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Infection and Immunity, June 2004, p. 3310-3314, Vol. 72, No. 6
0019-9567/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.72.6.3310-3314.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Antimicrobial Research Centre, Department of Biochemistry, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 3Z5,1 Departments of Medicine and Human Genetics, McGill University,2 Center for the Study of Host Resistance, McGill University Health Center, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3G 1A43
Received 9 November 2003/ Returned for modification 18 December 2003/ Accepted 13 February 2004
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In Escherichia coli and Salmonella, sulfur is assimilated by the sulfate pathway, by which sulfate (SO42) is reduced to sulfide (S2) and then incorporated into Cys by O-acetylserine thiolyase (9). Cys then serves as a sulfur donor in the biosynthesis of Met through the formation of cystathionine, followed by its degradation to pyruvate, ammonia, and homocysteine, the penultimate step prior to Met production (Fig. 1). Homocysteine production from cystathionine is catalyzed by the enzyme cystathionine ß-lyase (CBL). The three-dimensional structure of E. coli CBL has been determined to a high resolution, confirming the presence of an active-site pyridoxal phosphate cofactor (3).
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FIG. 1. Role of CBL in bacterial Met biosynthesis.
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An overnight culture of E. coli BL21(DE3)(pET28-CBL) was grown from a single colony in Luria-Bertani (LB) broth supplemented with 50 µg of kanamycin/ml. One liter of LB broth Lennox containing 50 µg of kanamycin/ml was inoculated with 10 ml of the overnight culture and grown at 37°C with shaking at 250 rpm to an optical density at 600 nm of 0.6. Sterile isopropyl-ß-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) was added to a final concentration of 1 mM. The cells were grown for an additional 4 h at 37°C with shaking at 250 rpm and then harvested by centrifugation at 7,500 x g for 15 min. The cell pellet was washed with cold 0.85% NaCl and frozen at 20°C.
The frozen pellet was resuspended in 7 ml of lysis buffer (50 mM HEPES [pH 7.5], 500 mM NaCl, 20 mM imidazole, 1 mM EDTA, 0.1 mM dithiothreitol, 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride). Approximately 1 mg each of RNase and DNase was added, and the cells were lysed by three passages through a French pressure cell. Cell debris was removed by centrifugation at 48,000 x g for 20 min.
All purification steps were performed at 4°C. Approximately 6 ml of Ni-nitrilotriacetic acid-agarose (Qiagen) (approximately 3 ml of resin) was added to the supernatant and stirred for 1 h. The mixture was poured into a column fitting, washed with buffer A (50 mM HEPES [pH 7.5], 500 mM NaCl, 20 mM imidazole), and then eluted with a step-wise gradient of buffer A and buffer B (50 mM HEPES [pH 7.5], 500 mM NaCl, 250 mM imidazole). Fractions containing CBL were identified by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and enzyme activity assays, pooled, and dialyzed in 25 mM HEPES (pH 7.5)-2 mM EDTA.
The protein concentration was determined by the Bradford method. Approximately 65 mg of purified CBL was obtained from 1 liter of culture. The purified enzyme was stored at 20°C in 5% glycerol.
Similarly, the STR3 gene, encoding CBL in the yeast S. pombe, was amplified with primers 5'-GTCTCTAGAGCTAGCATGCCCAGCGATTGTAAATATTCTGTC and 5'-CGCGGATCCAAGCTTCAATTCTGTTTAAAATTTGCTTGAGCA (reading frames are indicated in italics and restriction sites are underlined). The DNA fragment was digested with NheI and HindIII and ligated with plasmid pET28a(+) digested with the same enzymes. The new plasmid, pET28-pomCBL, was used to transform E. coli BL21(DE3), and the enzyme was expressed and purified as described above, with the exception that the induction of expression was performed at 25°C for 10 h.
Enzyme assay. CBL activity was measured by monitoring the formation of homocysteine at 412 nm, using 5,5'-dithio-bis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid) as a detector of free thiol in a SpectraMax plate reader from Molecular Devices. The assay mixture contained 50 mM TAPS (pH 8.5), 1 mM 5,5'-dithio-bis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid), 25 nM CBL, and 100 µM L-(+)-cystathionine. The total reaction volume was 100 µl. Potential inhibitors dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide were added to the mixture, to a final concentration of 5% (vol/vol). Reactions were set up to contain all components except cystathionine, incubated for 10 min at room temperature, and initiated by the addition of cystathionine.
Construction of CBL null strain of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. The sequence of the metC gene in the S. enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2 genome (12) was identified, and a region flanking roughly 300 bp 5' and 3' of the gene was amplified from genomic DNA isolated from S. enterica serovar Typhimurium (ATCC 14028) by using the oligonucleotide primers 5'-CACGACAATATCGGCGTGCTG and 5'-CATCCTGGGCGATCAACGCGCC. This fragment was cloned into pCR4Blunt-TOPO (Invitrogen) and verified by sequencing. The construct was digested with PmeI and NotI to recover the metC fragment, which was inserted into the vector pKO3 (11) digested with SmaI and NotI, generating pKO3(CBL). pKO3 includes a chloramphenicol resistance cassette along with a temperature-sensitive origin of replication and the Bacillus subtilis sacB gene, which is lethal when E. coli is grown on sucrose-containing media (11). The gentamicin resistance cassette aacC1 was excised from plasmid pUCGm (14) by digestion with PstI and was inserted into the metC gene at position 355 of metC, generating pKO3(CBL-Gm).
