scholarly journals Membrane Transporters of the Major Facilitator Superfamily Are Essential for Long-Term Maintenance of Phenotypic Tolerance to Multiple Antibiotics in E. coli

Author(s):  
Yingkun Wan ◽  
Miaomiao Wang ◽  
Edward Wai Chi Chan ◽  
Sheng Chen

We recently showed that the antibiotic-tolerant subpopulation of bacteria or persisters actively maintain the transmembrane proton motive force (PMF) to survive starvation stress for a prolonged period. This work further shows that the reason why antibiotic persisters need to maintain PMF is that PMF is required to support a range of efflux or transportation functions.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana Perlova ◽  
Martin Gruebele ◽  
Yann R. Chemla

AbstractBlue light has been shown to elicit a tumbling response inE. coli, a non-phototrophic bacterium. The exact mechanism of this phototactic response is still unknown, and its biological significance remains unclear. Here, we quantify phototaxis inE. coliby analyzing single-cell trajectories in populations of free-swimming bacteria before and after light exposure. Bacterial strains expressing only one type of chemoreceptor reveal that all fiveE. colireceptors - Aer, Tar, Tsr, Tap and Trg - are capable of mediating a response to light. In particular, light exposure elicits a running response in Tap-only strain, the opposite of the tumbling response observed for all other strains. Light therefore emerges as a universal stimulus for allE. colichemoreceptors. We also show that blue light exposure causes a reversible decrease in swimming velocity, a proxy for proton motive force. We hypothesize that rather than sensing light directly, chemoreceptors sense light-induced perturbations in proton motive force.ImportanceOur findings provide new insights on the mechanism ofE. coliphototaxis, showing that all five chemoreceptor types respond to light and that their interactions play an important role in cell behavior. Our results also open up new avenues for examining and manipulatingE. colitaxis. Since light is a universal stimulus, it may provide a way to quantify interactions between different types of receptors. Since light is easier to control spatially and temporally than chemicals, it may be used to study swimming behavior in complex environments. Since phototaxis can cause migration ofE. colibacteria in light gradients, light may be used to control bacterial density for studying density-dependent processes in bacteria.


Author(s):  
Asif Iqbal ◽  
Pradip R. Panta ◽  
John Ontoy ◽  
Jobelle Bruno ◽  
Jong Hyun Ham ◽  
...  

Rice is an important source of food for more than half the world’s population. Bacterial panicle blight (BPB) is a disease of rice characterized by grain discoloration or sheath rot caused mainly by Burkholderia glumae . B. glumae synthesizes toxoflavin, an essential virulence factor, that is required for symptoms of the disease. The products of the tox operons, ToxABCDE and ToxFGHI, are responsible for the synthesis and the proton motive force (PMF)-dependent secretion of toxoflavin, respectively. The DedA family is a highly conserved membrane protein family found in most bacterial genomes that likely function as membrane transporters. Our previous work has demonstrated that absence of certain DedA family members results in pleiotropic effects, impacting multiple pathways that are energized by PMF. We have demonstrated that a member of the DedA family from Burkholderia thailandensis , named DbcA, is required for the extreme polymyxin resistance observed in this organism. B. glumae encodes a homolog of DbcA with 73% amino acid identity to Burkholderia thailandensis DbcA. Here, we created and characterized a B. glumae Δ dbcA strain. In addition to polymyxin sensitivity, B. glumae Δ dbcA is compromised for virulence in several BPB infection models and secretes only low amounts of toxoflavin (∼15% of wild type levels). Changes in membrane potential in B. glumae Δ dbcA were reproduced in the wild type strain by the addition of sub-inhibitory concentrations of sodium bicarbonate, previously demonstrated to cause disruption of PMF. Sodium bicarbonate inhibited B. glumae virulence in rice suggesting a possible non-toxic chemical intervention for bacterial panicle blight. IMPORTANCE Bacterial panicle blight (BPB) is a disease of rice characterized by grain discoloration or sheath rot caused mainly by Burkholderia glumae . The DedA family is a highly conserved membrane protein family found in most bacterial genomes that likely function as membrane transporters. Here, we constructed a B. glumae mutant with a deletion in a DedA family member named dbcA and report a loss of virulence in models of BPB. Physiological analysis of the mutant shows that the proton motive force is disrupted, leading to reduction of secretion of the essential virulence factor toxoflavin. The mutant phenotypes are reproduced in the virulent wild type strain without an effect on growth using sodium bicarbonate, a nontoxic buffer that has been reported to disrupt the PMF. The results presented here suggest that bicarbonate may be an effective antivirulence agent capable of controlling BPB without imposing an undue burden on the environment.


