scholarly journals Analysis of Cytadherence-Deficient, GapA-NegativeMycoplasma gallisepticum Strain R

2000 ◽  
Vol 68 (12) ◽  
pp. 6643-6649 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Papazisi ◽  
K. E. Troy ◽  
T. S. Gorton ◽  
X. Liao ◽  
S. J. Geary

ABSTRACT Comparison of the phenotypic expression of Mycoplasma gallisepticum strain R low (passage 15) to that of strain R high (passage 164) revealed that three proteins, i.e., the cytadhesin molecule GapA, a 116-kDa protein (p116), and a 45-kDa protein (p45), are missing in strain R high. Sequence analysis confirmed that the insertion of an adenine 105 bp downstream of the gapAtranslational start codon resulted in premature termination of translation in R high. A second adenine insertion had also occurred at position 907. Restoration of expression of wild-type gapAin R high (clone designated GT5) allowed us to evaluate the extent to which the diminished cytadherence capacity could be attributed to GapA alone. The results indicated that GT5 attached to the same limited extent as the parental R high, from which it was derived. The cytadherence capability of the parental R high was not restored solely by gapA complementation alone, indicating that either p116 or p45 or both may play a role in the overall cytadherence process. The gene encoding p116 was found to be immediately downstream ofgapA in the same operon and was designatedcrmA. This gene exhibited striking homology to genes encoding molecules with cytadhesin-related functions in bothMycoplasma pneumoniae and Mycoplasma genitalium. Transcriptional analysis revealed thatcrmA is not transcribed in R high. We are currently constructing a shuttle vector containing both the wild-typegapA and crmA for transformation into R high to assess the role of CrmA in the cytadherence process.

2005 ◽  
Vol 187 (17) ◽  
pp. 6005-6018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark E. Schreiner ◽  
Diana Fiur ◽  
Jiří Holátko ◽  
Miroslav Pátek ◽  
Bernhard J. Eikmanns

ABSTRACT The E1p enzyme is an essential part of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) and catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate with concomitant acetylation of the E2p enzyme within the complex. We analyzed the Corynebacterium glutamicum aceE gene, encoding the E1p enzyme, and constructed and characterized an E1p-deficient mutant. Sequence analysis of the C. glutamicum aceE gene and adjacent regions revealed that aceE is not flanked by genes encoding other enzymes of the PDHC. Transcriptional analysis revealed that aceE from C. glutamicum is monocistronic and that its transcription is initiated 121 nucleotides upstream of the translational start site. Inactivation of the chromosomal aceE gene led to the inability to grow on glucose and to the absence of PDHC and E1p activities, indicating that only a single E1p enzyme is present in C. glutamicum and that the PDHC is essential for the growth of this organism on carbohydrate substrates. Surprisingly, the E1p enzyme of C. glutamicum showed up to 51% identity to homodimeric E1p proteins from gram-negative bacteria but no similarity to E1 α- or β-subunits of heterotetrameric E1p enzymes which are generally assumed to be typical for gram-positives. To investigate the distribution of E1p enzymes in bacteria, we compiled and analyzed the phylogeny of 46 homodimeric E1p proteins and of 58 α-subunits of heterotetrameric E1p proteins deposited in public databases. The results revealed that the distribution of homodimeric and heterotetrameric E1p subunits in bacteria is not in accordance with the rRNA-based phylogeny of bacteria and is more heterogeneous than previously assumed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Francisco Cruz-Pérez ◽  
Roxana Lara-Oueilhe ◽  
Cynthia Marcos-Jiménez ◽  
Ricardo Cuatlayotl-Olarte ◽  
María Luisa Xiqui-Vázquez ◽  
...  

