Brucella abortus Depends on L-Serine Biosynthesis for Intracellular Proliferation

ABSTRACT l-Serine is a nonessential amino acid and a key intermediate in several relevant metabolic pathways. In bacteria, the major source of l-serine is the phosphorylated pathway, which comprises three enzymes: d-3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PGDH; SerA), phosphoserine amino transferase (PSAT; SerC), and l-phosphoserine phosphatase (PSP; SerB). The Brucella abortus genome encodes two PGDHs (SerA-1 and SerA-2), involved in the first step in l-serine biosynthesis, and one PSAT and one PSP, responsible for the second and third steps, respectively. In this study, we demonstrate that the serA1 serA2 double mutant and the serC and serB single mutants are auxotrophic for l-serine. These auxotrophic mutants can be internalized but are unable to replicate in HeLa cells and in J774A.1 macrophage-like cells. Replication defects of auxotrophic mutants can be reverted by cell medium supplementation with l-serine at early times postinfection. In addition, the serB mutant is attenuated in the murine intraperitoneal infection model and has an altered lipid composition, since the lack of l-serine abrogates phosphatidylethanolamine synthesis in this strain. Taken together, these results reveal that limited availability of l-serine within the host cell impairs proliferation of the auxotrophic strains, highlighting the relevance of this biosynthetic pathway in Brucella pathogenicity.

Rational Design of Biosafety Level 2-Approved, Multidrug-Resistant Strains ofMycobacterium tuberculosisthrough Nutrient Auxotrophy

ABSTRACTMultidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, defined as tuberculosis resistant to the two first-line drugs isoniazid and rifampin, poses a serious problem for global tuberculosis control strategies. Lack of a safe and convenient model organism hampers progress in combating the spread of MDR strains ofMycobacterium tuberculosis. We reasoned that auxotrophic MDR mutants ofM. tuberculosiswould provide a safe means for studying MDRM. tuberculosiswithout the need for a biosafety level 3 (BSL3) laboratory. Two different sets of triple auxotrophic mutants ofM. tuberculosiswere generated, which were auxotrophic for the nutrients leucine, pantothenate, and arginine or for leucine, pantothenate, and methionine. These triple auxotrophic strains retained their acid-fastness, their ability to generate both a drug persistence phenotype and drug-resistant mutants, and their susceptibility to plaque-forming mycobacterial phages. MDR triple auxotrophic mutants were obtained in a two-step fashion, selecting first for solely isoniazid-resistant or rifampin-resistant mutants. Interestingly, selection for isoniazid-resistant mutants of the methionine auxotroph generated isolates with single point mutations inkatG, which encodes an isoniazid-activating enzyme, whereas similar selection using the arginine auxotroph yielded isoniazid-resistant mutants with large deletions in the chromosomal region containingkatG. TheseM. tuberculosisMDR strains were readily sterilized by second-line tuberculosis drugs and failed to kill immunocompromised mice. These strains provide attractive candidates forM. tuberculosisbiology studies and drug screening outside the BSL3 facility.IMPORTANCEElimination ofMycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium causing tuberculosis, requires enhanced understanding of its biology in order to identify new drugs against drug-susceptible and drug-resistantM. tuberculosisas well as uncovering novel pathways that lead toM. tuberculosisdeath. To circumvent the need for a biosafety level 3 (BSL3) laboratory when conducting research onM. tuberculosis, we have generated drug-susceptible and drug-resistant triple auxotrophic strains ofM. tuberculosissuitable for use in a BSL2 laboratory. These strains originate from a double auxotrophicM. tuberculosisstrain, H37Rv ΔpanCDΔleuCD, which was reclassified as a BSL2 strain based on its lack of lethality in immunocompromised and immunocompetent mice. A third auxotrophy (methionine or arginine) was introduced via deletion ofmetAorargB, respectively, sinceM. tuberculosisΔmetAandM. tuberculosisΔargBare unable to survive amino acid auxotrophy and infect their host. The resulting triple auxotrophicM. tuberculosisstrains retained characteristics ofM. tuberculosisrelevant for most types of investigations.

Identification and Characterization of Spontaneous Auxotrophic Mutants in Fusarium langsethiae

Analysis of 49 strains of F. langsethiae originating from northern Europe (Russia, Finland, Sweden, UK, Norway, and Latvia) revealed the presence of spontaneous auxotrophic mutants that reflect natural intraspecific diversity. Our investigations detected that 49.0% of F. langsethiae strains were auxotrophic mutants for biotin, and 8.2% of the strains required thiamine as a growth factor. They failed to grow on vitamin-free media. For both prototrophic and auxotrophic strains, no growth defect was observed in rich organic media. Without essential vitamins, a significant reduction in the growth of the auxotrophic strains results in a decrease of the formation of T-2 toxin and diacetoxyscirpenol. In addition, all analysed F. langsethiae strains were distinguished into two subgroups based on PCR product sizes. According to our results, 26 and 23 strains of F. langsethiae belong to subgroups I and II respectively. We determined that the deletion in the IGS region of the rDNA of F. langsethiae belonging to subgroup II is linked with temperature sensitivity and causes a decrease in strain growth at 30 °C. Four thiamine auxotrophic strains were found in subgroup I, while 21 biotin auxotrophic strains were detected in subgroups II. To the best of our knowledge, the spontaneous mutations in F. langsethiae observed in the present work have not been previously reported.

