scholarly journals Validation of Predicted Virulence Factors in Listeria monocytogenes Identified Using Comparative Genomics

Toxins ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossam Abdelhamed ◽  
Mark Lawrence ◽  
Reshma Ramachandran ◽  
Attila Karsi

Listeria monocytogenes is an intracellular facultative pathogen that causes listeriosis, a foodborne zoonotic infection. There are differences in the pathogenic potential of L. monocytogenes subtypes and strains. Comparison of the genome sequences among L. monocytogenes pathogenic strains EGD-e and F2365 with nonpathogenic L. innocua CLIP1182 and L. monocytogenes strain HCC23 revealed a set of proteins that were present in pathogenic strains and had no orthologs among the nonpathogenic strains. Among the candidate virulence factors are five proteins: putrescine carbamoyltransferase; InlH/InlC2 family class 1 internalin; phosphotransferase system (PTS) fructose transporter subunit EIIC; putative transketolase; and transcription antiterminator BglG family. To determine if these proteins have a role in adherence and invasion of intestinal epithelial Caco-2 cells and/or contribute to virulence, five mutant strains were constructed. F2365ΔinlC2, F2365Δeiic, and F2365Δtkt exhibited a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in adhesion to Caco-2 cells compared to parent F2365 strain. The invasion of F2365ΔaguB, F2365ΔinlC2, and F2365ΔbglG decreased significantly (p < 0.05) compared with the parent strain. Bacterial loads in mouse liver and spleen infected by F2365 was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than it was for F2365ΔaguB, F2365ΔinlC2, F2365Δeiic, F2365Δtkt, and F2365ΔbglG strains. This study demonstrates that aguB, inlC2, eiic, tkt, and bglG play a role in L. monocytogenes pathogenicity.

2007 ◽  
Vol 73 (24) ◽  
pp. 7967-7980 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuewei Hu ◽  
Sarita Raengpradub ◽  
Ute Schwab ◽  
Chris Loss ◽  
Renato H. Orsi ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Listeria monocytogenes σB positively regulates the transcription of class II stress response genes; CtsR negatively regulates class III stress response genes. To identify interactions between these two stress response systems, we constructed L. monocytogenes ΔctsR and ΔctsR ΔsigB strains, as well as a ΔctsR strain expressing ctsR in trans under the control of an IPTG (isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside)-inducible promoter. These strains, along with a parent and a ΔsigB strain, were assayed for motility, heat resistance, and invasion of human intestinal epithelial cells, as well as by whole-genome transcriptomic and quantitative real-time PCR analyses. Both ΔctsR and ΔctsR ΔsigB strains had significantly higher thermotolerances than the parent strain; however, full heat sensitivity was restored to the ΔctsR strain when ctsR was expressed in trans. Although log-phase ΔctsR was not reduced in its ability to infect human intestinal cells, the ΔctsR ΔsigB strain showed significantly lower invasion efficiency than either the parent strain or the ΔsigB strain, indicating that interactions between CtsR and σB contribute to invasiveness. Statistical analyses also confirmed interactions between the ctsR and the sigB null mutations in both heat resistance and invasion phenotypes. Microarray transcriptomic analyses and promoter searches identified (i) 42 CtsR-repressed genes, (ii) 22 genes with lower transcript levels in the ΔctsR strain, and (iii) at least 40 genes coregulated by both CtsR and σB, including genes encoding proteins with confirmed or plausible roles in virulence and stress response. Our data demonstrate that interactions between CtsR and σB play an important role in L. monocytogenes stress resistance and virulence.


2014 ◽  
Vol 80 (24) ◽  
pp. 7673-7682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siyun Wang ◽  
Renato H. Orsi ◽  
Silin Tang ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Martin Wiedmann ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTAlternative sigma (σ) factors and phosphotransferase systems (PTSs) play pivotal roles in the environmental adaptation and virulence ofListeria monocytogenes. The growth of theL. monocytogenesparent strain 10403S and 15 isogenic alternative σ factor mutants was assessed in defined minimal medium (DM) with PTS-dependent or non-PTS-dependent carbon sources at 25°C or 37°C. Overall, our results suggested that the regulatory effect of alternative σ factors on the growth ofL. monocytogenesis dependent on the temperature and the carbon source. One-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) showed that the factor “strain” had a significant effect on the maximum growth rate (μmax), lag phase duration (λ), and maximum optical density (ODmax) in PTS-dependent carbon sources (P< 0.05) but not in a non-PTS-dependent carbon source. Also, the ODmaxwas not affected by strain for any of the three PTS-dependent carbon sources at 25°C but was affected by strain at 37°C. Monitoring by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) showed that transcript levels forlmo0027, a glucose-glucoside PTS permease (PTSGlc-1)-encoding gene, were higher in the absence of σL, and lower in the absence of σH, than in the parent strain. Our data thus indicate that σLnegatively regulateslmo0027and that the increased μmaxobserved for the ΔsigLstrain in DM with glucose may be associated with increased expression of PTSGlc-1 encoded bylmo0027. Our findings suggest that σHand σLmediate the PTS-dependent growth ofL. monocytogenesthrough complex transcriptional regulations and fine-tuning of the expression of specificptsgenes, includinglmo0027. Our findings also reveal a more important and complex role of alternative σ factors in the regulation of growth in different sugar sources than previously assumed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Fagerlund ◽  
Solveig Langsrud ◽  
Birgitte Moen ◽  
Even Heir ◽  
Trond Møretrø

ABSTRACT Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen that causes the often-fatal disease listeriosis. We present here the complete genome sequences of six L. monocytogenes isolates of sequence type 9 (ST9) collected from two different meat processing facilities in Norway. The genomes were assembled using Illumina and Nanopore sequencing data.