This plasmid was introduced into S. enterica serovar Typhimurium (ATCC 14028) by electroporation, and recombinants were selected on LB agar supplemented with 25 µg of gentamicin/ml and 5% sucrose at the nonpermissive temperature of 42°C. Colonies were subsequently screened on LB agar supplemented with 50 µg of gentamicin/ml at 30°C in the presence and absence of chloramphenicol. Chloramphenicol-sensitive, gentamicin-resistant colonies were analyzed by Southern blotting to confirm the insertional inactivation of the metC gene of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium by the aacC1 gene, generating the mutant S. enterica serovar Typhimurium metC::aacC1.
To confirm that the observed phenotype of Met auxotrophy was the result of a disruption of the metC gene, we reintroduced the gene into the S. enterica serovar Typhimurium metC::aacC1 mutant via the same procedure that we used to introduce the aacC1 gene in the first place. We therefore introduced pKO3(CBL) into S. enterica serovar Typhimurium metC::aacC1, selected for plasmid integration at 42°C on LB agar supplemented with chloramphenicol, and then subsequently plated cells on LB agar containing 5% sucrose to select for the loss of plasmid sequences. Confirmation of the reintegration of the metC gene was done by PCR and Southern blot analysis.
We also prepared a complementation plasmid by introducing metC downstream of the arabinose-inducible promoter of pBAD18 (6) and introduced this plasmid into S. enterica serovar Typhimurium metC::aacC1 in trans for complementation of the metC disruption.
Mouse infection with S. enterica serovar Typhimurium. Disease in C57BL/6J mice after infection with S. enterica serovar Typhimurium and S. enterica serovar Typhimurium metC::aacC1 was evaluated by survival analysis and the monitoring of bacterial loads in reticuloendothelial organs (spleens and livers). Mice of 12 weeks of age were challenged with 103 CFU via intravenous injection in the tail vein or with 105 CFU via the oral route as described previously (2, 15). To determine the growth rates of the bacteria within reticuloendothelial organs, we sacrificed the mice at days 3 and 7 postinoculation. The spleens and livers were aseptically removed and prepared for the determination of infection kinetics. Serial dilutions of each homogenate were plated on Trypticase soy agar to enumerate the numbers of CFU within each organ.
Statistical analysis. We used a parametric survival analysis to compare the effects of groups (the wild type versus S. enterica serovar Typhimurium metC::aacC1) and the route of administration (intravenous versus oral) on the survival of mice, assuming that the time to death followed a Weibull distribution. We used the statistical package R to perform the analysis (7).
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TABLE 1. MIC values of pyridinamine antimicrobial agents for bacterial and fungal species
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FIG. 2. Insertional inactivation of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium metC results in Met auxotrophy. Studies were conducted in M9 minimal liquid medium. (A) Results of insertional inactivation of metC with aacC1. , wild-type S. enterica serovar Typhimurium; , metC::aacC1 mutant; , metC::aacC1 mutant plus 0.1 mM Met; , metC::aacC1 mutant plus 0.1 mM Met for 4.5 h. (B) Reintroduction of metC into the metC::aacC1 mutant background rescues wild-type phenotype. , wild-type S. enterica serovar Typhimurium; , metC::aacC1 mutant; , reintegration of metC into the metC::aacC1 mutant.
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2 = 42.5 with 1 degree of freedom (P = 7.2 x 1011) for intravenous inoculation and
2 = 27.5 with 1 degree of freedom (P = 1.6 x 107) for oral administration. As reported previously, the route of administration of the bacteria had little impact on disease development in mice, with the exception of a delay in the expression of the phenotype, as was seen for the oral administration of Salmonella (Fig. 3). To determine if the increase survival times of mice infected with the S. enterica serovar Typhimurium metC::aacC1 mutant were due to reduced microbial burdens or delayed growth rates, we measured the bacterial load within the spleens and livers of mice infected with wild-type Salmonella (day 3) and with the isogenic metC::aacC1 mutant (day 3 or 7) (Fig. 3C). Mice infected with wild-type Salmonella had 50 times more bacteria in their spleens than mice infected with the metC::aacC1 mutant at day 3 (P = 0.00029). At day 7, the bacterial loads in the spleens of mice infected with the Salmonella mutant reached values (7.6 ± 1.1 log10 CFU/g of spleen) equivalent to those observed for mice infected with wild-type Salmonella the day prior to death (2). Similar results were observed for the liver (Fig. 3C). These results suggest that the disruption of metC in Salmonella has an impact on the virulence of the bacteria, as seen by the delayed onset of disease in the susceptible host. This may reflect diminished bacterial growth of the metC mutant or this mutant may be more effectively killed by the host.
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FIG. 3. Survival analysis and bacterial loads of mice infected with wild-type S. enterica serovar Typhimurium and an isogenic metC::aacC1 mutant. C57BL/6J mice were infected with wild-type S. enterica serovar Typhimurium intravenously (103 CFU) (A) or orally (105 CFU) (B) (five males and five females for intravenous infections and five males and four females for oral infections) or with the metC::aacC1 mutant strain (five males and six females for intravenous infections and four males and five females for oral infections). Survival curves are representative of mice infected with the wild type (solid line) and the metC::aacC1 mutant (dashed line). The survival analysis was repeated two times, with similar results. (C) C57BL/6J mice were infected with 103 CFU of wild-type S. enterica serovar Typhimurium (white bars) or the metC::aacC1 mutant strain (hatched bars). Each bar represents the data for groups of four mice (two males and two females). Results are expressed as means + 1 standard deviation.
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This work was supported by the Canadian Bacterial Disease Network Centre of Excellence. D.M. is supported by a salary award of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Scientist) and by a Dawson McGill Professorship. G.D.W. is supported by a Canada Research Chair in Antibiotic Biochemistry.
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