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Infection and Immunity, August 2002, p. 4721-4725, Vol. 70, No. 8
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.8.4721-4725.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Role of the High-Affinity Zinc Uptake znuABC System in Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Virulence
Susana Campoy,1 Mónica Jara,1 Núria Busquets,1 Ana M. Pérez de Rozas,2 Ignacio Badiola,2* and Jordi Barbé1,2*
Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,1
Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentària (UAB-IRTA), Bellaterra 08193, Barcelona, Spain2
Received 24 January 2002/
Returned for modification 2 April 2002/
Accepted 25 April 2002

ABSTRACT
The
Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium
znuABC genes encoding
a high-affinity zinc uptake system and its regulatory
zur gene
have been cloned.
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
zur and
znuC knockout mutants have been constructed by marker exchange. The
50% lethal dose of the
znuC mutant increased when either orally
or intraperitoneally inoculated in BALB/c mice, while virulence
of the
zur mutant decreased only when mice were intraperitoneally
challenged.

TEXT
Zinc plays an important role in living organisms in which the
functioning of many enzymes and structural proteins is involved.
In
Escherichia coli, two systems have been described for zinc
uptake: a high-affinity system, which is made up of the products
of the
znuABC genes, and a low-affinity system depending on
the
pitA gene (
2,
16). The first is negatively regulated by
the Zur protein (
17), whereas the second seems to be constitutively
expressed and is also related to cellular inorganic phosphate
transport (
2). The
znuA,
znuC, and
znuB operons (encoding a
periplasmic-binding protein, an ATPase, and an integral membrane
protein, respectively) are divergently oriented, and their transcriptional
starting points are separated by 24 bp (
17). The Zur protein
belongs to the Fur family of metalloregulatory proteins, and
in the presence of Zn
2+, it binds to a nearly perfect palindrome
found in this region, blocking both
znuA and
znuCB transcription
(
17). If other genes under the Zur protein control exist, they
remain to be elucidated.
The zur gene has also been functionally described in Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes (5, 7, 13). Putative E. coli-like zur genes have also been identified in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (the np20 gene) and Vibrio cholerae (the iviXI gene) through in vivo expression technology (4, 23). Analysis of unfinished sequences of different organisms has revealed the presence of similar zur-znuABC systems in different bacterial families such as Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Neissereaceae, and Pasteurellaceae, among others (17). Few and sometimes contradictory data on the importance of the zinc uptake systems in bacterial virulence are available. All of these data correspond to extracellular pathogens. Thus, it has been described that Haemophilus influenzae znuA and P. aeruginosa np20 mutants are less virulent than wild-type strains (12, 23). On the other hand, virulence is not affected in an S. aureus zur mutant (13). Moreover, information about the role of zinc in intracellular pathogens does not exist. In this work, the importance of the zur and znuC genes in the virulence of the facultative intracellular pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium has been determined through the construction of zur and znuC knockout mutant derivatives.
Cloning of Salmonella serovar Typhimurium zur and znuC genes.
To clone the zur and znuC genes, similarity searches were performed on the incomplete Salmonella serovar Typhimurium sequence genome database (http://www.genome.wustl.edu/gsc) from the Genome Sequencing Center of Washington University by using their homologs from E. coli as a probe. In this way, sequences corresponding to the Salmonella serovar Typhimurium zur and znuABC genes were identified. Salmonella serovar Typhimurium ATCC 14028 chromosomal DNA was used as a template to amplify the zur and znuC genes, as well as their surrounding regions, with oligonucleotide primers designed from the data obtained in the sequencing search (Table 1). These data pointed out that, as in E. coli, the Salmonella serovar Typhimurium znuA and znuCB genes are separated by a very short intergenic region (25 bp) and they are divergently transcribed.
PCR products of the expected size (943 bp and 1,447 bp containing
the
zur gene and the promoter of the
znuA and
znuC genes, respectively,
as well as the encoding region of the former) were obtained.
These fragments were cloned in pGEM-T, transformed in
E. coli DH5

, and sequenced to confirm the presence of the desired gene.
Similarity values existing between the
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
and
E. coli zur and
znuAC genes were 85 and 95%, respectively.
Construction and phenotypic characterization of zur and znuC knockout mutants.
To obtain zur and znuC knockout mutants, a 3.5-kb Cmr cassette from the pHP45
Cm plasmid was inserted in either the NsiI or StuI sites of these genes, which afterwards were ligated to the pGP704 suicide plasmid, giving rise to plasmids pUA925 and pUA926, respectively. These two plasmids were then introduced by biparental mating into a Rifr derivative of Salmonella serovar Typhimurium ATCC 14028 by using E. coli S17(
pir) as the mobilizing strain (4), and the presence of the mutation was tested by both PCR (Fig. 1) and Southern analyses (data not shown) among the Cmr Amps transconjugants obtained. Since it has been described that Salmonella serovar Typhimurium Rifr strains may be avirulent (3), the zur::Cm and znuC::Cm constructions were transferred by P22int7(HT)-mediated transduction to wild-type Salmonella serovar Typhimurium ATCC 14028 cells. For each mutant, the presence of either the zur::Cm or the znuC::Cm construction was tested by PCR in eight of the Cmr transductants obtained (data not shown). Likewise, absence of the P22int7(HT) prophage in transductants was determined by streaking the mutants onto green plates in which Salmonella serovar Typhimurium P22 lysogenic colonies were dark green whereas nonlysogenic cells formed light-colored colonies (6).
