scholarly journals Induction of the Cpx Envelope Stress Pathway Contributes to Escherichia coli Tolerance to Antimicrobial Peptides

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (24) ◽  
pp. 7770-7779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca Audrain ◽  
Lionel Ferrières ◽  
Amira Zairi ◽  
Guillaume Soubigou ◽  
Curtis Dobson ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTAntimicrobial peptides produced by multicellular organisms as part of their innate system of defense against microorganisms are currently considered potential alternatives to conventional antibiotics in case of infection by multiresistant bacteria. However, while the mode of action of antimicrobial peptides is relatively well described, resistance mechanisms potentially induced or selected by these peptides are still poorly understood. In this work, we studied the mechanisms of action and resistance potentially induced by ApoEdpL-W, a new antimicrobial peptide derived from human apolipoprotein E. Investigation of the genetic response ofEscherichia coliupon exposure to sublethal concentrations of ApoEdpL-W revealed that this antimicrobial peptide triggers activation of RcsCDB, CpxAR, and σEenvelope stress pathways. This genetic response is not restricted to ApoEdpL-W, since several other antimicrobial peptides, including polymyxin B, melittin, LL-37, and modified S4dermaseptin, also activate severalE. colienvelope stress pathways. Finally, we demonstrate that induction of the CpxAR two-component system directly contributes toE. colitolerance toward ApoEdpL-W, polymyxin B, and melittin. These results therefore show thatE. colisenses and responds to different antimicrobial peptides by activation of the CpxAR pathway. While this study further extends the understanding of the array of peptide-induced stress signaling systems, it also provides insight into the contribution of Cpx envelope stress pathway toE. colitolerance to antimicrobial peptides.

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Bauwens ◽  
Lisa Kunsmann ◽  
Helge Karch ◽  
Alexander Mellmann ◽  
Martina Bielaszewska

ABSTRACT Ciprofloxacin, meropenem, fosfomycin, and polymyxin B strongly increase production of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) in Escherichia coli O104:H4 and O157:H7. Ciprofloxacin also upregulates OMV-associated Shiga toxin 2a, the major virulence factor of these pathogens, whereas the other antibiotics increase OMV production without the toxin. These two effects might worsen the clinical outcome of infections caused by Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. Our data support the existing recommendations to avoid antibiotics for treatment of these infections.


2015 ◽  
Vol 197 (14) ◽  
pp. 2316-2324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasushi Daimon ◽  
Shin-ichiro Narita ◽  
Yoshinori Akiyama

ABSTRACTσE, an alternative σ factor that governs a major signaling pathway in envelope stress responses in Gram-negative bacteria, is essential for growth ofEscherichia colinot only under stressful conditions, such as elevated temperature, but also under normal laboratory conditions. A mutational inactivation of thehicBgene has been reported to suppress the lethality caused by the loss of σE.hicBencodes the antitoxin of the HicA-HicB toxin-antitoxin (TA) system; overexpression of the HicA toxin, which exhibits mRNA interferase activity, causes cleavage of mRNAs and an arrest of cell growth, while simultaneous expression of HicB neutralizes the toxic effects of overproduced HicA. To date, however, how the loss of HicB rescues the cell lethality in the absence of σEand, more specifically, whether HicA is involved in this process remain unknown. Here we showed that simultaneous disruption ofhicAabolished suppression of the σEessentiality in the absence ofhicB, while ectopic expression of wild-type HicA, but not that of its mutant forms without mRNA interferase activity, restored the suppression. Furthermore, HicA and two other mRNA interferase toxins, HigB and YafQ, suppressed the σEessentiality even in the presence of chromosomally encoded cognate antitoxins when these toxins were overexpressed individually. Interestingly, when the growth media were supplemented with low levels of antibiotics that are known to activate toxins,E. colicells with no suppressor mutations grew independently of σE. Taken together, our results indicate that the activation of TA system toxins can suppress the σEessentiality and affect the extracytoplasmic stress responses.IMPORTANCEσEis an alternative σ factor involved in extracytoplasmic stress responses. Unlike other alternative σ factors, σEis indispensable for the survival ofE. colieven under unstressed conditions, although the exact reason for its essentiality remains unknown. Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are widely distributed in prokaryotes and are composed of two adjacent genes, encoding a toxin that exerts harmful effects on the toxin-producing bacterium itself and an antitoxin that neutralizes the cognate toxin. Curiously, it is known that inactivation of an antitoxin rescues the σEessentiality, suggesting a connection between TA systems and σEfunction. We demonstrate here that toxin activation is necessary for this rescue and suggest the possible involvement of TA systems in extracytoplasmic stress responses.


