scholarly journals TheEscherichia coliO157:H7 Carbon Starvation-Inducible Lipoprotein Slp Contributes to Initial AdherenceIn Vitrovia the Human Polymeric Immunoglobulin Receptor

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Fedorchuk ◽  
Indira T. Kudva ◽  
Subhashinie Kariyawasam

AbstractEscherichia coliO157:H7 is the most well-studied serotype of enterohemorrhagicE. coli(EHEC) class ofE. coliintestinal pathogens, and is responsible for many outbreaks of serious food-borne illness worldwide each year. Adherence mechanisms are a critical component of its pathogenesis, persistence in natural reservoirs, and environmental contamination.E. coliO157:H7 has a highly effective virulence operon, the Locus of Enterocyte Effacement (LEE), and its encoded intimate adherence mechanism is well characterized. However, factors involved in the preceding initial attachment are not well understood. In this study, we propose a mechanism of initial adherence used byE. coliO157:H7in vitro. We describe a bacterial protein not previously reported to be involved in adherence, Slp, and its interactions with the human host protein polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR). The human pIgR has previously been shown to act as an adherence receptor for some mucosal pathogens, and is highly expressed in the intestine. Following observation of significant colocalization betweenE. coliO157:H7 and pIgR location on Caco-2 cells, a co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) assay using a human recombinant Fc-tagged pIgR protein led to the identification of this protein. Disruption of Slp expression inE. coliO157:H7, through deletion of its encoding geneslp, produced a significant adherence deficiency to Caco-2 cells at early time points associated with initial adherence. Plasmid complementation ofslpfully restored the wild-type phenotype. Furthermore, immunofluorescence microscopy revealed evidence that this interaction is specific to the pathogenic strains ofE. colitested, and not the nonpathogenic strain E. coli K12. Additionally, deletion ofslpresulted in the absence of the corresponding protein band in further Co-IP assays, while the plasmid-encodedslpcomplementation of the deletion mutant strain restored the wild-type pattern. These data support the proposal that Slp directly contributes to initial adherence, with the pIgR protein as its proposed receptor.Author summaryEscherichia coliO157:H7 and other enterohemorrhagicE. coli(EHEC) are responsible for tens of thousands of cases of food-borne illness in the United States each year.E. coliO157:H7 has a particularly effective intimate adherence mechanism. However, the mechanisms of initial adherence, which facilitate attachment and virulence prior to the engagement of intimate adherence, are not well understood. In this study, we describe an initial adherence interaction between theE. coliO157:H7 Slp and the human polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) expressed by the human colonic epithelial cell line Caco-2. The relationship was first demonstrated as a significant colocalization between the locations ofE. coliO157:H7 bacterial cells and pIgR protein using immunofluorescence microscopy. TheE. coliO157:H7 Slp protein was identified, and disruption of theslpgene resulted in a severe adherence deficiency to Caco-2 cells during initial adherence. This effect was reversed upon complementation of the Δslpstrain with a plasmid-encodedslpgene, and the constitutive over-expression ofslpresulted in hyper-adherence exceeding that of the wild-typeE. coliO157:H7. These data support the proposition that Slp directly contributes to initial adherence, with the pIgR protein as its proposed receptor.

2004 ◽  
Vol 70 (8) ◽  
pp. 4792-4799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart B. Price ◽  
James C. Wright ◽  
Fred J. DeGraves ◽  
Marie-Pierre Castanie-Cornet ◽  
John W. Foster

ABSTRACT Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a highly acid-resistant food-borne pathogen that survives in the bovine and human gastrointestinal tracts and in acidic foods such as apple cider. This property is thought to contribute to the low infectious dose of the organism. Three acid resistance (AR) systems are expressed in stationary-phase cells. AR system 1 is σS dependent, while AR systems 2 and 3 are glutamate and arginine dependent, respectively. In this study, we sought to determine which AR systems are important for survival in acidic foods and which are required for survival in the bovine intestinal tract. Wild-type and mutant E. coli O157:H7 strains deficient in AR system 1, 2, or 3 were challenged with apple cider and inoculated into calves. Wild-type cells, adapted at pH 5.5 in the absence of glucose (AR system 1 induced), survived well in apple cider. Conversely, the mutant deficient in AR system 1, shown previously to survive poorly in calves, was susceptible to apple cider (pH 3.5), and this sensitivity was shown to be caused by low pH. Interestingly, the AR system 2-deficient mutant survived in apple cider at high levels, but its shedding from calves was significantly decreased compared to that of wild-type cells. AR system 3-deficient cells survived well in both apple cider and calves. Taken together, these results indicate that E. coli O157:H7 utilizes different acid resistance systems based on the type of acidic environment encountered.


