scholarly journals Identification of Escherichia coli Genes That Are Specifically Expressed in a Murine Model of Septicemic Infection

2002 ◽  
Vol 70 (7) ◽  
pp. 3404-3412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad A. Khan ◽  
Richard E. Isaacson

ABSTRACT Identification and characterization of bacterial genes that are induced during the disease process are important in understanding the molecular mechanism of disease and can be useful in designing antimicrobial drugs to control the disease. The identification of in vivo induced (ivi) genes of an Escherichia coli septicemia strain by using antibiotic-based in vivo expression technology is described. Bacterial clones resistant to chloramphenicol in vivo were recovered from the livers of infected mice. Most of the ivi clones were sensitive to chloramphenicol when grown in vitro. Using reverse transcription-PCR, it was demonstrated that selected ivi clones expressed cat in the livers of infected mice but not during in vitro growth. A total of 750 colonies were recovered after three successive rounds of in vivo selection, and 168 isolated ivi clones were sequenced. The sequence analysis revealed that 37 clones encoded hypothetical proteins found in E. coli K-12, whereas 10 clones contained genes that had no significant homology to DNA sequences in GenBank. Two clones were found to contain transposon-related functions. Other clones contained genes required for amino acid metabolism, anaerobic respiration, DNA repair, the heat shock response, and the cellular repressor of the SOS response. In addition, one clone contained the aerobactin biosynthesis gene iucA. Mutations were introduced in to seven of the identified ivi genes. An in vivo mouse challenge-competition assay was used to determine if the mutants were attenuated. The results suggested that these ivi genes were important for survival in vivo, and three of the seven mutant ivi clones were required for successful infection of mice.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomohiro Shimada ◽  
Yui Yokoyama ◽  
Takumi Anzai ◽  
Kaneyoshi Yamamoto ◽  
Akira Ishihama

AbstractOutside a warm-blooded animal host, the enterobacterium Escherichia coli K-12 is also able to grow and survive in stressful nature. The major organic substance in nature is plant, but the genetic system of E. coli how to utilize plant-derived materials as nutrients is poorly understood. Here we describe the set of regulatory targets for uncharacterized IclR-family transcription factor YiaJ on the E. coli genome, using gSELEX screening system. Among a total of 18 high-affinity binding targets of YiaJ, the major regulatory target was identified to be the yiaLMNOPQRS operon for utilization of ascorbate from fruits and galacturonate from plant pectin. The targets of YiaJ also include the genes involved in the utilization for other plant-derived materials as nutrients such as fructose, sorbitol, glycerol and fructoselysine. Detailed in vitro and in vivo analyses suggest that L-ascorbate and α-D-galacturonate are the effector ligands for regulation of YiaJ function. These findings altogether indicate that YiaJ plays a major regulatory role in expression of a set of the genes for the utilization of plant-derived materials as nutrients for survival. PlaR was also suggested to play protecting roles of E. coli under stressful environments in nature, including the formation of biofilm. We then propose renaming YiaJ to PlaR (regulator of plant utilization).


2020 ◽  
Vol 202 (23) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasiia N. Klimova ◽  
Steven J. Sandler

