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Infection and Immunity, July 1999, p. 3662-3666, Vol. 67, No. 7
Department of Microbiology, College of
Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York
10032
Received 11 December 1998/Returned for modification 18 January
1999/Accepted 19 April 1999
We report the identification of a set of Legionella
pneumophila genes that encode products with homology to proteins
of the type II general secretion pathway of gram-negative bacteria. A strain containing a deletion-substitution mutation of two of these genes was unable to secrete the Msp protease. This strain was unable to
multiply within the free-living amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii yet was able to kill HL-60-derived macrophages.
Because Msp is not required for growth in amoebae, other proteins which are important for growth in amoebae are likely secreted by this pathway.
Legionella pneumophila is
the gram-negative facultative intracellular pathogen responsible
for Legionnaires' disease. L. pneumophila is
able to infect and multiply within a variety of eukaryotic hosts,
including human mononuclear phagocytes, and a wide variety of protozoa
including the free-living amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii. The bacteria are phagocytosed via a unique coiling mechanism and reside
in a specialized phagosome that does not acidify or fuse with
lysosomes. Following replication, the host cell lyses and the bacteria
are released and are able to initiate a new infection cycle (for
reviews, see references 1, 18, 46, and
47).
Identification of the lspFGHIJK genes.
As part of
an effort to identify regulatory proteins of L. pneumophila, we attempted to complement a mutant gene product from Escherichia coli (20, 21). Maintenance and growth
of E. coli and L. pneumophila and all DNA
manipulations were carried out as described previously
(39). A library of EcoRI-digested genomic DNA of
L. pneumophila Philadelphia-1 cloned into the vector
pMMB207 (31, 39) was used in a complementation screen.
DNA sequencing of the vector-L. pneumophila genomic DNA
junctions of a particular clone (plasmid pLM511) revealed homology to
the DNA sequence encoding xcpS (gspF).
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Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Legionella pneumophila Contains a Type II General
Secretion Pathway Required for Growth in Amoebae as Well as
for Secretion of the Msp Protease
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ABSTRACT
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TEXT
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Construction of a strain containing a mutation in the lspGH genes. To help identify protein products secreted by the L. pneumophila GSP, we constructed a mutation in the lspGH genes. The 4,279-bp EcoRI fragment from pLM511 was subcloned into pBR322 to generate pLM569. Plasmid pLM569 was digested with NcoI to remove an internal 587-bp fragment (Fig. 1). The larger 3,692-bp NcoI fragment containing the vector sequences was treated with Klenow enzyme, and a ligation was performed between the Klenow-treated fragment and a 2,118-bp HincII DNA fragment encoding gentamicin resistance (a gift from David Figurski). This resulted in plasmid pLM808 containing an gentamicin resistance cassette inserted within the lspGH-coding region (Fig. 1). Because the coding regions for the lspGHIJK genes overlap, such an insertion would likely be polar on the lspIJK genes and would therefore represent a null phenotype of the L. pneumophila GSP.
The 5,232-bp EcoRV fragment containing lspFGH::GentrIJKorf1 from plasmid pLM808 was subcloned into the EcoRV site of the vector pLAW344 for allelic exchange (50). The resultant plasmid, pLM826, was electroporated into the wild-type strain L. pneumophila JR32. Allelic exchange of the lspGH::Gentr mutation onto the chromosome of JR32 was performed as described previously (50) and generated strain LM1520. Southern blot analysis confirmed the construction (data not shown). A complementing plasmid, pLM828, was constructed by cloning the original 4,279-bp EcoRI fragment containing the lspFGHIJKorf1 genes from pLM511 into the vector pMMB207
c (a mobA Kans derivative of
pMMB207
b-Km-14 [45]). Plasmid pLM828 was
electroporated into strain LM1520, resulting in strain LM1559. Strain
LM1558 is strain LM1520 containing the vector pMMB207
c.
Identification of a protein secreted by the L. pneumophila GSP. We were next interested in identifying a protein secreted by this system. A prime candidate is the major secretory protein (Msp) of L. pneumophila. Msp is a 38-kDa Zn2+ metalloprotease with caseinolytic and hemolytic activities and is the most abundant protein found in culture supernatants (17, 24). Msp contains homology to elastase, a Zn2+ metalloprotease which is secreted by the xcp-encoded GSP of P. aeruginosa (5, 25).
A simple test for the extracellular proteolytic activity of a msp+ strain is a ring of casein hydrolysis around a patch of wild-type L. pneumophila organisms grown on a agar plate containing casein (48). We tested the ability of the strain containing the mutation in lspGH to hydrolyze casein. Strains LM1558 and LM1559 were patched onto buffered yeast starch extract (BYSE) medium containing 10 g of casein per liter as described previously (48). As a control, we patched the wild-type strain JR32 onto the same plate. We also patched strains LS2102 (L. pneumophila mspA1::Tn9) and its cognate wild-type parent LS2029 (48) as Msp
and Msp+
controls, respectively.
A ring of hydrolysis was observed around the patch of JR32 growth but
not around the patch of LM1558 growth (Fig.
2). This result indicates that the strain
LM1558 cannot hydrolyze casein. Because the caseinolytic activity of
Msp accounts for virtually all of the proteolytic activity of
L. pneumophila (13, 48), we conclude
that strain LM1558 is defective in the secretion of Msp. Plasmid
pLM828 containing the wild-type lspFGHIJK genes
(strain LM1559) is able to complement the inability to hydrolyze casein (Fig. 2). This result provides evidence that the Msp
phenotype of strain LM1558 is due to the loss of the
L. pneumophila GSP and not to an extraneous
mutation elsewhere in the genome.