AbstractThe plant growth-promoting bacterium Azospirillum brasilense contains several genes encoding proteins involved in the biosynthesis and degradation of the second messenger cyclic-di-GMP, which may control key bacterial functions, such as biofilm formation and motility. Here, we analysed the function and expression of the cdgD gene, encoding a multidomain protein that includes GGDEF-EAL domains and CHASE and PAS domains. An insertional cdgD gene mutant was constructed, and analysis of biofilm and extracellular polymeric substance production, as well as the motility phenotype indicated that cdgD encoded a functional diguanylate protein. These results were correlated with a reduced overall cellular concentration of cyclic-di-GMP in the mutant over 48 h compared with that observed in the wild-type strain, which was recovered in the complemented strain. In addition, cdgD gene expression was measured in cells growing under planktonic or biofilm conditions, and differential expression was observed when KNO3 or NH4Cl was added to the minimal medium as a nitrogen source. The transcriptional fusion of the cdgD promoter with the gene encoding the autofluorescent mCherry protein indicated that the cdgD gene was expressed both under abiotic conditions and in association with wheat roots. Reduced colonization of wheat roots was observed for the mutant compared with the wild-type strain grown in the same soil conditions. The Azospirillum-plant association begins with the motility of the bacterium towards the plant rhizosphere followed by the adsorption and adherence of these bacteria to plant roots. Therefore, it is important to study the genes that contribute to this initial interaction of the bacterium with its host plant.


2007 ◽  
Vol 73 (17) ◽  
pp. 5411-5420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Sin Jang ◽  
Young Ryul Jung ◽  
Sang Yup Lee ◽  
Ji Mahn Kim ◽  
Jeong Wook Lee ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Shuttle vectors carrying the origins of replication that function in Escherichia coli and two capnophilic rumen bacteria, Mannheimia succiniciproducens and Actinobacillus succinogenes, were constructed. These vectors were found to be present at ca. 10 copies per cell. They were found to be stably maintained in rumen bacteria during the serial subcultures in the absence of antibiotic pressure for 216 generations. By optimizing the electroporation condition, the transformation efficiencies of 3.0 × 106 and 7.1 × 106 transformants/μg DNA were obtained with M. succiniciproducens and A. succinogenes, respectively. A 1.7-kb minimal replicon was identified that consists of the rep gene, four iterons, A+T-rich regions, and a dnaA box. It was found that the shuttle vector replicates via the theta mode, which was confirmed by sequence analysis and Southern hybridization. These shuttle vectors were found to be suitable as expression vectors as the homologous fumC gene encoding fumarase and the heterologous genes encoding green fluorescence protein and red fluorescence protein could be expressed successfully. Thus, the shuttle vectors developed in this study should be useful for genetic and metabolic engineering of succinic acid-producing rumen bacteria.


2002 ◽  
Vol 184 (3) ◽  
pp. 821-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Fontaine ◽  
Isabelle Meynial-Salles ◽  
Laurence Girbal ◽  
Xinghong Yang ◽  
Christian Croux ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The adhE2 gene of Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824, coding for an aldehyde/alcohol dehydrogenase (AADH), was characterized from molecular and biochemical points of view. The 2,577-bp adhE2 codes for a 94.4-kDa protein. adhE2 is expressed, as a monocistronic operon, in alcohologenic cultures and not in solventogenic cultures. Primer extension analysis identified two transcriptional start sites 160 and 215 bp upstream of the adhE2 start codon. The expression of adhE2 from a plasmid in the DG1 mutant of C. acetobutylicum, a mutant cured of the pSOL1 megaplasmid, restored butanol production and provided elevated activities of NADH-dependent butyraldehyde and butanol dehydrogenases. The recombinant AdhE2 protein expressed in E. coli as a Strep-tag fusion protein and purified to homogeneity also demonstrated NADH-dependent butyraldehyde and butanol dehydrogenase activities. This is the second AADH identified in C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824, and to our knowledge this is the first example of a bacterium with two AADHs. It is noteworthy that the two corresponding genes, adhE and adhE2, are carried by the pSOL1 megaplasmid of C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824.


