scholarly journals Genetic Transplantation: Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium as a Host To Study Sigma Factor and Anti-Sigma Factor Interactions in GeneticallyIntractable Systems

2006 ◽  
Vol 188 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce E. Karlinsey ◽  
Kelly T. Hughes

ABSTRACT In Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium,σ 28 and anti-sigma factor FlgM are regulatory proteins crucial for flagellar biogenesis and motility. In this study, we used S. enterica serovar Typhimurium as an in vivo heterologous system to study σ28 and anti-σ28 interactions in organisms where genetic manipulation poses a significant challenge due to special growth requirements. The chromosomal copy of the S. enterica serovar Typhimurium σ28 structural gene fliA was exchanged with homologs of Aquifex aeolicus (an extreme thermophile) and Chlamydia trachomatis (an obligate intracellular pathogen) by targeted replacement of a tetRA element in the fliA gene location using λ-Red-mediated recombination. The S. enterica serovar Typhimurium hybrid strains showed σ28-dependent gene expression, suggesting that σ28 activities from diverse species are preserved in the heterologous host system. A. aeolicus mutants defective for σ28/FlgM interactions were also isolated in S. enterica serovar Typhimurium. These studies highlight a general strategy for analysis of protein function in species that are otherwise genetically intractable and a straightforward method of chromosome restructuring usingλ -Red-mediated recombination.

2001 ◽  
Vol 69 (12) ◽  
pp. 7413-7418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahar van der Straaten ◽  
Angela van Diepen ◽  
Kitty Kwappenberg ◽  
Sjaak van Voorden ◽  
Kees Franken ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Upon contact with host cells, the intracellular pathogenSalmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium promotes its uptake, targeting, and survival in intracellular niches. In this process, the bacterium evades the microbicidal effector mechanisms of the macrophage, including oxygen intermediates. This study reports the phenotypic and genotypic characterization of an S. enterica serovar Typhimurium mutant that is hypersusceptible to superoxide. The susceptible phenotype is due to a MudJ insertion-inactivation of a previously undescribedSalmonella gene designated sspJ that is located between 54.4 and 64 min of the Salmonellachromosome and encodes a 392-amino-acid protein. In vivo, upon intraperitoneal injection of 104 to 107bacteria in C3H/HeN and 101 to 104 bacteria in BALB/c mice, the mutant strain was less virulent than the wild type. Consistent with this finding, during the first hour after ingestion by macrophage-like J774 and RAW264.7 cells in vitro, the intracellular killing of the strain carrying sspJ::MudJ is enhanced fivefold over that of wild-type microorganisms. Wild-type salmonellae displayed significant intracellular replication during the first 24 h after uptake, but sspJ::MudJ mutants failed to do so. This phenotype could be restored to that of the wild type by sspJ complementation. The SspJ protein is found in the cytoplasmic membrane and periplasmic space. Amino acid sequence homology analysis did reveal a leader sequence and putative pyrroloquinoline quinone-binding domains, but no putative protein function. We excluded the possibility that SspJ is a scavenger of superoxide or has superoxide dismutase activity.


2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 459-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Rowley ◽  
Andrew Stevenson ◽  
Jan Kormanec ◽  
Mark Roberts

ABSTRACT The alternative sigma factor (RpoE σE) enables Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium to adapt to stressful conditions, such as oxidative stress, nutrient deprivation, and growth in mammalian tissues. Infection of mice by Salmonella serovar Typhimurium also requires σE. In Escherichia coli, activation of the σE pathway is dependent on proteolysis of the anti-sigma factor RseA and is initiated by DegS. DegS is also important in order for E. coli to cause extraintestinal infection in mice. We constructed a degS mutant of the serovar Typhimurium strain SL1344 and compared its behavior in vitro and in vivo with those of its wild-type (WT) parent and an isogenic rpoE mutant. Unlike E. coli degS strains, the Salmonella serovar Typhimurium degS strain grew as well as the WT strain at 42°C. The degS mutant survived very poorly in murine macrophages in vitro and was highly attenuated compared with the WT strain for both the oral and parenteral routes of infection in mice. However, the degS mutant was not as attenuated as the serovar Typhimurium rpoE mutant: 100- to 1,000-fold more degS bacteria than rpoE bacteria were present in the livers and spleens of mice 24 h after intraperitoneal challenge. In most assays, the rpoE mutant was more severely affected than the degS mutant and a σE-dependent reporter gene was more active in the degS mutant than the rpoE strain. These findings indicate that degS is important for activation of the σE pathway in serovar Typhimurium but that alternative pathways for σE activation probably exist.