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium wild-type
zur and
znuC strains
showed the same growth yield in Luria-Bertani (LB) broth (Table
2). This was probably due to the fact that the high concentration
of zinc present in this medium (about 10 µM) enables cells
to achieve the little quantity of this element required for
bacterial growth (0.5 to 1 µM) through the low-affinity
zinc uptake system, which is
pitA dependent (
14). The presence
of the chelating agent EDTA dramatically decreased the growth
of the
znuC mutant, whereas
zur and wild-type cells were practically
not affected (Table
2). Addition of ZnSO
4 (1 mM) restored the
wild-type growth yield of
znuC cells in the presence of EDTA
(Table
2), indicating that this growth defect was zinc specific.
Furthermore,
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
znuC cells containing
plasmid pUA952 carrying the wild-type
znuCB operon showed the
same behavior as wild-type cells in the presence of EDTA (Table
2).
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TABLE 2. Comparative growth of the S. enterica serovar Typhimurium znuC mutant in the presence and absence of the chelating agent EDTA
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To further analyze
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
zur and
znuC mutants, the expression pattern of the
zur and
znuC genes in
either the presence or absence of zinc was studied through transcriptional
fusions with the promoterless
lacZ gene contained in the broad-host
range and low-copy-number pHRP309 plasmid to obtain the pUA927
and pUA928 plasmids. Both plasmids were afterwards introduced
into the wild-type,
zur::Cm, and
znu::Cm strains. Figure
2 shows
how the expression of
znuC was higher in the
zur::Cm cells than
in both the wild-type and
znuC::Cm cells, indicating that, as
happens in
E. coli, expression of the
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
znuC gene is negatively controlled by the product of the
zur gene. As expected, expression of the
znuC gene in the wild-type
strain was higher in the presence of EDTA than in its absence.
Addition of ZnSO
4 to cells growing in the presence of EDTA repressed
znuC transcription again (Fig.
2). It is worth noting that
znuC transcription is higher in the
znuC::Cm mutant than in the wild-type
strain. This could be attributed to a lower level of intracellular
zinc being present in the
znuC mutant, which would trigger the
expression of the
zur network to which the
znuC gene belongs.
Although
zur transcription is under its own control in
S. aureus and
L. monocytogenes (
5,
13),
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
zur gene transcription, as in
E. coli (
17), is not self regulated
since expression of the
zur-lacZ fusion is the same in wild-type
cells as in
zur::Cm cells (Fig.
2).
Recently, it has been reported that Fur protein can bind zinc
(
1). For this reason, and to determine if any relationship exists
between the
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
fur and
zur networks,
the expression of these two genes in both the
zur and
fur mutants
was studied. Results obtained indicate that expression of the
fur gene was not affected by the presence of a mutation in the
zur gene (data not shown). In agreement with this, no increase
in siderophore production was detected in
Salmonella serovar
Typhimurium
zur cells on specific growth plates (
19) (data not
shown). Likewise,
zur and
znuC transcription was not enhanced
in a
fur mutant with respect to wild-type cells (data not shown).
Animal virulence and survival of zur and znuC mutants in cell cultures.
To determine the 50% lethal dose (LD50) of the zur and znuC strains, groups of four 6- to 8-week-old BALB/c female mice were inoculated either orally or intraperitoneally with seriated dilutions of the desired Salmonella serovar Typhimurium strain. Mortality was recorded up to 28 days postinfection, and the LD50 value was calculated as reported (18). Table 3 indicates that, contrary to what happens when the regulatory protein of the iron uptake system (encoded by the fur gene) is mutagenized (8), zur cells showed the same level of virulence as the wild-type strain when orally inoculated. This attenuation of the orally inoculated fur mutant has been attributed to its higher sensitivity against acid pH (8), whereas the pH behavior of zur cells is like that of wild-type cells (data not shown). Another significant difference existing between fur and zur cells is that recA fur double mutants are only viable in the absence of oxygen (22) whereas recA zur strains support fully aerobic growth (data not shown).
An approximately tenfold increase in the LD
50 of the
zur mutant
when mice were intraperitoneally challenged was found (Table
3). The reason for this decrease in the virulence of
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
zur cells is still unknown, but it could
be related to the fact that expression of the
fliAZ transcriptional
unit is lower in this mutant than in the wild-type strain (data
not shown) and it has been recently demonstrated that the
fliZ gene product is necessary for the virulence of
Salmonella serovar
Typhimurium cells (
10).