2006 ◽  
Vol 188 (2) ◽  
pp. 556-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biju Joseph ◽  
Karin Przybilla ◽  
Claudia Stühler ◽  
Kristina Schauer ◽  
Jörg Slaghuis ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A successful transition of Listeria monocytogenes from the extracellular to the intracellular environment requires a precise adaptation response to conditions encountered in the host milieu. Although many key steps in the intracellular lifestyle of this gram-positive pathogen are well characterized, our knowledge about the factors required for cytosolic proliferation is still rather limited. We used DNA microarray and real-time reverse transcriptase PCR analyses to investigate the transcriptional profile of intracellular L. monocytogenes following epithelial cell infection. Approximately 19% of the genes were differentially expressed by at least 1.6-fold relative to their level of transcription when grown in brain heart infusion medium, including genes encoding transporter proteins essential for the uptake of carbon and nitrogen sources, factors involved in anabolic pathways, stress proteins, transcriptional regulators, and proteins of unknown function. To validate the biological relevance of the intracellular gene expression profile, a random mutant library of L. monocytogenes was constructed by insertion-duplication mutagenesis and screened for intracellular-growth-deficient strains. By interfacing the results of both approaches, we provide evidence that L. monocytogenes can use alternative carbon sources like phosphorylated glucose and glycerol and nitrogen sources like ethanolamine during replication in epithelial cells and that the pentose phosphate cycle, but not glycolysis, is the predominant pathway of sugar metabolism in the host environment. Additionally, we show that the synthesis of arginine, isoleucine, leucine, and valine, as well as a species-specific phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system, play a major role in the intracellular growth of L. monocytogenes.


2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 4229-4233 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Liu ◽  
M. L. Lawrence ◽  
M. Wiedmann ◽  
L. Gorski ◽  
R. E. Mandrell ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marloes Heijne ◽  
Martina Jelocnik ◽  
Alexander Umanets ◽  
Michael S. M. Brouwer ◽  
Annemieke Dinkla ◽  
...  

AbstractChlamydia gallinacea is an obligate intracellular bacterium that has recently been added to the family of Chlamydiaceae. C. gallinacea is genetically diverse, widespread in poultry and a suspected cause of pneumonia in slaughterhouse workers. In poultry, C. gallinacea infections appear asymptomatic, but studies about the pathogenic potential are limited. In this study two novel sequence types of C. gallinacea were isolated from apparently healthy chickens. Both isolates (NL_G47 and NL_F725) were closely related to each other and have at least 99.5% DNA sequence identity to C. gallinacea Type strain 08-1274/3. To gain further insight into the pathogenic potential, infection experiments in embryonated chicken eggs and comparative genomics with Chlamydia psittaci were performed. C. psittaci is a ubiquitous zoonotic pathogen of birds and mammals, and infection in poultry can result in severe systemic illness. In experiments with embryonated chicken eggs, C. gallinacea induced mortality was observed, potentially strain dependent, but lower compared to C. psittaci induced mortality. Comparative analyses confirmed all currently available C. gallinacea genomes possess the hallmark genes coding for known and potential virulence factors as found in C. psittaci albeit to a reduced number of orthologues or paralogs. The presence of potential virulence factors and the observed mortality in embryonated eggs indicates C. gallinacea should rather be considered as an opportunistic pathogen than an innocuous commensal.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thao D. Tran ◽  
Steven Huynh ◽  
Craig T. Parker ◽  
Robert Hnasko ◽  
Lisa Gorski ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Here, we report the complete genome sequences of three Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strains isolated from alfalfa, almond drupes, and grapes that inhibited the growth of Listeria monocytogenes strain 2011L-2857 in vitro. We also report multiple gene clusters encoding secondary metabolites that may be responsible for the growth inhibition of L. monocytogenes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (13) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanhong Liu ◽  
Aixia Xu ◽  
Pina M. Fratamico ◽  
Christopher H. Sommers ◽  
Luca Rotundo ◽  
...  

Listeria monocytogenes is an important foodborne pathogen that causes listeriosis. Here, we report the draft genome sequences of seven L. monocytogenes strains isolated from food, environmental, and clinical sources.


2013 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
VICTORIA LÓPEZ ◽  
JAIME NAVAS ◽  
JOAQUÍN V. MARTÍNEZ-SUÁREZ

Packaged raw foods can represent a potential source of Listeria monocytogenes contamination when opened at home, and listeriosis is associated with the consumption of undercooked raw foods. The aim of this study was to characterize a group of L. monocytogenes strains isolated from 56 packages of raw chicken meat from a single brand in order to determine the diversity of the strains that dominate in a particular food over time, as well as their pathogenic potential. Forty (71%) samples were found to be positive for L. monocytogenes, and three isolates per sample were subjected to PCR molecular serotyping. Subtyping of 45 isolates from different manufacturing dates (n = 40) or different molecular serotype within the same sample (n = 5) identified 11 different L. monocytogenes subtypes as defined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and sequencing of virulence genes actA and inlA. Two of the subtypes accounted for 51% of the isolates. About 40% of isolates (three subtypes) were found to potentially present attenuated virulence because of the presence of mutations in the prfA and inlA genes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jule Anna Horlbog ◽  
Hyein Jang ◽  
Gopal Gopinath ◽  
Roger Stephan ◽  
Claudia Guldimann

Here, we report the whole-genome sequences of six Listeria monocytogenes strains isolated from meat and milk products in Switzerland. All of these strains carry premature stop codons or amino acid deletions in inlA.


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