Metabolic Engineering of Probiotic Saccharomyces boulardii

ABSTRACTSaccharomyces boulardiiis a probiotic yeast that has been used for promoting gut health as well as preventing diarrheal diseases. This yeast not only exhibits beneficial phenotypes for gut health but also can stay longer in the gut thanSaccharomyces cerevisiae. Therefore,S. boulardiiis an attractive host for metabolic engineering to produce biomolecules of interest in the gut. However, the lack of auxotrophic strains with defined genetic backgrounds has hampered the use of this strain for metabolic engineering. Here, we report the development of well-defined auxotrophic mutants (leu2,ura3,his3, andtrp1) through clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-Cas9-based genome editing. The resulting auxotrophic mutants can be used as a host for introducing various genetic perturbations, such as overexpression or deletion of a target gene, using existing genetic tools forS. cerevisiae. We demonstrated the overexpression of a heterologous gene (lacZ), the correct localization of a target protein (red fluorescent protein) into mitochondria by using a protein localization signal, and the introduction of a heterologous metabolic pathway (xylose-assimilating pathway) in the genome ofS. boulardii. We further demonstrated that human lysozyme, which is beneficial for human gut health, could be secreted byS. boulardii. Our results suggest that more sophisticated genetic perturbations to improveS. boulardiican be performed without using a drug resistance marker, which is a prerequisite forin vivoapplications using engineeredS. boulardii.

Isolation and Molecular Identification of Auxotrophic Mutants to Develop a Genetic Manipulation System for the HaloarchaeonNatrinemasp. J7-2

Our understanding of the genusNatrinemais presently limited due to the lack of available genetic tools. Auxotrophic markers have been widely used to construct genetic systems in bacteria and eukaryotes and in some archaeal species. Here, we isolated four auxotrophic mutants ofNatrinemasp. J7-2, via 1-methyl-3-nitro-1-nitroso-guanidin mutagenesis, and designated them as J7-2-1, J7-2-22, J7-2-26, and J7-2-52, respectively. The mutant phenotypes were determined to be auxotrophic for leucine (J7-2-1), arginine (J7-2-22 and J7-2-52), and lysine (J7-2-26). The complete genome and the biosynthetic pathways of amino acids in J7-2 identified that the auxotrophic phenotype of three mutants was due to gene mutations inleuB(J7-2-1),dapD(J7-2-26), andargC(J7-2-52). These auxotrophic phenotypes were employed as selectable makers to establish a transformation method. The transformation efficiencies were determined to be approximately 103transformants perµg DNA. And strains J7-2-1 and J7-2-26 were transformed into prototrophic strains with the wild type genomic DNA, amplified fragments of the corresponding genes, or the integrative plasmids carrying the corresponding genes. Additionally, exogenous genes,bgaHoramyHgene, were expressed successfully in J7-2-1. Thus, we have developed a genetic manipulation system for theNatrinemagenus based on the isolated auxotrophic mutants ofNatrinemasp. J7-2.

Construction of a Quadruple Auxotrophic Mutant of an Industrial Polyploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae Strain by Using RNA-Guided Cas9 Nuclease

ABSTRACTIndustrial polyploid yeast strains harbor numerous beneficial traits but suffer from a lack of available auxotrophic markers for genetic manipulation. Here we demonstrated a quick and efficient strategy to generate auxotrophic markers in industrial polyploid yeast strains with the RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease. We successfully constructed a quadruple auxotrophic mutant of a popular industrial polyploid yeast strain,Saccharomyces cerevisiaeATCC 4124, withura3,trp1,leu2, andhis3auxotrophies through RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease. Even though multiple alleles of auxotrophic marker genes had to be disrupted simultaneously, we observed knockouts in up to 60% of the positive colonies after targeted gene disruption. In addition, growth-based spotting assays and fermentation experiments showed that the auxotrophic mutants inherited the beneficial traits of the parental strain, such as tolerance of major fermentation inhibitors and high temperature. Moreover, the auxotrophic mutants could be transformed with plasmids containing selection marker genes. These results indicate that precise gene disruptions based on the RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease now enable metabolic engineering of polyploidS. cerevisiaestrains that have been widely used in the wine, beer, and fermentation industries.