2017 ◽  
Vol 199 (20) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Gottesman

ABSTRACT Bacteria have robust responses to a variety of stresses. In particular, bacteria like Escherichia coli have multiple cell envelope stress responses, and generally we evaluate what these responses are doing by the repair systems they induce. However, probably at least as important in interpreting what is being sensed as stress are the genes that these stress systems downregulate, directly or indirectly. This is discussed here for the Cpx and sigma E systems of E. coli.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonglin Zhou ◽  
Shui Liu ◽  
Tingting Wang ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
Shusheng Tang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTWe characterized the synergistic effect produced between pterostilbene and polymyxin B (fractional inhibitory concentration [FIC] index = 0.156 or 0.188) against MCR-producingEscherichia colistrains of both human and animal origins. The time-killing assays showed that either pterostilbene or polymyxin B failed to eradicate themcr-1- and NDM-positiveE. colistrain ZJ487, but the combination eliminated the strain by 1 h postinoculation. The survival rate of mice after intraperitoneal infections was significantly enhanced from 0% to 60% in the group in which combination therapy was applied.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1260-1264
Author(s):  
Jingyu Fu ◽  
Hao Yang ◽  
Hongliang Wang ◽  
Jun Ke ◽  
Debao Kong

To understand the mechanism of action of the antimicrobial peptide bsn-37 on Escherichia coli (E. coli), we investigated its effects on leakage of ultraviolet-absorbing substances, proteins, and nucleic acids from E. coli CVCC1568. The bacteriostatic kinetics of antimicrobial peptides was determined by colony counting. Our study showed that bsn-37 could effectively inhibit the growth and reproduction of E. coli by disrupting its cell wall and membrane.


2016 ◽  
Vol 198 (23) ◽  
pp. 3162-3175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Lorenz ◽  
Thomas J. Dougherty ◽  
Stephen Lory

ABSTRACTIn Gram-negative bacteria, a dedicated machinery consisting of LolABCDE components targets lipoproteins to the outer membrane. We used a previously identified small-molecule inhibitor of the LolCDE complex ofEscherichia colito assess the global transcriptional consequences of interference with lipoprotein transport. Exposure ofE. colito the LolCDE inhibitor at concentrations leading to minimal and significant growth inhibition, followed by transcriptome sequencing, identified a small group of genes whose transcript levels were decreased and a larger group whose mRNA levels increased 10- to 100-fold compared to those of untreated cells. The majority of the genes whose mRNA concentrations were reduced were part of the flagellar assembly pathway, which contains an essential lipoprotein component. Most of the genes whose transcript levels were elevated encode proteins involved in selected cell stress pathways. Many of these genes are involved with envelope stress responses induced by the mislocalization of outer membrane lipoproteins. Although several of the genes whose RNAs were induced have previously been shown to be associated with the general perturbation of the cell envelope by antibiotics, a small subset was affected only by LolCDE inhibition. Findings from this work suggest that the efficiency of the Lol system function may be coupled to a specific monitoring system, which could be exploited in the development of reporter constructs suitable for use for screening for additional inhibitors of lipoprotein trafficking.IMPORTANCEInhibition of the lipoprotein transport pathway leads toE. colideath and subsequent lysis. Early significant changes in the levels of RNA for a subset of genes identified to be associated with some periplasmic and envelope stress responses were observed. Together these findings suggest that disruption of this key pathway can have a severe impact on balanced outer membrane synthesis sufficient to affect viability.


2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (10) ◽  
pp. 5992-5998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andor Krizsan ◽  
Daniel Knappe ◽  
Ralf Hoffmann

ABSTRACTIn view of increasing health threats from multiresistant pathogens, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and, specifically, proline-rich AMPs (PrAMPs) have been investigated in animal models. PrAMPs enter bacteria via the ABC transporter SbmA and inhibit intracellular targets. We used phage transduction (Tn10insertion) to screen by random mutagenesis for alternative uptake mechanisms for analogs of apidaecin 1b, a honeybee-derived PrAMP. All 24 apidaecin-resistant mutants had the Tn10insertion in thesbmAgene. ThesesbmA::Tn10insertion mutants and theEscherichia coliBW25113 ΔsbmA(JW0368) strain were still susceptible to the bactenecin PrAMP Bac7(1-35) and oncocin PrAMPs Onc18 and Onc112, as well as to Chex1-Arg20, despite significantly reduced internalizations. In a second round of random mutagenesis, the remaining susceptibility was linked to theyjiL-mdtMgene cluster.E. coliBW25113 and its ΔyjiLnull mutant (JW5785) were equally susceptible to all PrAMPs tested, whereas the BW25113 ΔmdtMmutant was less susceptible to oncocins. The JW0368yjiL::Tn10transposon mutant (BS2) was resistant to all short PrAMPs and susceptible only to full-length Bac7 and A3-APO. Interestingly, PrAMPs appear to enter bacteria via MdtM, a multidrug resistance transporter (drug/H+antiporter) of the major facilitator superfamily (MFS) that can efflux antibiotics, biocides, and bile salts. In conclusion, PrAMPs enter bacteria via ABC and MFS transporters that efflux antibiotics and cytotoxic compounds from the cytoplasm to the periplasm.