2000 ◽  
Vol 66 (11) ◽  
pp. 4926-4934 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. A. Cornick ◽  
S. L. Booher ◽  
T. A. Casey ◽  
H. W. Moon

ABSTRACT Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is an important cause of food-borne illness in humans. Ruminants appear to be more frequently colonized by STEC than are other animals, but the reason(s) for this is unknown. We compared the frequency, magnitude, duration, and transmissibility of colonization of sheep by E. coli O157:H7 to that by other pathotypes of E. coli. Young adult sheep were simultaneously inoculated with a cocktail consisting of two strains of E. coli O157:H7, two strains of enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), and one strain of enteropathogenic E. coli. Both STEC strains and ETEC 2041 were given at either 107 or 1010CFU/strain/animal. The other strains were given only at 1010 CFU/strain. We found no consistent differences among pathotypes in the frequency, magnitude, and transmissibility of colonization. However, the STEC strains tended to persist to 2 weeks and 2 months postinoculation more frequently than did the other pathotypes. The tendency for persistence of the STEC strains was apparent following an inoculation dose of either 107 or 1010 CFU. One of the ETEC strains also persisted when inoculated at 1010 CFU. However, in contrast to the STEC strains, it did not persist when inoculated at 107 CFU. These results support the hypothesis that STEC is better adapted to persist in the alimentary tracts of sheep than are other pathotypes ofE. coli.


Author(s):  
T. S. Schwach ◽  
E. A. Zottola

Microbiologists have traditionally studied pure cultures growing in laboratory media. Food microbiologists, interested in interactions between the food system, pathogen, and host have tried to extrapolate information in the same manner. However, clinical isolates readily lose virulence characteristics when repeatedly subcultured into laboratory media. Expression of many virulence factors, such as fimbriae, extracellular polymers and outer membrane adhesins are affected by growth environment; an environment which encompasses not only nutrient availability and growth temperature, but also physical surroundings, moisture, oxygen and pH levels, and the presence of competitive flora. The ability of an organism to adhere to a surface is a major virulence factor.Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) are one of five groups of enteropathic E. coli which cause intestinal disease world-wide. The most well known of this group, serotype O157:H7, has been implicated in major food-borne illness outbreaks primarily due to the consumption of undercooked hamburgers. They are found in the intestinal tracts of cattle, feces, hanging carcasses, and frozen ground beef. E. coli O157:H7 adheres to large intestinal epithelium with characteristic lesions and produces verocytoxins which damage internal organs, such as the kidney.


1998 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAMESWAR R. ELLAJOSYULA ◽  
STEPHANIE DOORES ◽  
EDWARD W. MILLS ◽  
RICHARD A. WILSON ◽  
RAMASWAMY C. ANANTHESWARAN ◽  
...  

Fermented meats have caused food-borne illness due to enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli. Consumption of Lebanon bologna was epidemiologically associated with a recent outbreak of salmonellosis. The present study was conducted to determine the effects of pH (after the fermentation step), final heating temperature, and time on destruction of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella typhimurium in Lebanon bologna. Raw Lebanon bologna mix was inoculated with either of the pathogens (ca. 108 CFU/g) and fermented for 12 h at 80°F (26.7°C) and then at 100°F (37.8°C) until the pH reached either 5.2 or 4.7. The mix was then heated to 110,115, or 120°F (43.3, 46.1, or 48.9°C). The bologna was sampled at various times, decimally diluted, and plated on either McConkey sorbitol agar or XLD agar to enumerate E. coli O157:H7 and S. typhimurium, respectively. Fermentation alone reduced populations of both pathogens by <2 log units and heating alone reduced populations of E. coli O157:H7 by < 3 log units. A combination of fermenting to either pH 5.2 or 4.7, followed by heating at 110°F (43.3°C) for 20 h, 115°F (46.1°C) for 10 h, or 120°F (48.9°C) for 3 h reduced populations of both pathogens by >7 log units. Overall, S. typhimurium cells were either equally or significantly less resistant (P < 0.01) than cells of E. coli O157:H7. Significant interactions (P < 0.01) among the three factors for the destruction of E. coli O157:H7 were observed. A process-specific regression equation was developed to predict the destruction of E. coli O157:H7 in Lebanon bologna.


