scholarly journals Lrp Acts as Both a Positive and Negative Regulator for Type 1 Fimbriae Production in Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium

PLoS ONE ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. e26896 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang-Ho Baek ◽  
Ho-Young Kang ◽  
Kenneth L. Roland ◽  
Roy Curtiss
2003 ◽  
Vol 71 (11) ◽  
pp. 6446-6452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Althouse ◽  
Sheila Patterson ◽  
Paula Fedorka-Cray ◽  
Richard E. Isaacson

ABSTRACT Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium strain 798 is a clinical isolate from a pig and is known to be able to cause persistent, asymptomatic infections. This strain also is known to exist in two phenotypes (adhesive and nonadhesive to enterocytes) and can switch between the two phenotypes at a rate consistent with phase variation. Cells in the adhesive phenotype are more readily phagocytosed by leukocytes than nonadhesive cells. Once in a leukocyte, adhesive-phase cells survive while nonadhesive-phase cells die. In the present study, nonadhesive mutants were obtained with the transposon TnphoA. A nonadhesive mutant was selected for study and was shown by electron microscopy not to produce fimbriae. The gene encoding the adhesin was cloned and sequenced. Based on its sequence, the adhesin was shown to be FimA, the major subunit of type 1 fimbriae. The nonadhesive mutant was attenuated in its ability to colonize both mouse and pig intestines, but remained capable of systemic spread in mice. The nonadhesive mutant was phagocytosed to the same extent as parental cells in the adhesive phase and then survived intracellularly. These results demonstrated that type 1 fimbriae were important for attachment to enterocytes and promoted intestinal colonization. However, they were not important in promoting phagocytosis or intracellular survival.


2012 ◽  
Vol 80 (9) ◽  
pp. 3289-3296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Zeiner ◽  
Brett E. Dwyer ◽  
Steven Clegg

ABSTRACTSalmonella entericaserovar Typhimurium is a Gram-negative member of the familyEnterobacteriaceaeand is a common cause of bacterial food poisoning in humans. The fimbrial appendages are found on the surface of many enteric bacteria and enable the bacteria to bind to eukaryotic cells.S. Typhimurium type 1 fimbriae are characterized by mannose-sensitive hemagglutination and are assembled via the chaperone/usher pathway.S. Typhimurium type 1 fimbrial proteins are encoded by thefimgene cluster (fimAICDHFZYW), withfimAICDHFexpressed as a single transcriptional unit. The structural components of the fimbriae are FimA (major subunit), FimI, FimH (adhesin), and FimF (adaptor). In order to determine which components are required for fimbrial formation inS. Typhimurium, mutations infimA,fimI,fimH, andfimFwere constructed and examined for their ability to produce surface-assembled fimbriae.S. Typhimurium SL1344ΔfimA, -ΔfimH, and -ΔfimFmutants were unable to assemble fimbriae, indicating that these genes are necessary for fimbrial production inS. Typhimurium. However, SL1344ΔfimIwas able to assemble fimbriae. InEscherichia colitype 1 and Pap fimbriae, at least two adaptors are expressed in addition to the adhesins. However,E. colitype 1 and Pap fimbriae have been reported to be able to assemble fimbriae in the absence of these proteins. These results suggest differences between theS. Typhimurium type 1 fimbrial system and theE. colitype 1 and Pap fimbrial systems.


2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 1377-1385 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Aaron Baxter ◽  
Bradley D. Jones

ABSTRACT An important step in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium virulence is the ability to invade the intestinal epithelium. The invasion process requires a large number of genes encoded on Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1) at centisome 63 as well as genes located in other positions throughout the chromosome. Expression of the invasive phenotype is tightly regulated by environmental cues that are processed by a complex regulatory scheme. A central player in the invasion regulatory pathway is the HilA protein, which is transcriptional activator belonging to the OmpR/ToxR family. A number of positive regulators (hilC, hilD, fis, sirA/barA, csrAB, phoBR, fadD, envZ/ompR, and fliZ) and negative regulators (hha, hilE, lon, ams, phoP c and pag) have been identified that are able to alter expression of hilA transcription. Recent work has found that hilA transcription requires the HilD protein for activation. Other work has emphasized the importance of HilE as a negative regulator of hilA. Overexpression of hilE superrepresses hilA transcription, as well as the invasive phenotype. Two-hybrid experiments suggest that HilE exerts its regulatory influence on hilA through protein-protein interactions with HilD as the protein does not bind to the hilA promoter nor does it affect hilD transcription. As it seems likely that hilE plays an important role in translating environmental signals into invasion gene regulation, we have attempted to identify how the hilE gene itself is regulated. Our results indicate that the fimYZ genes, response regulatory proteins involved in type 1 fimbrial gene expression and recently implicated in motility gene regulation, are important activators of hilE expression. These findings indicate that invasion gene expression is coregulated with motility and adherence and provide experimental evidence that the expression of these virulence phenotypes is a subset of the overall regulation of bacterial physiology.


