect on mutation frequency was unaltered by an Mfd− defect, it appears not to involve transcription-coupled excision repair. In mut+ umuC122::Tn5 bacteria, UV mutagenesis (at 60 J/m2) was very low, but mutH or mutL or mutS mutations increased reversion of both lacZ alleles roughly 25-fold, to 5–10 × 10−8. Thus, at UV doses too low to induce SOS functions, such as Umu2′D, most incorrect bases opposite occasional photoproducts may be removed by mismatch repair, whereas in heavily irradiated (SOS-induced) cells, mismatch repair may only correct some photoproduct/base mismatches, so UV mutagenesis remains substantial.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul White ◽  
Samuel F. Haysom ◽  
Matthew G. Iadanza ◽  
Anna J. Higgins ◽  
Jonathan M. Machin ◽  
...  

AbstractThe folding of β-barrel outer membrane proteins (OMPs) in Gram-negative bacteria is catalysed by the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM). How lateral opening in the β-barrel of the major subunit BamA assists in OMP folding, and the contribution of membrane disruption to BAM catalysis remain unresolved. Here, we use an anti-BamA monoclonal antibody fragment (Fab1) and two disulphide-crosslinked BAM variants (lid-locked (LL), and POTRA-5-locked (P5L)) to dissect these roles. Despite being lethal in vivo, we show that all complexes catalyse folding in vitro, albeit less efficiently than wild-type BAM. CryoEM reveals that while Fab1 and BAM-P5L trap an open-barrel state, BAM-LL contains a mixture of closed and contorted, partially-open structures. Finally, all three complexes globally destabilise the lipid bilayer, while BamA does not, revealing that the BAM lipoproteins are required for this function. Together the results provide insights into the role of BAM structure and lipid dynamics in OMP folding.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alister T. Boags ◽  
Firdaus Samsudin ◽  
Syma Khalid

SUMMARYWe present a molecular modeling and simulation study of the of the E. coli cell envelope, with a particular focus on the role of TolR, a native protein of the E. coli inner membrane in interactions with the cell wall. TolR has been proposed to bind to peptidoglycan, but the only structure of this protein thus far is in a conformation in which the putative peptidoglycan binding domain is not accessible. We show that a model of the extended conformation of the protein in which this domain is exposed, binds peptidoglycan largely through electrostatic interactions. We show that non-covalent interactions of TolR and OmpA with the cell wall, from the inner membrane and outer membrane sides respectively, maintain the position of the cell wall even in the absence of Braun’s lipoprotein. When OmpA is truncated to remove the peptidoglycan binding domain, TolR is able to pull the cell wall down towards the inner membrane. The charged residues that mediate the cell-wall interactions of TolR in our simulations, are conserved across a number of species of Gram-negative bacteria.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-20
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abd El-Mawgoud ◽  
Azza El-Sawah ◽  
Soad Nasef ◽  
Al-Hussien Dahshan ◽  
Ahmed Ali

In the current study, ten avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) isolates of the most predominant APEC serogroups isolated from broiler chickens in Egypt were screened for their virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes pattern using PCR. Five selected virulence gene patterns were further investigated for their in-vivo pathogenicity test. Results showed a 100% prevalence of the β-lactams and tetracyclines resistance genes. However, aminoglycoside and quinolone resistance genes were not detected. Also, 80% of the tested isolates harbored mcr-1 gene, colistin resistance gene. In-vivo pathogenic strains consistently harbored the virulence gene pattern of fimH, fimA, papC, iutA, and tsh. Additionally, the tsh gene was consistently detected with lethal APEC isolates in day-old chicks. These results highlighted the high prevalence of antimicrobial and virulence genes in APEC that potentially represent a public health concern. In this study, the virulence genes fimH, fimA, papC, iutA, and tsh were the most common virulence gene patterns associated with pathogenicity in day-old chicks.


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