2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 997-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natacha Morin ◽  
Isabelle Lanneluc ◽  
Nathalie Connil ◽  
Marie Cottenceau ◽  
Anne Marie Pons ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTFor the first time, the mechanism of action of microcin L (MccL) was investigated in live bacteria. MccL is a gene-encoded peptide produced byEscherichia coliLR05 that exhibits a strong antibacterial activity against relatedEnterobacteriaceae, includingSalmonella entericaserovars Typhimurium and Enteritidis. We first subcloned the MccL genetic system to remove the sequences not involved in MccL production. We then optimized the MccL purification procedure to obtain large amounts of purified microcin to investigate its antimicrobial and membrane properties. We showed that MccL did not induce outer membrane permeabilization, which indicated that MccL did not use this way to kill the sensitive cell or to enter into it. Using a set ofE. coliandSalmonella entericamutants lacking iron-siderophore receptors, we demonstrated that the MccL uptake required the outer membrane receptor Cir. Moreover, the MccL bactericidal activity was shown to depend on the TonB protein that transduces the proton-motive force of the cytoplasmic membrane to transport iron-siderophore complexes across the outer membrane. Using carbonyl cyanide 3-chlorophenylhydrazone, which is known to fully dissipate the proton-motive force, we proved that the proton-motive force was required for the bactericidal activity of MccL onE. coli. In addition, we showed that a primary target of MccL could be the cytoplasmic membrane: a high level of MccL disrupted the inner membrane potential ofE. colicells. However, no permeabilization of the membrane was detected.


2019 ◽  
Vol 201 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana Perlova ◽  
Martin Gruebele ◽  
Yann R. Chemla

ABSTRACTBlue light has been shown to elicit a tumbling response inEscherichia coli, a nonphototrophic bacterium. The exact mechanism of this phototactic response is still unknown. Here, we quantify phototaxis inE. coliby analyzing single-cell trajectories in populations of free-swimming bacteria before and after light exposure. Bacterial strains expressing only one type of chemoreceptor reveal that all fiveE. colireceptors (Aer, Tar, Tsr, Tap, and Trg) are capable of mediating responses to light. In particular, light exposure elicits a running response in the Tap-only strain, the opposite of the tumbling responses observed for all other strains. Therefore, light emerges as a universal stimulus for allE. colichemoreceptors. We also show that blue light exposure causes a reversible decrease in swimming velocity, a proxy for proton motive force. This result is consistent with a previously proposed hypothesis that, rather than sensing light directly, chemoreceptors sense light-induced perturbations in proton motive force, although other factors are also likely to contribute.IMPORTANCEOur findings provide new insights into the mechanism ofE. coliphototaxis, showing that all five chemoreceptor types respond to light and their interactions play an important role in cell behavior. Our results also open up new avenues for examining and manipulatingE. colitaxis. Since light is a universal stimulus, it may provide a way to quantify interactions among different types of receptors. Because light is easier to control spatially and temporally than chemicals, it may be used to study swimming behavior in complex environments. Since phototaxis can cause migration ofE. colibacteria in light gradients, light may be used to control bacterial density for studying density-dependent processes in bacteria.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 1135-1139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wuen Ee Foong ◽  
Jochen Wilhelm ◽  
Heng-Keat Tam ◽  
Klaas M Pos

Abstract Objectives To investigate the role of Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS)-type transporters from Acinetobacter baumannii AYE in tigecycline efflux. Methods Two putative tetracycline transporter genes of A. baumannii AYE (tetA and tetG) were heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli and drug susceptibility assays were conducted with tigecycline and three other tetracycline derivatives. The importance of TetA in tigecycline transport in A. baumannii was determined by complementation of tetA in WT and Resistance Nodulation cell Division (RND) gene knockout strains of A. baumannii ATCC 19606. Gene expression of the MFS-type tetA gene and RND efflux pump genes adeB, adeG and adeJ in A. baumannii AYE in the presence of tigecycline was analysed by quantitative real-time RT–PCR. Results Overproduction of TetA or TetG conferred resistance to doxycycline, minocycline and tetracycline in E. coli. Cells expressing tetA, but not those expressing tetG, conferred resistance to tigecycline, implying that TetA is a determinant for tigecycline transport. A. baumannii WT and RND-knockout strains complemented with plasmid-encoded tetA are significantly less susceptible to tigecycline compared with non-complemented strains. Efflux pump genes tetA and adeG are up-regulated in A. baumannii AYE in the presence of subinhibitory tigecycline concentrations. Conclusions TetA plays an important role in tigecycline efflux of A. baumannii by removing the drug from cytoplasm to periplasm and, subsequently, the RND-type transporters AdeABC and AdeIJK extrude tigecycline across the outer membrane. When challenged with tigecycline, tetA is up-regulated in A. baumannii AYE. Synergy between TetA and the RND-type transporters AdeABC and/or AdeIJK appears necessary for A. baumannii to confer higher tigecycline resistance via drug efflux.