2000 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 3129-3139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huaiqing Chen ◽  
Dieter M. Schifferli

ABSTRACT Recombinant live oral vaccines expressing pathogen-derived antigens offer a unique set of attractive properties. Among these are the simplicity of administration, the capacity to induce mucosal and systemic immunity, and the advantage of permitting genetic manipulation for optimal antigen presentation. In this study, the benefit of having a heterologous antigen expressed on the surface of a live vector rather than intracellularly was evaluated. Accordingly, the immune response of mice immunized with a Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium vaccine strain expressing the Escherichia coli 987P fimbrial antigen on its surface (Fas+) was compared with the expression in the periplasmic compartment (Fas−). Orally immunized BALB/c mice showed that 987P fimbriated Salmonella serovar Typhimurium CS3263 (aroA asd) with pCS151 (fas+asd +) elicited a significantly higher level of 987P-specific systemic immunoglobulin G (IgG) and mucosal IgA than serovar Typhimurium CS3263 with pCS152 (fasD mutant,asd +) expressing 987P periplasmic antigen. Further studies were aimed at determining whether the 987P fimbriae expressed by serovar Typhimurium χ4550 (cya crp asd) could be used as carriers of foreign epitopes. For this, the vaccine strain was genetically engineered to express chimeric fimbriae carrying the transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) C (379-388) and A (521-531) epitopes of the spike protein inserted into the 987P major fimbrial subunit FasA. BALB/c mice administered orally serovar Typhimurium χ4550 expressing the chimeric fimbriae from thetet promoter in pCS154 (fas+asd +) produced systemic antibodies against both fimbria and the TGEV C epitope but not against the TGEV A epitope. To improve the immunogenicity of the chimeric fimbriae, the in vivo inducible nirB promoter was inserted into pCS154, upstream of the fas genes, to create pCS155. In comparison with the previously used vaccine, BALB/c mice immunized orally with serovar Typhimurium χ4550/pCS155 demonstrated significantly higher levels of serum IgG and mucosal IgA against 987P fimbria. Moreover, mucosal IgA against the TGEV C epitope was only detected with serovar Typhimurium χ4550/pCS155. The induced antibodies also recognized the epitopes in the context of the full-length TGEV spike protein. Hence, immune responses to heterologous chimeric fimbriae onSalmonella vaccine vectors can be optimized by using promoters known to be activated in vivo.


Biologia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmar Homerova ◽  
Bronislava Rezuchova ◽  
Henrieta Skovierova ◽  
Jan Kormanec

AbstractThree promoters, located upstream of the rpoE gene encoding an extracytoplasmic sigma factor σ E, direct expression of the rpoE operon (rpoE, rseA, rseB, rseC) in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium). One of them, rpoEp3, has been found to be directly recognized by RNA polymerase containing sigma factor σ E. Using the Northern blot analysis we detected a complex pattern of transcripts indicating an internal promoter in the coding region of the rpoE gene. The promoter, rseAp, has been located by S1 mapping analysis. Its proposed −10 and −35 elements with 15 intervening nucleotides exhibited high similarity with the consensus sequence of σ E promoters, suggesting the direct dependence of rseAp upon σ E. Activity of rseAp increased towards stationary phase, after heat shock, cold shock, and in the presence of artificially induced rpoE expression, the conditions previously shown to activate σ E-dependent promoters. In vivo experiments revealed increase of the rseAp activity during growth and confirmed its clear dependence upon σ E. The proposed role of the internal rseAp promoter is to facilitate a feedback control of σ E level after the envelope stress is removed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 85 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edna M. Ondari ◽  
Jennifer N. Heath ◽  
Elizabeth J. Klemm ◽  
Gemma Langridge ◽  
Lars Barquist ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The ST313 pathovar of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium contributes to a high burden of invasive disease among African infants and HIV-infected adults. It is characterized by genome degradation (loss of coding capacity) and has increased resistance to antibody-dependent complement-mediated killing compared with enterocolitis-causing strains of S. Typhimurium. Vaccination is an attractive disease-prevention strategy, and leading candidates focus on the induction of bactericidal antibodies. Antibody-resistant strains arising through further gene deletion could compromise such a strategy. Exposing a saturating transposon insertion mutant library of S. Typhimurium to immune serum identified a repertoire of S. Typhimurium genes that, when interrupted, result in increased resistance to serum killing. These genes included several involved in bacterial envelope biogenesis, protein translocation, and metabolism. We generated defined mutant derivatives using S. Typhimurium SL1344 as the host. Based on their initial levels of enhanced resistance to killing, yfgA and sapA mutants were selected for further characterization. The S. Typhimurium yfgA mutant lost the characteristic Salmonella rod-shaped appearance, exhibited increased sensitivity to osmotic and detergent stress, lacked very long lipopolysaccharide, was unable to invade enterocytes, and demonstrated decreased ability to infect mice. In contrast, the S. Typhimurium sapA mutants had similar sensitivity to osmotic and detergent stress and lipopolysaccharide profile and an increased ability to infect enterocytes compared with the wild type, but it had no increased ability to cause in vivo infection. These findings indicate that increased resistance to antibody-dependent complement-mediated killing secondary to genetic deletion is not necessarily accompanied by increased virulence and suggest the presence of different mechanisms of antibody resistance.