2003 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 3088-3096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Redford ◽  
Paula L. Roesch ◽  
Rodney A. Welch

ABSTRACT Extraintestinal Escherichia coli strains cause meningitis, sepsis, urinary tract infection, and other infections outside the bowel. We examined here extraintestinal E. coli strain CFT073 by differential fluorescence induction. Pools of CFT073 clones carrying a CFT073 genomic fragment library in a promoterless gfp vector were inoculated intraperitoneally into mice; bacteria were recovered by lavage 6 h later and then subjected to fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Eleven promoters were found to be active in the mouse but not in Luria-Bertani (LB) broth culture. Three are linked to genes for enterobactin, aerobactin, and yersiniabactin. Three others are linked to the metabolic genes metA, gltB, and sucA, and another was linked to iha, a possible adhesin. Three lie before open reading frames of unknown function. One promoter is associated with degS, an inner membrane protease. Mutants of the in vivo-induced loci were tested in competition with the wild type in mouse peritonitis. Of the mutants tested, only CFT073 degS was found to be attenuated in peritoneal and in urinary tract infection, with virulence restored by complementation. CFT073 degS shows growth similar to that of the wild type at 37°C but is impaired at 43°C or in 3% ethanol LB broth at 37°C. Compared to the wild type, the mutant shows similar serum survival, motility, hemolysis, erythrocyte agglutination, and tolerance to oxidative stress. It also has the same lipopolysaccharide appearance on a silver-stained gel. The basis for the virulence attenuation is unclear, but because DegS is needed for σE activity, our findings implicate σE and its regulon in E. coli extraintestinal pathogenesis.


2005 ◽  
Vol 71 (7) ◽  
pp. 3468-3474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyeong Tae Eom ◽  
Jae Kwang Song ◽  
Jung Hoon Ahn ◽  
Yeon Soo Seo ◽  
Joon Shick Rhee

ABSTRACT The ABC transporter (TliDEF) from Pseudomonas fluorescens SIK W1, which mediated the secretion of a thermostable lipase (TliA) into the extracellular space in Escherichia coli, was engineered using directed evolution (error-prone PCR) to improve its secretion efficiency. TliD mutants with increased secretion efficiency were identified by coexpressing the mutated tliD library with the wild-type tliA lipase in E. coli and by screening the library with a tributyrin-emulsified indicator plate assay and a microtiter plate-based assay. Four selected mutants from one round of error-prone PCR mutagenesis, T6, T8, T24, and T35, showed 3.2-, 2.6-, 2.9-, and 3.0-fold increases in the level of secretion of TliA lipase, respectively, but had almost the same level of expression of TliD in the membrane as the strain with the wild-type TliDEF transporter. These results indicated that the improved secretion of TliA lipase was mediated by the transporter mutations. Each mutant had a single amino acid change in the predicted cytoplasmic regions in the membrane domain of TliD, implying that the corresponding region of TliD was important for the improved and successful secretion of the target protein. We therefore concluded that the efficiency of secretion of a heterologous protein in E. coli can be enhanced by in vitro engineering of the ABC transporter.


2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (17) ◽  
pp. 5187-5197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Sperandio ◽  
Alfredo G. Torres ◽  
Jorge A. Girón ◽  
James B. Kaper

ABSTRACT Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 is responsible for outbreaks of bloody diarrhea and hemolytic-uremic syndrome in many countries. EHEC virulence mechanisms include the production of Shiga toxins (Stx) and formation of attaching and effacing (AE) lesions on intestinal epithelial cells. We recently reported that genes involved in the formation of the AE lesion were regulated by quorum sensing through autoinducer-2, which is synthesized by the product of the luxS gene. In this study we hybridized an E. coli gene array with cDNA synthesized from RNA that was extracted from EHEC strain 86-24 and its isogenicluxS mutant. We observed that 404 genes were regulated by luxS at least fivefold, which comprises approximately 10% of the array genes; 235 of these genes were up-regulated and 169 were down-regulated in the wild-type strain compared to in theluxS mutant. Down-regulated genes included several involved in cell division, as well as ribosomal and tRNA genes. Consistent with this pattern of gene expression, theluxS mutant grows faster than the wild-type strain (generation times of 37.5 and 60 min, respectively, in Dulbecco modified Eagle medium). Up-regulated genes included several involved in the expression and assembly of flagella, motility, and chemotaxis. Using operon::lacZ fusions to class I, II, and III flagellar genes, we were able to confirm this transcriptional regulation. We also observed fewer flagella by Western blotting and electron microscopy and decreased motility halos in semisolid agar in the luxS mutant. The average swimming speeds for the wild-type strain and the luxS mutant are 12.5 and 6.6 μm/s, respectively. We also observed an increase in the production of Stx due to quorum sensing. Genes encoding Stx, which are transcribed along with λ-like phage genes, are induced by an SOS response, and genes involved in the SOS response were also regulated by quorum sensing. These results indicate that quorum sensing is a global regulatory mechanism for basic physiological functions of E. coli as well as for virulence factors.