1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (3) ◽  
pp. 498-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian T. Paulsen ◽  
Sylvie Chauvaux ◽  
Peter Choi ◽  
Milton H. Saier

ABSTRACT Insertional mutagenesis was conducted on Bacillus subtilis cells to screen for mutants resistant to catabolite repression. Three classes of mutants that were resistant to glucose-promoted but not mannitol-promoted catabolite repression were identified. Cloning and sequencing of the mutated genes revealed that the mutations occurred in the structural genes for (i) enzyme II of the phosphoenolpyruvate-glucose phosphotransferase (PtsG), (ii) antiterminator GlcT, which controls PtsG synthesis, and (iii) a previously uncharacterized carrier of the major facilitator superfamily, which we have designated GlcP. The last protein exhibits greatest sequence similarity to the fucose:H+ symporter ofEscherichia coli and the glucose/galactose:H+symporter of Brucella abortus. In a wild-type B. subtilis genetic background, theglcP::Tn10 mutation (i) partially but specifically relieved glucose- and sucrose-promoted catabolite repression, (ii) reduced the growth rate in minimal glucose medium, and (iii) reduced rates of [14C]glucose and [14C]methyl α-glucoside uptake. In a Δptsgenetic background no phenotype was observed, suggesting that expression of the glcP gene required a functional phosphotransferase system. When overproduced in a Δptsmutant of E. coli, GlcP could be shown to specifically transport glucose, mannose, 2-deoxyglucose and methyl α-glucoside with low micromolar affinities. Accumulation of the nonmetabolizable glucose analogs was demonstrated, and inhibitor studies suggested a dependency on the proton motive force. We conclude that B. subtilis possesses at least two distinct routes of glucose entry, both of which contribute to the phenomenon of catabolite repression.


2001 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 1109-1114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Perreten ◽  
Franziska V. Schwarz ◽  
Michael Teuber ◽  
Stuart B. Levy

ABSTRACT The mdt(A) gene, previously designatedmef214, from Lactococcus lactis subsp.lactis plasmid pK214 encodes a protein [Mdt(A) (multiple drug transporter)] with 12 putative transmembrane segments (TMS) that contain typical motifs conserved among the efflux proteins of the major facilitator superfamily. However, it also has two C-motifs (conserved in the fifth TMS of the antiporters) and a putative ATP-binding site. Expression of the cloned mdt(A) gene decreased susceptibility to macrolides, lincosamides, streptogramins, and tetracyclines in L. lactis and Escherichia coli, but not in Enterococcus faecalis or inStaphylococcus aureus. Glucose-dependent efflux of erythromycin and tetracycline was demonstrated in L. lactisand in E. coli.


2006 ◽  
Vol 188 (3) ◽  
pp. 977-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iman Chouikha ◽  
Pierre Germon ◽  
Annie Brée ◽  
Philippe Gilot ◽  
Maryvonne Moulin-Schouleur ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The complete nucleotide sequence and genetic organization of a new genomic island (AGI-3) isolated from the extraintestinal avian pathogenic Escherichia coli strain BEN2908 is reported. This 49,600-bp island is inserted at the selC locus and contains putative mobile genetic elements such as a phage-related integrase gene, transposase genes, and direct repeats. AGI-3 shows a mosaic structure of five modules. Some of these modules are present in other E. coli strains and in other pathogenic bacterial species. The gene cluster aec-35 to aec-37 of module 1 encodes proteins associated with carbohydrates assimilation such as a major facilitator superfamily transporter (Aec-36), a glycosidase (Aec-37), and a putative transcriptional regulator of the LacI family (Aec-35). The aec-35 to aec-37 cluster was found in 11.6% of the tested pathogenic and nonpathogenic E. coli strains. When present, the aec-35 to aec-37 cluster is strongly associated with the selC locus (97%). Deletion of the aec-35-aec-37 region affects the assimilation of seven carbohydrates, decreases the growth rate of the strain in minimal medium containing galacturonate or trehalose, and attenuates the virulence of E. coli BEN2908 for chickens.


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