scholarly journals Cloning Vectors and Fluorescent Proteins Can Significantly Inhibit Salmonella enterica Virulence in Both Epithelial Cells and Macrophages: Implications for Bacterial Pathogenesis Studies

2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (10) ◽  
pp. 7027-7031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh A. Knodler ◽  
Aaron Bestor ◽  
Caixia Ma ◽  
Imke Hansen-Wester ◽  
Michael Hensel ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Plasmid vectors and fluorescent protein reporter systems are commonly used in the study of bacterial pathogenesis. Here we show that they can impair the ability of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium to productively infect either cultured mammalian cells or mice. This has significant implications for studies that rely on these systems.

2012 ◽  
Vol 80 (7) ◽  
pp. 2454-2463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Forbes ◽  
Daniel Martinelli ◽  
Chyongere Hsieh ◽  
Jeffrey G. Ault ◽  
Michael Marko ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTInvasion of intestinal epithelial cells bySalmonella entericaserovar Typhimurium is an energetically demanding process, involving the transfer of effector proteins from invading bacteria into host cells via a specialized organelle known as theSalmonellapathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1) type 3 secretion system (T3SS). By a mechanism that remains poorly understood, entry ofS. Typhimurium into epithelial cells is inhibited by Sal4, a monoclonal, polymeric IgA antibody that binds an immunodominant epitope within the O-antigen (O-Ag) component of lipopolysaccharide. In this study, we investigated how the binding of Sal4 to the surface ofS. Typhimurium influences T3SS activity, bacterial energetics, and outer membrane integrity. We found that Sal4 treatment impaired T3SS-mediated translocon formation and attenuated the delivery of tagged effector proteins into epithelial cells. Sal4 treatment coincided with a partial reduction in membrane energetics and intracellular ATP levels, possibly explaining the impairment in T3SS activity. Sal4's effects on bacterial secretion and energetics occurred concurrently with an increase in O-Ag levels in culture supernatants, alterations in outer membrane permeability, and changes in surface ultrastructure, as revealed by transmission electron microscopy and cryo-electron microscopy. We propose that Sal4, by virtue of its ability to bind and cross-link the O-Ag, induces a form of outer membrane stress that compromises the integrity of theS. Typhimurium cell envelope and temporarily renders the bacterium avirulent.


2009 ◽  
Vol 192 (2) ◽  
pp. 456-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Grantcharova ◽  
Verena Peters ◽  
Claudia Monteiro ◽  
Katherina Zakikhany ◽  
Ute Römling

ABSTRACT Bacterial persistence in the environment and in the infected host is often aided by the formation of exopolymer-enclosed communities known as biofilms. Heterogeneous gene expression takes place in microcompartments formed within the complex biofilm structure. This study describes cell differentiation within an isogenic bacterial cell population based on the example of biofilm formation by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. We analyzed the expression of the major biofilm regulator CsgD at the single-cell level with a chromosomal CsgD-green fluorescent protein (GFP) translational fusion. In individual cells, CsgD-GFP expression is mostly found in the cytoplasm. Quantitative expression analysis and results from three different models of S. Typhimurium biofilms demonstrated that CsgD is expressed in a bistable manner during biofilm development. CsgD expression is, however, monomodal when CsgD is expressed in larger amounts due to a promoter mutation or elevated levels of the secondary signaling molecule c-di-GMP. High levels of CsgD-GFP are associated with cellular aggregation in all three biofilm models. Furthermore, the subpopulation of cells expressing large amounts of CsgD is engaged in cellulose production during red, dry, and rough (rdar) morphotype development and in microcolony formation under conditions of continuous flow. Consequently, bistability at the level of CsgD expression leads to a corresponding pattern of task distribution in S. Typhimurium biofilms.