1982 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 534-537
Author(s):  
S Mitra ◽  
B C Pal ◽  
R S Foote

O(6)-Methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase is induced in Escherichia coli during growth in low levels of N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. We have developed a sensitive assay for quantitating low levels of this activity with a synthetic DNA substrate containing 3H-labeled O(6)-methylguanine as the only modified base. Although both wild-type and adaptation-deficient (ada) mutants of E. coli contained low but comparable numbers (from 13 to 60) of the enzyme molecules per cell, adaptation treatment caused a significant increase of the enzyme in the wild type but not in the ada mutants, suggesting that the ada mutation is in a regulatory locus and not in the structural gene for the methyltransferase.


1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 2380-2386 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J Everett ◽  
Y F Jin ◽  
V Ricci ◽  
L J Piddock

Twenty-eight human isolates of Escherichia coli from Argentina and Spain and eight veterinary isolates received from the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Foods in the United Kingdom required 2 to > 128 micrograms of ciprofloxacin per ml for inhibition. Fragments of gyrA and parC encompassing the quinolone resistance-determining region were amplified by PCR, and the DNA sequences of the fragments were determined. All isolates contained a mutation in gyrA of a serine at position 83 (Ser83) to an Leu, and 26 isolates also contained a mutation of Asp87 to one of four amino acids: Asn (n = 14), Tyr (n = 6), Gly (n = 5), or His (n = 1). Twenty-four isolates contained a single mutation in parC, either a Ser80 to Ile (n = 17) or Arg (n = 2) or a Glu84 to Lys (n = 3). The role of a mutation in gyrB was investigated by introducing wild-type gyrB (pBP548) into all isolates; for three transformants MICs of ciprofloxacin were reduced; however, sequencing of PCR-derived fragments containing the gyrB quinolone resistance-determining region revealed no changes. The analogous region of parE was analyzed in 34 of 36 isolates by single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis and sequencing; however, no amino acid substitutions were discovered. The outer membrane protein and lipopolysaccharide profiles of all isolates were compared with those of reference strains, and the concentration of ciprofloxacin accumulated (with or without 100 microM carbony cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone [CCCP] was determined. Twenty-two isolates accumulated significantly lower concentrations of ciprofloxacin than the wild-type E. coli isolate; nine isolates accumulated less then half the concentration. The addition of CCCP increased the concentration of ciprofloxacin accumulated, and in all but one isolate the percent increase was greater than that in the control strains. The data indicate that high-level fluoroquinolone resistance in E. coli involves the acquisition of mutations at multiple loci.


1970 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 99-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Biswas ◽  
MAK Parvez ◽  
M Shafiquzzaman ◽  
S Nahar ◽  
MN Rahman

Context: Escherichia coli is shed in the feces of warm blooded animals and humans and thus potential for public health. Detection and characterization of E. coli in the ready-to-eat (RTE) foods concerns due to their presence indicates fecal contamination of the food.   Objective: To identify, characterize and RFLP pattern analysis of E. coli isolated from RTE foods vended in Islamic University campus, Kushtia.   Materials and Methods: Fifty samples from four types of consumed foods in six student halls of residence, some temporary restaurants of Islamic University, Kushtia were assessed for bacterial contamination by standard methods. Identification and characterization of E. coli isolates were performed using IMViC tests. Genomic DNA was used to perform RFLP pattern analysis.   Results: Thirty seven out of 50 (74%) examined samples of RTE foods had E. coli contamination. The highest number of E. coli was isolated from vegetable oriented RTE foods (90.90%) and fish, meat and cereals samples were also significantly E. coli positive. RFLP profiling of two E. coli isolates were observed.   Conclusion: The results of this study provide evidence that some RTE foods had unsatisfactory levels of contamination with E. coli. Thus street vended RTE food could be important potential vehicles for food-borne diseases. Molecular characterization may be exploited to identify food borne pathogen among different species.  Keywords: Ready-to-eat foods; Escherichia coli; RFLP pattern DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbs.v18i0.8783 JBS 2010; 18(0): 99-103


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