2010 ◽  
Vol 78 (6) ◽  
pp. 2529-2543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ascención Torres-Escobar ◽  
María Dolores Juárez-Rodríguez ◽  
Bronwyn M. Gunn ◽  
Christine G. Branger ◽  
Steven A. Tinge ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A balanced-lethal plasmid expression system that switches from low-copy-number to runaway-like high-copy-number replication (pYA4534) was constructed for the regulated delayed in vivo synthesis of heterologous antigens by vaccine strains. This is an antibiotic resistance-free maintenance system containing the asdA gene (essential for peptidoglycan synthesis) as a selectable marker to complement the lethal chromosomal ΔasdA allele in live recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines (RASVs) such as Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium strain χ9447. pYA4534 harbors two origins of replication, pSC101 and pUC (low and high copy numbers, respectively). The pUC replication origin is controlled by a genetic switch formed by the operator/promoter of the P22 cro gene (O/Pcro) (PR), which is negatively regulated by an arabinose-inducible P22 c2 gene located on both the plasmid and the chromosome (araC PBAD c2). The absence of arabinose, which is unavailable in vivo, triggers replication to a high-copy-number plasmid state. To validate these vector attributes, the Yersinia pestis virulence antigen LcrV was used to develop a vaccine against plague. An lcrV sequence encoding amino acids 131 to 326 (LcrV196) was optimized for expression in Salmonella, flanked with nucleotide sequences encoding the signal peptide (SS) and the carboxy-terminal domain (CT) of β-lactamase, and cloned into pYA4534 under the control of the Ptrc promoter to generate plasmid pYA4535. Our results indicate that the live Salmonella vaccine strain χ9447 harboring pYA4535 efficiently stimulated a mixed Th1/Th2 immune response that protected mice against lethal challenge with Y. pestis strain CO92 introduced through either the intranasal or subcutaneous route.


2018 ◽  
Vol 86 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivek Belde ◽  
Matthew P. Cravens ◽  
Dania Gulandijany ◽  
Justin A. Walker ◽  
Isabel Palomo-Caturla ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTB cell antigen receptor (BCR) diversity increases by several orders of magnitude due to the action of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) during V(D)J recombination. Unlike adults, infants have limited BCR diversity, in part due to reduced expression of TdT. Since human infants and young mice respond poorly to polysaccharide vaccines, such as the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine Pneumovax23 and Vi polysaccharide (ViPS) ofSalmonella entericaserovar Typhi, we tested the contribution of TdT-mediated BCR diversity in response to these vaccines. We found that TdT+/−and TdT−/−mice generated comparable antibody responses to Pneumovax23 and survivedStreptococcus pneumoniaechallenge. Moreover, passive immunization of B cell-deficient mice with serum from Pneumovax23-immunized TdT+/−or TdT−/−mice conferred protection. TdT+/−and TdT−/−mice generated comparable levels of anti-ViPS antibodies and antibody-dependent, complement-mediated bactericidal activity againstS. Typhiin vitro. To test the protective immunity conferred by ViPS immunizationin vivo, TdT+/−and TdT−/−mice were challenged with a chimericSalmonella entericaserovar Typhimurium strain expressing ViPS, since mice are nonpermissive hosts forS. Typhi infection. Compared to their unimmunized counterparts, immunized TdT+/−and TdT−/−mice challenged with ViPS-expressingS. Typhimurium exhibited a significant reduction in the bacterial burden and liver pathology. These data suggest that the impaired antibody response to the Pneumovax23 and ViPS vaccines in the young is not due to limited TdT-mediated BCR diversification.


2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (12) ◽  
pp. 8433-8436 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Fadl ◽  
J. Sha ◽  
G. R. Klimpel ◽  
J. P. Olano ◽  
C. L. Galindo ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We constructed Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium double-knockout mutants in which either the lipoprotein A (lppA) or the lipoprotein B (lppB) gene was deleted from an msbB-negative background strain by marker exchange mutagenesis. These mutants were highly attenuated when tested with in vitro and in vivo models of Salmonella pathogenesis.


2004 ◽  
Vol 186 (16) ◽  
pp. 5230-5238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radha Krishnakumar ◽  
Maureen Craig ◽  
James A. Imlay ◽  
James M. Slauch

ABSTRACT Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium produces two Cu/Zn cofactored periplasmic superoxide dismutases, SodCI and SodCII. While mutations in sodCI attenuate virulence eightfold, loss of SodCII does not confer a virulence phenotype, nor does it enhance the defect observed in a sodCI background. Despite this in vivo phenotype, SodCI and SodCII are expressed at similar levels in vitro during the stationary phase of growth. By exchanging the open reading frames of sodCI and sodCII, we found that SodCI contributes to virulence when placed under the control of the sodCII promoter. In contrast, SodCII does not contribute to virulence even when expressed from the sodCI promoter. Thus, the disparity in virulence phenotypes is due primarily to some physical difference between the two enzymes. In an attempt to identify the unique property of SodCI, we have tested factors that might affect enzyme activity inside a phagosome. We found no significant difference between SodCI and SodCII in their resistance to acid, resistance to hydrogen peroxide, or ability to obtain copper in a copper-limiting environment. Both enzymes are synthesized as apoenzymes in the absence of copper and can be fully remetallated when copper is added. The one striking difference that we noted is that, whereas SodCII is released normally by an osmotic shock, SodCI is “tethered” within the periplasm by an apparently noncovalent interaction. We propose that this novel property of SodCI is crucial to its ability to contribute to virulence in serovar Typhimurium.


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