The virulence of either orally or intraperitoneally inoculated znuC cells is decreased much more in comparison with that of both the wild-type and zur cells (Table 3). To confirm this attenuation of the znuC mutant, competitive experiments were carried out. Then, wild-type and znuC strains were grown separately and mixed in an approximate 1/1 ratio before animal injection. The total dose of mixed population inoculated was 2 x 103 CFU per animal, and the concentration of both strains was checked by plating seriated dilutions of the bacterial suspensions onto LB medium before mixing. Samples of blood were taken by heart puncture immediately after the death of the mouse (4 to 5 days generally after inoculation), and the concentration of bacterial cells was determined by plating dilution series onto LB medium. The percentage of each strain was calculated afterwards by replica plating of cells recovered from the animal on LB plates supplemented with chloramphenicol at 34 µg/ml.
Data obtained indicate that znuC cells were almost fully excluded by the wild-type cells in these competition assays (Table 4). This exclusion did not exist when mixed cultures were carried out in LB medium (Table 4), indicating that the selective advantage of the wild type over the znuC mutant is specifically due to the environmental and growth conditions of bacterial cells during animal infection and must be attributed to the low concentration of free zinc existing in mammalian tissues (15). The poor availability of zinc could interfere in the growth of the Salmonella serovar Typhimurium znuC mutant in mice because it was necessary for either general bacterial cellular processes or for the activity of specific proteins induced during animal infection.
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TABLE 4. Competition assay of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium zur and znuC mutants with wild-type strain in mixed culturesa
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The behavior of the
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
zur and
znuC strains in cell cultures was also analyzed. The PK15 epithelial
pig cell line (ATCC CCL-33) and the RAW264.7 mouse macrophage
line (ATCC TIB-71) were used in invasion and intracellular survival
experiments, respectively. Macrophages and epithelial cells
were both grown at 37°C in 5% CO
2 in either Dulbecco's minimal
Eagle's medium (Sigma) or minimal essential Eagle's medium (Sigma),
respectively. Macrophage or epithelial lines (90% confluent
growth) were infected (multiplicity of infection, 50:1) with
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
zur or
znuC cells grown in LB
medium either without agitation to stationary phase or with
agitation to mid-log phase, respectively. Infection of both
cell cultures was allowed for 20 min. After internalization,
the supernatant containing extracellular bacteria was removed.
Mammalian cells were then washed with phosphate-buffered saline,
and after the addition of fresh culture medium, incubation was
allowed in the presence of amikacin (100 µg/ml) to kill
extracellular bacteria remaining in the wells after washing
(
21). From this moment, samples were periodically taken and
cells were lysed with phosphate-buffered saline containing 1%
Triton X-100. The number of viable
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
cells in the lysates was determined by plating serial dilutions
on LB solid medium.
No relevant differences in intracellular survival or invasion rates were detected for the zur and znuC mutants in macrophages and epithelial cells with respect to those for the wild-type strain (Table 3). Similar behavior has been reported for Salmonella serovar Typhimurium fur cells (8). In concordance with this, it has been shown that production of the siderophore aerobactin in Shigella dysenteriae is important for extracellular multiplication but not for the intracellular stages of infection (9). Furthermore, mutants of Salmonella serovar Typhimurium in the mgtA or mgtCB genes involved in magnesium transport are not affected in their invasion efficiency or short-term survival within eukaryotic cells (20). This has been attributed to a very high extracellular magnesium concentration added to the eukaryotic cell growth medium which would enable Salmonella serovar Typhimurium cells to acquire the intracellular concentration required through a low-affinity system (20). A similar phenomenon to that described for magnesium may be responsible for the behavior of the znuC mutant in cell cultures. Likewise, it has also been suggested that invasive pathogens such as Salmonella serovar Typhimurium do not need high-affinity iron uptake systems once they are inside host cells (11).
In conclusion, our findings concerning virulence of the Salmonella serovar Typhimurium znuC mutant indicate that the znuABC system must be the principal one by which zinc uptake takes place in this bacterial species during mouse infection and give support to previous suggestions about the protective role that zinc-chelating systems of mammalian organisms may play against bacterial pathogens (16).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was funded by grants BIO99-0779 from the Ministerio
de Ciencia y Tecnología de España and 2001SGR-206
from the Comissionat per Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat
de Catalunya. Mónica Jara and Núria Busquets are
recipients of a predoctoral fellowship from the Direcció
General d'Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya.
We are deeply indebted to Joan Ruiz and Susana Escribano for their excellent technical assistance and to our English-teaching university colleague, Chuck Simmons, for his help in the language revision and correction of this article.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentària, Bellaterra 08193, Barcelona, Spain. Phone: 34-93-223-4623. Fax: 34-93-223-4106. E-mail:
ignacio.badiola{at}irta.es.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra 08193, Barcelona, Spain. Phone: 34-93-581 1837. Fax: 34-93-581-2387. E-mail: jordi.barbe{at}uab.es. 
Editor: A. D. O'Brien

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Infection and Immunity, August 2002, p. 4721-4725, Vol. 70, No. 8
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.8.4721-4725.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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