Involvement of Vitamin B6Biosynthesis Pathways in the Insecticidal Activity of Photorhabdus luminescens
ABSTRACTPhotorhabdus luminescensis a Gram-negative entomopathogenic bacterium which symbiotically associates with the entomopathogenic nematodeHeterorhabditis bacteriophora.P. luminescensis highly virulent to many insects and nonsymbiotic nematodes, includingCaenorhabditis elegans. To understand the virulence mechanisms ofP. luminescens, we obtained virulence-deficient and -attenuated mutants againstC. elegansthrough a transposon-mutagenized library. From the genetic screening, we identified thepdxBgene, encoding erythronate-4-phosphate dehydrogenase, as required forde novovitamin B6biosynthesis. Mutation inpdxBcaused growth deficiency ofP. luminescensin nutrient-poor medium, which was restored under nutrient-rich conditions or by supplementation with pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP), an active form of vitamin B6. Supplementation with three other B6vitamers (pyridoxal, pyridoxine, and pyridoxamine) also restored the growth of thepdxBmutant, suggesting the existence of a salvage pathway for vitamin B6biosynthesis inP. luminescens. Moreover, supplementation with PLP restored the virulence-deficient phenotype againstC. elegans. Combining these results with the fact thatpdxBmutation also caused attenuation of insecticidal activity, we concluded that the production of appropriate amounts of vitamin B6is critical forP. luminescenspathogenicity.IMPORTANCEThe Gram-negative entomopathogenic bacteriumPhotorhabdus luminescenssymbiotically associates with the entomopathogenic nematodeHeterorhabditis bacteriophora.P. luminescensis highly virulent to many insects and nonsymbiotic nematodes, includingCaenorhabditis elegans. We have obtained several virulence-deficient and -attenuatedP. luminescensmutants againstC. elegansthrough genetic screening. From the genetic analysis, we present the vitamin B6biosynthetic pathways inP. luminescensthat are important for its insecticidal activity. Mutation inpdxB, encoding erythronate-4-phosphate dehydrogenase and required for thede novovitamin B6biosynthesis pathway, caused virulence deficiency againstC. elegansand growth deficiency ofP. luminescensin nutrient-poor medium. Because such phenotypes were restored under nutrient-rich conditions or by supplementation with B6vitamers, we showed the presence of the two vitamin B6synthetic pathways (de novoand salvage) inP. luminescensand also showed that the ability to produce an appropriate amount of vitamin B6is critical forP. luminescenspathogenicity.