ABSTRACT Escherichia coli PriA and PriC recognize abandoned replication forks and direct reloading of the DnaB replicative helicase onto the lagging-strand template coated with single-stranded DNA-binding protein (SSB). Both PriA and PriC have been shown by biochemical and structural studies to physically interact with the C terminus of SSB. In vitro, these interactions trigger remodeling of the SSB on ssDNA. priA341(R697A) and priC351(R155A) negated the SSB remodeling reaction in vitro. Plasmid-carried priC351(R155A) did not complement priC303::kan, and priA341(R697A) has not yet been tested for complementation. Here, we further studied the SSB-binding pockets of PriA and PriC by placing priA341(R697A), priA344(R697E), priA345(Q701E), and priC351(R155A) on the chromosome and characterizing the mutant strains. All three priA mutants behaved like the wild type. In a ΔpriB strain, the mutations caused modest increases in SOS expression, cell size, and defects in nucleoid partitioning (Par−). Overproduction of SSB partially suppressed these phenotypes for priA341(R697A) and priA344(R697E). The priC351(R155A) mutant behaved as expected: there was no phenotype in a single mutant, and there were severe growth defects when this mutation was combined with ΔpriB. Analysis of the priBC mutant revealed two populations of cells: those with wild-type phenotypes and those that were extremely filamentous and Par− and had high SOS expression. We conclude that in vivo, priC351(R155A) identified an essential residue and function for PriC, that PriA R697 and Q701 are important only in the absence of PriB, and that this region of the protein may have a complicated relationship with SSB. IMPORTANCE Escherichia coli PriA and PriC recruit the replication machinery to a collapsed replication fork after it is repaired and needs to be restarted. In vitro studies suggest that the C terminus of SSB interacts with certain residues in PriA and PriC to recruit those proteins to the repaired fork, where they help remodel it for restart. Here, we placed those mutations on the chromosome and tested the effect of mutating these residues in vivo. The priC mutation completely abolished function. The priA mutations had no effect by themselves. They did, however, display modest phenotypes in a priB-null strain. These phenotypes were partially suppressed by SSB overproduction. These studies give us further insight into the reactions needed for replication restart.


2010 ◽  
Vol 76 (14) ◽  
pp. 4655-4663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean M. Lee ◽  
Aaron Wyse ◽  
Aaron Lesher ◽  
Mary Lou Everett ◽  
Linda Lou ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Although mice associated with a single bacterial species have been used to provide a simple model for analysis of host-bacteria relationships, bacteria have been shown to display adaptability when grown in a variety of novel environments. In this study, changes associated with the host-bacterium relationship in mice monoassociated with Escherichia coli K-12 over a period of 1,031 days were evaluated. After 80 days, phenotypic diversification of E. coli was observed, with the colonizing bacteria having a broader distribution of growth rates in the laboratory than the parent E. coli. After 1,031 days, which included three generations of mice and an estimated 20,000 generations of E. coli, the initially homogeneous bacteria colonizing the mice had evolved to have widely different growth rates on agar, a potential decrease in tendency for spontaneous lysis in vivo, and an increased tendency for spontaneous lysis in vitro. Importantly, mice at the end of the experiment were colonized at an average density of bacteria that was more than 3-fold greater than mice colonized on day 80. Evaluation of selected isolates on day 1,031 revealed unique restriction endonuclease patterns and differences between isolates in expression of more than 10% of the proteins identified by two-dimensional electrophoresis, suggesting complex changes underlying the evolution of diversity during the experiment. These results suggest that monoassociated mice might be used as a tool for characterizing niches occupied by the intestinal flora and potentially as a method of targeting the evolution of bacteria for applications in biotechnology.


Microbiology ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 151 (6) ◽  
pp. 1779-1788 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham P. Stafford ◽  
Tomoo Ogi ◽  
Colin Hughes

The gene hierarchy directing biogenesis of peritrichous flagella on the surface of Escherichia coli and other enterobacteria is controlled by the heterotetrameric master transcriptional regulator FlhD2C2. To assess the extent to which FlhD2C2 directly activates promoters of a wider regulon, a computational screen of the E. coli genome was used to search for gene-proximal DNA sequences similar to the 42–44 bp inverted repeat FlhD2C2 binding consensus. This identified the binding sequences upstream of all eight flagella class II operons, and also putative novel FlhD2C2 binding sites in the promoter regions of 39 non-flagellar genes. Nine representative non-flagellar promoter regions were all bound in vitro by active reconstituted FlhD2C2 over the K D range 38–356 nM, and of the nine corresponding chromosomal promoter–lacZ fusions, those of the four genes b1904, b2446, wzz fepE and gltI showed up to 50-fold dependence on FlhD2C2 in vivo. In comparison, four representative flagella class II promoters bound FlhD2C2 in the K D range 12–43 nM and were upregulated in vivo 30- to 990-fold. The FlhD2C2-binding sites of the four regulated non-flagellar genes overlap by 1 or 2 bp the predicted −35 motif of the FlhD2C2-activated σ 70 promoters, as is the case with FlhD2C2-dependent class II flagellar promoters. The data indicate a wider FlhD2C2 regulon, in which non-flagellar genes are bound and activated directly, albeit less strongly, by the same mechanism as that regulating the flagella gene hierarchy.