2011 ◽  
Vol 79 (8) ◽  
pp. 3407-3420 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. V. Subba Raju ◽  
Maria D. Esteve-Gassent ◽  
S. L. Rajasekhar Karna ◽  
Christine L. Miller ◽  
Tricia A. Van Laar ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBorrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease, undergoes rapid adaptive gene expression in response to signals unique to its arthropod vector or vertebrate hosts. Among the upregulated genes under vertebrate host conditions is one of the five annotated homologs of oligopeptide permease A (OppA5, BBA34). A mutant lackingoppA5was constructed in an lp25-deficient isolate ofB. burgdorferistrain B31, and the minimal regions of infectivity were restored via a shuttle vector pBBE22 with or without an intact copy ofbba34. Immunoblot analysis of thebba34mutant revealed a reduction in the levels of RpoS, BosR, and CsrABbwith a concomitant reduction in the levels of OspC, DbpA, BBK32, and BBA64. There were no changes in the levels of OspA, NapA, P66, and three other OppA orthologs. Quantitative transcriptional analysis correlated with the changes in the protein levels. However, thebba34mutant displayed comparable infectivities in the C3H/HeN mice and the wild-type strain, despite the reduction in several pathogenesis-related proteins. Supplementation of the growth medium with increased levels of select components, notably sodium acetate and sodium bicarbonate, restored the levels of several proteins in thebba34mutant to wild-type levels. We speculate that the transport of acetate appears to contribute to the accumulation of key metabolites, like acetyl phosphate, that facilitate the adaptation ofB. burgdorferito the vertebrate host by the activation of the Rrp2-RpoN-RpoS pathway. These studies underscore the importance of solute transport to host-specific adaptation ofB. burgdorferi.


2004 ◽  
Vol 186 (23) ◽  
pp. 7874-7880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather R. Panek ◽  
Mark R. O'Brian

ABSTRACT Bacteria are exposed to reactive oxygen species from the environment and from those generated by aerobic metabolism. Catalases are heme proteins that detoxify H2O2, and many bacteria contain more than one catalase enzyme. Also, the nonheme peroxidase alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (Ahp) is the major scavenger of endogenous H2O2 in Escherichia coli. Here, we show that aerobically grown Bradyrhizobium japonicum cells express a single catalase activity. Four genes encoding putative catalases in the B. japonicum genome were identified, including a katG homolog encoding a catalase-peroxidase. Deletion of the katG gene resulted in loss of catalase activity in cell extracts and of exogenous H2O2 consumption by whole cells. The katG strain had a severe aerobic growth phenotype but showed improved growth in the absence of O2. By contrast, a B. japonicum ahpCD mutant grew well aerobically and consumed H2O2 at wild-type rates. A heme-deficient hemA mutant expressed about one-third of the KatG activity as the wild type but grew well aerobically and scavenged low concentrations of exogenous H2O2. However, cells of the hemA strain were deficient in consumption of high concentrations of H2O2 and were very sensitive to killing by short exposure to H2O2. In addition, KatG activity did not decrease as a result of mutation of the gene encoding the transcriptional activator OxyR. We conclude that aerobic metabolism produces toxic levels of H2O2 in B. japonicum, which is detoxified primarily by KatG. Furthermore, the katG level sufficient for detoxification does not require OxyR.


2006 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 3678-3681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary B. Jacobs ◽  
Steven J. Norris ◽  
Kathrine M. Phillippi-Falkenstein ◽  
Mario T. Philipp

ABSTRACT Infectious Borrelia burgdorferi strains that have increased transformability with the shuttle vector pBSV2 were recently constructed by inactivating the gene encoding BBE02, a putative restriction-modification gene product expressed by the linear plasmid lp25 (Kawabata et al., Infect. Immun. 72:7147-7154, 2004). The absence of the linear plasmid lp56, which carries another putative restriction-modification gene, further enhanced transformation rates. The infectivity of these mutants was assessed previously in mice that were inoculated with needle and syringe and was found to be equivalent to that of wild-type spirochetes. Here we examined the infectivity of spirochetes to ticks after capillary inoculation of Ixodes scapularis nymphs and the subsequent spirochetal infectivity to mice via ticks by using B. burgdorferi B31 clonal isolates lacking lp56 and/or BBE02. The absence of lp56 (but not BBE02) correlated with a lower number of spirochetes in ticks after feeding on mice; this plasmid thus may play a role, albeit not an essential one, in supporting spirochetal survival in the feeding tick. Importantly, however, the absence of lp56 and BBE02 did not detectably influence infectivity to mice via ticks.