2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (11) ◽  
pp. 6037-6040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vito Ricci ◽  
Stephen J. W. Busby ◽  
Laura J. V. Piddock

ABSTRACTRamA is a transcription factor involved in regulating multidrug resistance inSalmonella entericaserovar Typhimurium SL1344. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter fusions were exploited to investigate the regulation of RamA expression by RamR. We show that RamR represses theramApromoter by binding to a palindromic sequence and describe a superrepressor RamR mutant that binds to theramApromoter sequence more efficiently, thus exhibiting aramAinactivated phenotype.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung-Hun Kim ◽  
Kwang-Hwan Choi ◽  
Mingyun Lee ◽  
Dong-Kyung Lee ◽  
Chang-Kyu Lee

Abstract l Background: The present study examined the activity and function of pig OCT4 enhancer in porcine reprogramming cells. Dual fluorescent protein reporter systems controlled by the upstream regulatory region of OCT4, which is one of the master regulators for pluripotency, are widely used in studies of the mechanism of pluripotency. We analyzed how this reporter system functions in FGF- or LIF-dependent reprogrammed porcine pluripotent stem cells using the previously established porcine-specific reporter system. l Results: Porcine embryonic fibroblasts were coinfected with the pOCT4-∆PE-eGFP (DE-GFP) and pOCT4-∆DE-DsRed2 (PE-RFP) vectors, and GFP and RFP expression was verified during a DOX-dependent reprogramming process. We demonstrated that the porcine OCT4 distal enhancer and proximal enhancer were activated in different expression patterns simultaneously as the changes in the expression of pluripotent marker genes during the establishment of porcine-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). l Conclusions: Porcine OCT4 upstream region-derived dual fluorescent protein reporter systems serve as live naïve/primed pluripotency indicators for porcine induced pluripotent cell establishment. This work demonstrates the applicability of the porcine OCT4 upstream region-derived dual fluorescence reporter system, which may be applied to investigations of species-specific pluripotency in porcine-origin cells. These reporter systems may be useful tools for studies of porcine-specific pluripotency, early embryo development and embryonic stem cells.


2009 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 914-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiano G. Moreira ◽  
David Weinshenker ◽  
Vanessa Sperandio

ABSTRACT The autoinducer-3 (AI-3)/epinephrine (Epi)/norepinephrine (NE) interkingdom signaling system mediates chemical communication between bacteria and their mammalian hosts. The three signals are sensed by the QseC histidine kinase (HK) sensor. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a pathogen that uses HKs to sense its environment and regulate virulence. Salmonella serovar Typhimurium invades epithelial cells and survives within macrophages. Invasion of epithelial cells is mediated by the type III secretion system (T3SS) encoded in Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1), while macrophage survival and systemic disease are mediated by the T3SS encoded in SPI-2. Here we show that QseC plays an important role in Salmonella serovar Typhimurium pathogenicity. A qseC mutant was impaired in flagellar motility, in invasion of epithelial cells, and in survival within macrophages and was attenuated for systemic infection in 129x1/SvJ mice. QseC acts globally, regulating expression of genes within SPI-1 and SPI-2 in vitro and in vivo (during infection of mice). Additionally, dopamine β-hydroxylase knockout (Dbh − / −) mice that do not produce Epi or NE showed different susceptibility to Salmonella serovar Typhimurium infection than wild-type mice. These data suggest that the AI-3/Epi/NE signaling system is a key factor during Salmonella serovar Typhimurium pathogenesis in vitro and in vivo. Elucidation of the role of this interkingdom signaling system in Salmonella serovar Typhimurium should contribute to a better understanding of the complex interplay between the pathogen and the host during infection.


2012 ◽  
Vol 80 (12) ◽  
pp. 4344-4353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiano G. Moreira ◽  
Vanessa Sperandio