2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliette K. Tinker ◽  
Lisa S. Hancox ◽  
Steven Clegg

ABSTRACT Type 1 fimbriae are proteinaceous surface appendages that carry adhesins specific for mannosylated glycoproteins. These fimbriae are found on most members of the family Enterobacteriaceae and are known to facilitate binding to a variety of eukaryotic cells, including those found on the mucosal surfaces of the alimentary tract. We have shown that the regulation of type 1 fimbrial expression in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is controlled, in part, by the products of four genes found within the fimgene cluster: fimZ, fimY, fimW, andfimU. To better understand the specific role of FimW in fimbrial expression, a mutation was constructed in this gene by the insertion of a kanamycin resistance DNA cassette into the chromosome. The resulting fimW mutation was characterized by mannose-sensitive hemagglutination and agglutination with fimbria-specific antiserum. Assays suggested that this mutant was more strongly fimbriate than the parental strain, exhibiting a four- to eightfold increase in fimbrial production. The fimWmutation was introduced into a second strain of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, and this mutant was also found to be strongly fimbriate compared to the parental strain. Consistent with the role of this protein as a negative regulator, fimA-lacZexpression in serovar Typhimurium, as well as in Escherichia coli, was increased twofold in the absence of functional FimW. Primer extension analysis determined that fimWtranscription is initiated from its own promoter 31 bp upstream of the translation start site. Analysis using a fimW-lacZ reporter indicated that fimW expression in serovar Typhimurium was increased under conditions that select for poorly fimbriate bacteria and low fimA expression. FimW also appears to act as an autoregulator, since expression from the fimW-lacZ reporter was increased in a fimW mutant. FimW was partially purified by fusion with the E. coli maltose-binding protein. Use of this FimW protein extract, as well as others, in DNA-binding assays was unable to identify a specific binding site for FimW in thefimA, fimZ, fimY, orfimW promoter regions. To analyze protein-protein interactions, FimW was expressed in a LexA-based two-hybrid system inE. coli. A significant interaction between FimW and the DNA-binding activator protein, FimZ, was detected using this system. These results indicate that FimW is a negative regulator of serovar Typhimurium type 1 fimbrial expression and may function by interfering with FimZ-mediated activation of fimA expression.


2013 ◽  
Vol 81 (12) ◽  
pp. 4453-4460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Zeiner ◽  
Brett E. Dwyer ◽  
Steven Clegg

ABSTRACTThe production of type 1 fimbriae inSalmonella entericaserovar Typhimurium is controlled, in part, by three proteins, FimZ, FimY, and FimW. Amino acid sequence analysis indicates that FimZ belongs to the family of bacterial response regulators of two-component systems. In these studies, we have demonstrated that introducing a mutation mimicking phosphorylation of FimZ is necessary for activation of its target gene,fimA. In addition, the interaction of FimZ with FimW, a repressor offimAexpression, occurs only when FimZ is phosphorylated. Consequently, the negative regulatory effect of FimW is most likely due to downmodulation of the active FimZ protein. FimY does not appear to function as a response regulator, and its activity can be lost by mimicking the phosphorylation of FimY. Overproduction of FimY cannot alleviate the nonfimbriate phenotype in a FimZ mutant, whereas high levels of FimZ can overcome the nonfimbriate phenotype of a FimY mutant. It appears that FimY acts upstream of FimZ to activatefimAexpression.


2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 6187-6190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmara Kisiela ◽  
Anna Sapeta ◽  
Maciej Kuczkowski ◽  
Tadeusz Stefaniak ◽  
Alina Wieliczko ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Recombinant FimH adhesins of type 1 fimbriae from Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum biovars Gallinarum and Pullorum, in contrast to those of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, did not bind to high-mannose oligosaccharides or to human colon carcinoma HT-29 cells. However, mutated FimH proteins from biovar Gallinarum and biovar Pullorum, in which the isoleucine at position 78 was replaced by the threonine found in S. enterica serovar Typhimurium, bound well to glycoproteins carrying high-mannose oligosaccharides and colon carcinoma cells. The loss of sugar-binding properties by biovar Gallinarum and biovar Pullorum FimH adhesins, which are a part of the type 1 fimbriae, is most probably the result of a single T78I mutation, as was proven by site-directed mutagenesis of FimH proteins.


2007 ◽  
Vol 190 (2) ◽  
pp. 602-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsty A. McFarland ◽  
Sacha Lucchini ◽  
Jay C. D. Hinton ◽  
Charles J. Dorman

ABSTRACT The fim operon of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium encodes type 1 fimbriae. The expression of fim is controlled in response to environmental signals through a complex regulatory cascade involving the proteins FimW, FimY, and FimZ and a genetic locus, fimU, that encodes a rare arginine tRNA. We discovered that a knockout mutation in lrp, the gene that codes for the leucine-responsive regulatory protein (Lrp), inhibited fim transcription. The loss of fim gene expression was accompanied by a corresponding loss of the mannose-sensitive hemagglutination that is a characteristic of type 1 fimbriae. Normal type 1 fimbrial expression was restored following the introduction into the knockout mutant of a plasmid carrying a functional copy of the lrp gene. Electrophoretic mobility shift analysis revealed no interactions between purified Lrp protein and the regulatory region of the fimA, fimU, or fimW gene. Instead, Lrp produced protein-DNA complexes with the regulatory region of the fimZ gene, and the nature of these complexes was leucine sensitive. DNase I footprinting showed that Lrp binds within a region between −65 and −170 with respect to the fimZ transcription start site, consistent with the binding and wrapping of the DNA in this upstream region. Ectopic expression of the fimZ gene from an inducible promoter caused Lrp-independent type 1 fimbriation in serovar Typhimurium. These data show that Lrp makes a positive contribution to fim gene expression through direct interaction with the fimZ promoter region, possibly by antagonizing the binding of the H-NS global repressor protein.


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