1988 ◽  
Vol 255 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
S C Andrews ◽  
J R Guest

(1) The nucleotide sequence of a 1991 bp segment of DNA that expresses the GMP reductase (guaC) gene of Escherichia coli K12 was determined. (2) This gene comprises 1038 bp, 346 codons (including the initiation codon but excluding the termination codon), and it encodes a polypeptide of Mr 37,437 which is in good agreement with previous maxicell studies. (3) The sequence contains a putative promoter 102 bp upstream of the translational start codon, and this is immediately followed by a (G + C)-rich discriminator sequence suggesting that guaC expression may be under stringent control (4) The GMP reductase exhibits a high degree of sequence identity (34%) with IMP dehydrogenase (the guaB gene product) indicative of a close evolutionary relationship between the salvage pathway and the biosynthetic enzymes, GMP reductase and IMP dehydrogenase, respectively. (5) A single conserved cysteine residue, possibly involved in IMP binding to IMP dehydrogenase, was located within a region that possesses some of the features of a nucleotide binding site. (6) The IMP dehydrogenase polypeptide contains an internal segment of 123 amino acid residues that has no counterpart in GMP reductase and may represent an independent folding domain flanked by (alanine + glycine)-rich interdomain linkers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 1917-1923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenyu Gu ◽  
Muhammad Farhan Ul Haque ◽  
Bipin S. Baral ◽  
Erick A. Turpin ◽  
Nathan L. Bandow ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTMethanobactin, a small modified polypeptide synthesized by methanotrophs for copper uptake, has been found to be chromosomally encoded. The gene encoding the polypeptide precursor of methanobactin,mbnA, is part of a gene cluster that also includes several genes encoding proteins of unknown function (but speculated to be involved in methanobactin formation) as well asmbnT, which encodes a TonB-dependent transporter hypothesized to be responsible for methanobactin uptake. To determine ifmbnTis truly responsible for methanobactin uptake, a knockout was constructed inMethylosinus trichosporiumOB3b using marker exchange mutagenesis. The resultingM. trichosporiummbnT::Gmrmutant was found to be able to produce methanobactin but was unable to internalize it. Further, if this mutant was grown in the presence of copper and exogenous methanobactin, copper uptake was significantly reduced. Expression ofmmoXandpmoA, encoding polypeptides of the soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) and particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO), respectively, also changed significantly when methanobactin was added, which indicates that the mutant was unable to collect copper under these conditions. Copper uptake and gene expression, however, were not affected in wild-typeM. trichosporiumOB3b, indicating that the TonB-dependent transporter encoded bymbnTis responsible for methanobactin uptake and that methanobactin is a key mechanism used by methanotrophs for copper uptake. When thembnT::Gmrmutant was grown under a range of copper concentrations in the absence of methanobactin, however, the phenotype of the mutant was indistinguishable from that of wild-typeM. trichosporiumOB3b, indicating that this methanotroph has multiple mechanisms for copper uptake.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Zeng ◽  
Alejandro R Walker ◽  
Kyulim Lee ◽  
Zachary A Taylor ◽  
Robert A Burne

Genetic truncations in a gene encoding a putative glucose-PTS protein (manL, EIIABMan) were identified in subpopulations of two separate laboratory stocks of Streptococcus sanguinis SK36; the mutants had reduced PTS activities on glucose and other monosaccharides. Using an engineered mutant of manL and its complemented derivative, we showed that the ManL-deficient strain had improved bacterial viability in stationary phase and was better able to inhibit the growth of the dental caries pathogen Streptococcus mutans. Transcriptional analysis and biochemical assays suggested that the manL mutant underwent reprograming of central carbon metabolism that directed pyruvate away from production of lactate, increasing production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and excretion of pyruvate. Addition of pyruvate to the medium enhanced the survival of SK36 in overnight cultures. Meanwhile, elevated pyruvate levels were detected in the cultures of a small, but significant percentage (~10%), of clinical isolates of oral commensal bacteria. Furthermore, the manL mutant showed higher expression of the arginine deiminase system than the wild type, which enhanced the ability of the mutant to raise environmental pH when arginine was present. Significant discrepancies in genome sequence were identified between strain SK36 obtained from ATCC and the sequence deposited in GenBank. As the conditions that are likely associated with the emergence of spontaneous manL mutations, i.e. excess carbohydrates and low pH, are those associated with caries development, we propose that the glucose-PTS strongly influences commensal-pathogen interactions by altering the production of ammonia, pyruvate, and H2O2.


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