2000 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 777-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Charbit ◽  
Christian Andersen ◽  
Jiang Wang ◽  
Bettina Schiffler ◽  
Valerie Michel ◽  
...  

1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (17) ◽  
pp. 4746-4749 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ayub Khan ◽  
Richard E. Isaacson

ABSTRACT An Escherichia coli DNA fragment was identified that contained part of the β-glucoside (bgl) operon. This fragment was identified because it contained a promoter that was responsible for the expression of a reporter gene, the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene, in a mouse liver during bacterial infection but not when a bacterial clone was grown in vitro. This fragment contained a promoter and a rho-independent transcription terminator which were flanked by the 3′ end of bglG and the 5′ end ofbglF. Reverse transcription-PCR confirmed thatcat-specific mRNA was produced in infected mouse liver but not in vitro. mRNA encoding the positive regulator of thebgl operon, bglG, also was detected in mouse liver infected with an E. coli strain. These results demonstrated that expression of the bgl operon occurs in infected mouse liver and suggests a unique role for this operon in vivo.


1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (16) ◽  
pp. 4192-4198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Darwin ◽  
Eva C. Ziegelhoffer ◽  
Patricia J. Kiley ◽  
Valley Stewart

ABSTRACT The expression of several Escherichia coli operons is activated by the Fnr protein during anaerobic growth and is further controlled in response to nitrate and nitrite by the homologous response regulators, NarL and NarP. Among these operons, thenapF operon, encoding a periplasmic nitrate reductase, has unique features with respect to its Fnr-, NarL-, and NarP-dependent regulation. First, the Fnr-binding site is unusually located compared to the control regions of most other Fnr-activated operons, suggesting different Fnr-RNA polymerase contacts during transcriptional activation. Second, nitrate and nitrite activation is solely dependent on NarP but is antagonized by the NarL protein. In this study, we used DNase I footprint analysis to confirm our previous assignment of the unusual location of the Fnr-binding site in the napFcontrol region. In addition, the in vivo effects of Fnr-positive control mutations on napF operon expression indicate that the napF promoter is atypical with respect to Fnr-mediated activation. The transcriptional regulation of napF was successfully reproduced in vitro by using a supercoiled plasmid template and purified Fnr, NarL, and NarP proteins. These in vitro transcription experiments demonstrate that, in the presence of Fnr, the NarP protein causes efficient transcription activation whereas the NarL protein does not. This suggests that Fnr and NarP may act synergistically to activate napF operon expression. As observed in vivo, this activation by Fnr and NarP is antagonized by the addition of NarL in vitro.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomohiro Shimada ◽  
Hiroshi Ogasawara ◽  
Ikki Kobayashi ◽  
Naoki Kobayashi ◽  
Akira Ishihama

The identification of regulatory targets of all transcription factors (TFs) is critical for understanding the entire network of genome regulation. A total of approximately 300 TFs exist in the model prokaryote Escherichia coli K-12, but the identification of whole sets of their direct targets is impossible with use of in vivo approaches. For this end, the most direct and quick approach is to identify the TF-binding sites in vitro on the genome. We then developed and utilized the gSELEX screening system in vitro for identification of more than 150 E. coli TF-binding sites along the E. coli genome. Based on the number of predicted regulatory targets, we classified E. coli K-12 TFs into four groups, altogether forming a hierarchy ranging from a single-target TF (ST-TF) to local TFs, global TFs, and nucleoid-associated TFs controlling as many as 1,000 targets. Using the collection of purified TFs and a library of genome DNA segments from a single and the same E. coli K-12, we identified here a total of 11 novel ST-TFs, CsqR, CusR, HprR, NorR, PepA, PutA, QseA, RspR, UvrY, ZraR, and YqhC. The regulation of single-target promoters was analyzed in details for the hitherto uncharacterized QseA and RspR. In most cases, the ST-TF gene and its regulatory target genes are adjacently located on the E. coli K-12 genome, implying their simultaneous transfer in the course of genome evolution. The newly identified 11 ST-TFs and the total of 13 hitherto identified altogether constitute the minority group of TFs in E. coli K-12.


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