2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 2051-2061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica J. Rubin ◽  
Carmen M. Herrera ◽  
Alexander A. Crofts ◽  
M. Stephen Trent

ABSTRACTInSalmonella enterica, PmrD is a connector protein that links the two-component systems PhoP-PhoQ and PmrA-PmrB. WhileEscherichia coliencodes a PmrD homolog, it is thought to be incapable of connecting PhoPQ and PmrAB in this organism due to functional divergence from theS. entericaprotein. However, our laboratory previously observed that low concentrations of Mg2+, a PhoPQ-activating signal, leads to the induction of PmrAB-dependent lipid A modifications in wild-typeE. coli(C. M. Herrera, J. V. Hankins, and M. S. Trent, Mol Microbiol 76:1444–1460, 2010,http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2958.2010.07150.x). These modifications include phosphoethanolamine (pEtN) and 4-amino-4-deoxy-l-arabinose (l-Ara4N), which promote bacterial resistance to cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) when affixed to lipid A. Here, we demonstrate thatpmrDis required for modification of the lipid A domain ofE. colilipopolysaccharide (LPS) under low-Mg2+growth conditions. Further, RNA sequencing shows thatE. colipmrDinfluences the expression ofpmrAand its downstream targets, including genes coding for the modification enzymes that transfer pEtN andl-Ara4N to the lipid A molecule. In line with these findings, apmrDmutant is dramatically impaired in survival compared with the wild-type strain when exposed to the CAMP polymyxin B. Notably, we also reveal the presence of an unknown factor or system capable of activatingpmrDto promote lipid A modification in the absence of the PhoPQ system. These results illuminate a more complex network of protein interactions surrounding activation of PhoPQ and PmrAB inE. colithan previously understood.


Microbiology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 156 (2) ◽  
pp. 570-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas M. Warner ◽  
Stuart B. Levy

Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs), a component of the mammalian immune system, protect the host from bacterial infections. The roles of the Escherichia coli transcriptional regulators MarA, SoxS and Rob in susceptibility to these peptides were examined. Overexpression of marA, either in an antibiotic-resistant marR mutant or from a plasmid, decreased bacterial susceptibility to CAMPs. Overexpression of the soxS gene from a plasmid, which decreased susceptibility to antibiotics, unexpectedly caused no decrease in CAMP susceptibility; instead it produced increased susceptibility to different CAMPs. Deletion or overexpression of rob had little effect on CAMP susceptibility. The marRAB operon was upregulated when E. coli was incubated in sublethal amounts of CAMPs polymyxin B, LL-37 or human β-defensin-1; however, this upregulation required Rob. Deletion of acrAB increased bacterial susceptibility to polymyxin B, LL-37 and human β-defensin-1 peptides. Deletion of tolC yielded an even greater increase in susceptibility to these peptides and also led to increased susceptibility to human α-defensin-2. Inhibition of cellular proton-motive force increased peptide susceptibility for wild-type and acrAB deletion strains; however, it decreased susceptibility of tolC mutants. These findings demonstrate that CAMPs are both inducers of marA-mediated drug resistance through interaction with Rob and also substrates for efflux in E. coli. The three related transcriptional regulators show different effects on bacterial cell susceptibility to CAMPs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 2222-2231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamiko Oguri ◽  
Won-Sik Yeo ◽  
Taeok Bae ◽  
Hyunwoo Lee

ABSTRACTCationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) are an essential part of the innate immune system. Some Gram-negative enteric pathogens, such asSalmonella enterica, show intrinsic resistance to CAMPs. However, the molecular basis of intrinsic resistance is poorly understood, largely due to a lack of information about the genes involved. In this study, using a microarray-based genomic technique, we screened the Keio collection of 3,985Escherichia colimutants for altered susceptibility to human neutrophil peptide 1 (HNP-1) and identifiedenvCandzapBas novel genetic determinants of intrinsic CAMP resistance. In CAMP killing assays, anE. coliΔenvCEcor ΔzapBEcmutant displayed a distinct profile of increased susceptibility to both LL-37 and HNP-1. Both mutants, however, displayed wild-type resistance to polymyxin B and human β-defensin 3 (HBD3), suggesting that the intrinsic resistance mediated by EnvC or ZapB is specific to certain CAMPs. A correspondingSalmonellaΔenvCSemutant showed similarly increased CAMP susceptibility. TheenvCmutants of bothE. coliandS. entericadisplayed increased surface negativity and hydrophobicity, which partly explained the increased CAMP susceptibility. However, the ΔenvCEcmutant, but not the ΔenvCSemutant, was defective in outer membrane permeability, excluding this defect as a common factor contributing to the increased CAMP susceptibility. Animal experiments showed that theSalmonellaΔenvCSemutant had attenuated virulence. Taken together, our results indicate that the role ofenvCin intrinsic CAMP resistance is likely conserved among Gram-negative enteric bacteria, demonstrate the importance of intrinsic CAMP resistance for full virulence ofS. enterica, and provide insight into distinct mechanisms of action of CAMPs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document