ABSTRACTThe bacterial adrenergic sensor kinases QseC and QseE respond to epinephrine and/or norepinephrine to initiate a complex phosphorelay regulatory cascade that modulates virulence gene expression in several pathogens. We have previously shown that QseC activates virulence gene expression inSalmonella entericaserovar Typhimurium. Here we report the role of QseE inS. Typhimurium pathogenesis as well as the interplay between these two histidine sensor kinases in gene regulation. AnS. TyphimuriumqseEmutant is hampered in the invasion of epithelial cells and intramacrophage replication. The ΔqseCstrain is highly attenuated for intramacrophage survival but has only a minor defect in invasion. However, the ΔqseECstrain has only a slight attenuation in invasion, mirroring the ΔqseCstrain, and has an intermediary intramacrophage replication defect in comparison to the ΔqseEand ΔqseCstrains. The expressions of thesipAandsopBgenes, involved in the invasion of epithelial cells, are activated by epinephrine via QseE. The expression levels of these genes are still decreased in the ΔqseECdouble mutant, albeit to a lesser extent, congruent with the invasion phenotype of this mutant. The expression level of thesifAgene, important for intramacrophage replication, is decreased in theqseEmutant and the ΔqseECdouble mutant grownin vitro. However, as previously reported by us, the epinephrine-dependent activation of this gene occurs via QseC. In the systemic model ofS. Typhimurium infection of BALB/c mice, theqseCandqseEmutants are highly attenuated, while the double mutant has an intermediary phenotype. Altogether, these data suggest that both adrenergic sensors play an important role in modulating several aspects ofS. Typhimurium pathogenesis.


2001 ◽  
Vol 69 (5) ◽  
pp. 3021-3030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack S. Ikeda ◽  
Clare K. Schmitt ◽  
Stephen C. Darnell ◽  
Patricia R. Watson ◽  
Jennifer Bispham ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Although Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium can undergo phase variation to alternately express two different types of flagellin subunit proteins, FljB or FliC, no biological function for this phenomenon has been described. In this investigation, we constructed phase-locked derivatives of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium that expressed only FljB (termed locked-ON) or FliC (termed locked-OFF). The role of phase variation in models of enteric and systemic pathogenesis was then evaluated. There were no differences between the wild-type parent strain and the two phase-locked derivatives in adherence and invasion of mouse epithelial cells in vitro, survival in mouse peritoneal macrophages, or in a bovine model of gastroenteritis. By contrast, the locked-OFF mutant was virulent in mice following oral or intravenous (i.v.) inoculation but the locked-ON mutant was attenuated. When these phase-locked mutants were compared in studies of i.v. kinetics in mice, similar numbers of the two strains were isolated from the blood and spleens of infected animals at 6 and 24 h. However, the locked-OFF mutant was recovered from the blood and spleens in significantly greater numbers than the locked-ON strain by day 2 of infection. By 5 days postinfection, a majority of the mice infected with the locked-OFF mutant had died compared with none of the mice infected with the locked-ON mutant. These results suggest that phase variation is not involved in the intestinal stage of infection but that once S. enterica serovar Typhimurium reaches the spleens of susceptible mice those organisms in the FliC phase can grow and/or survive better than those in the FljB phase. Additional experiments with wild-type S. enterica serovar Typhimurium, fully capable of switching flagellin type, supported this hypothesis. We conclude that organisms that have switched to the FliC+phase have a selective advantage in the mouse model of typhoid fever but have no such advantage in invasion of epithelial cells or the induction of enteropathogenesis.


2003 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 3196-3205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles C. Kim ◽  
Denise Monack ◽  
Stanley Falkow

ABSTRACT Two acidified nitrite-inducible genes of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium were identified with a green fluorescent protein-based promoter-trap screen. The nitrite-inducible promoters were located upstream of loci that we designated nipAB and nipC, which correspond to hcp-hcr (hybrid cluster protein) of Escherichia coli and norA of Alcaligenes eutrophus, respectively. Maximal induction of the promoters by nitrite was dependent on pH. The nipAB promoter was regulated by oxygen in an Fnr-dependent manner. The nipC promoter was also regulated by oxygen but in an Fnr-independent manner. The promoters were upregulated in activated RAW264.7 macrophage-like cells, which produce NO via the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and the induction was inhibited by aminoguanidine, an inhibitor of iNOS. Although the nipAB and nipC mutants displayed no defects under a variety of in vitro conditions or in tissue culture infections, they exhibited lower oral 50% lethal doses (LD50s) than did the wild type in C57BL/6J mouse infections. The lower LD50s reflected an unexpected increased ability of small inoculating doses of the mutant bacteria to cause lethal infection 2 to 3 weeks after challenge, compared to a similar challenge dose of wild-type bacteria. We conclude that these genes are regulated by physiological nitrogen oxides and that the absence of these bacterial genes in some way diminishes the ability of mice to clear a low dose infection.


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