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strain LS2102 were analyzed for the presence of Msp, and the results
compared to cell culture supernatants of strains JR32, LM1558, and
LM1559. No Msp was observed in the culture supernatant of strain
LS2102, as predicted (Fig. 3A). The
culture supernatant from strain LM1558 contains low levels of Msp
activity compared to that in the supernatant of the wild-type strain
JR32 (Fig. 3A). Plasmid pLM828 containing the wild-type
lspFGHIJK genes (strain LM1559) is able to complement the
inability to secrete Msp into the culture supernatant (Fig. 3A). Taken
together with the results from the casein hydrolysis experiment, these
results confirm that Msp is a substrate for the L. pneumophila GSP. The fact that Msp requires secretion by the GSP
confirms the functionality of the system in L. pneumophila. It has been shown that wild-type E. coli
possesses a complete GSP operon, but this operon is not expressed during growth under laboratory conditions (19, 36).
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and Lsp+
strains differed significantly (Fig. 3B). The proteins from an SDS-PAGE
gel were electroblotted onto a polyvinyl difluoride
membrane (Millipore), and three bands (p74, p49, and p36) were
excised from the membrane. The samples were subjected to N-terminal
sequencing for 8 cycles each (Protein Chemistry Core Facility, Columbia
University). In this manner, the N-terminal amino acid sequences were
obtained for p74 (AQPTACVN), p49 (YYTSQGSI), and p36 (KDVYEIKH). The
sequence databases do not contain any proteins with homology to these
three amino acid sequences. The proteins p74, p49, and p36 represent examples of additional proteins that are likely secreted by the L. pneumophila GSP (Fig. 3B).
Analysis of the intracellular growth phenotype of the strain containing a mutation in the lsp genes. We were then interested in examining the ability of the strain containing a mutation in the lspGH genes to replicate within eukaryotic hosts. We first tested the ability of strain LM1520 for cytotoxicity of HL-60-derived macrophages. The assay was performed as described previously (27, 28). The cytotoxicity of strain LM1520 was compared with the results obtained from the L. pneumophila wild-type strain, JR32, and the mutant strain 25D (22). Strain LM1520 was able to kill macrophages in a manner identical to that of wild-type strain JR32 (data not shown). This finding indicates that the putative secretion system encoded by the lsp operon, or a protein secreted by it, is not required for killing of a macrophage-like cell line.
L. pneumophila also has the ability to multiply intracellularly within the free-living amoeba A. castellanii (12, 30, 40, 41). Therefore, strain LM1558 was tested for its ability to replicate within amoebae. Growth and maintenance of A. castellanii was carried out as described previously (12, 30). The assay for replication within amoebae was based on previously described methods (12, 30). L. pneumophila at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 10 was added to an adherent monolayer of 1.2 × 105 amoebae. After incubation for 30 min at 37°C to allow for infection, the wells were washed three times with 0.5 ml of Acanthamoeba medium buffer to remove extracellular bacteria. A sample of the infection supernatant was removed once every 24 h for 4 days. Colony forming units (CFUs) of extracellular bacteria were quantitated on ACES-buffered charcoal yeast extract (ABCYE) plates. Wild-type strain JR32 replicated 104-fold within 72 h while the mutant strain 25D did not (Fig. 4A). Strain LM1558 containing a mutation in the lspGH genes is clearly defective for replication within amoebae. The 4,279-bp EcoRI fragment was able to complement the growth defect in A. castellanii (Fig. 4A). Therefore, either the secretion apparatus itself or, more likely, another protein that is secreted by this system is required for replication within protozoa. In order to rule out Msp as this protein, we tested the ability of strains LS2029 (Msp+) and LS2102 (Msp
) to replicate within A. castellanii.
The results show that both strains replicate approximately
104-fold in amoebae (Fig. 4B). This result indicates that
the growth defect of strain LM1558 in amoebae is not due to the
inability of this strain to secrete Msp and provides evidence for the
existence of other secreted proteins that are important for growth in
amoebae. An alternative explanation for our results is that the
deletion-substitution mutation is polar on expression of
orf1, and it is the orf1 gene product that is
required for growth within amoebae. However, we do not believe that
orf1 contributes to this phenotype because the open reading
frames of the lspGHIJK genes overlap and there is
considerable distance between the end of lspK and the
beginning of orf1 (314 bp). Additionally, orf1
does not have homology to genes in the GSP family, further suggesting
that it is not a member of this operon. Therefore, we believe that it
is unlikely that a mutation in lspGH would affect the
function, if any, of orf1.
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Nucleotide sequence accession number. The L. pneumophila lspFGHIJK sequence has been deposited in the GenBank database under accession no. AF111940.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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We thank Tony Pugsley for insightful discussions; Pat Higgins for E. coli NH757, the strain that was used in the complementation experiment; David Figurski for the gentamicin resistance cassette; and Carmen Rodriguez for laboratory maintenance.
L.M.H. was supported in part by NIH training grant AI-07161 and by NRSA grant AI-09718. This work was supported by NIH grant AI-23549 to H.A.S.
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ADDENDUM IN PROOF |
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Liles et al. (M. R. Liles, P. H. Edelstein, and N. P. Cianciott, Mol. Microbiol. 31:959-970, 1999) recently showed that a pilD mutant strain is defective in the secretion of Msp, which further supports our hypothesis that PilD functions as the prepilin peptidase in the Legionella pneumophila GSP.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 701 West 168th St., New York, NY 10032. Phone: (212) 305-6913. Fax: (212) 305-1468. E-mail: shuman{at}cuccfa.ccc.columbia.edu.
Editor: P. J. Sansonetti
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