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Infection and Immunity, September 2004, p. 5522-5525, Vol. 72, No. 9
0019-9567/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.72.9.5522-5525.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Vivian Li Cullen,3 Angela M. Fung,3 Stephen J. Libby,4 Sonya L. Kujat Choy,2 Bryan Coburn,2 David G. Kehres,5 Michael E. Maguire,5 Ferric C. Fang,3,4 and B. Brett Finlay1,2,6*
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,1 Biotechnology Laboratory,2 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,6 Departments of Laboratory Medicine,3 Microbiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington,4 Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio5
Received 29 March 2004/ Returned for modification 28 April 2004/ Accepted 14 June 2004
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The genomes of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium and other pathogens were found to encode homologues of Nramp1 (5, 16, 19), and we began the characterization of mntH, the Salmonella homologue of Nramp1. MntH is a divalent cation transport system with high affinity for Mn2+ and a 10- to 100-fold-lower affinity for Fe2+ (16, 19). A second Salmonella transport system was identified with similar substrate affinities, SitABCD (15). It is appealing to speculate that prokaryotic Nramps and other ion transporters act directly to counter the effects of Nramp1 and compete for the same substrates to influence the course of an active infection. In order to study this question, we chose to investigate the gene expression patterns of these two transport systems and determine their effects on virulence in a modified Nramp1G169 murine typhoid model.
S. enterica serovar Typhimurium strain SL1344 was used as the wild type, and pFZY1 was the parental transcriptional fusion plasmid (17). The transcriptional fusion plasmid pHILA was described previously (25). The mntH::lacZYA transcriptional fusion plasmid, pMLZ104 (16), contains 780 bp of the promoter region of mntH. The transcriptional fusion plasmid pSITA contains 670 bp of the sitA promoter region, constructed by PCR amplification with SL1344 chromosomal DNA and the oligonucleotides sitAFW (5'-CACGCGCGATACGTTTACCAG-3') and sitARV (5'-CGAAGCTTCGGTAATGCCCATC-3' [engineered HindIII site underlined]).This PCR product was ligated into pCR2.1 (Invitrogen), digested with EcoRI and HindIII (NEB), and ligated into similarly digested pFZY1. These plasmids were stably maintained in SL1344 upon infection of both HeLa (ATCC CCL-2) and RAW264.7 (ATCC TIB 71) cell lines over a 24-h time course and did not influence bacterial viability (data not shown).
RAW264.7 cells (Nramp1D169) are phenotypically Nramp1. To determine the basal expression of ß-galactosidase from native pFZY1 as a control for copy number and to determine the effect of Nramp1 on the expression of mntH, sitA, and hilA, stably transfected RAW cell lines containing either an empty neomycin-resistant pCB6 vector (Nramp1) or pCB6 containing the wild-type murine Nramp1G169 allele (phenotypically Nramp1+) were maintained as previously described (9). Chemiluminescent ß-galactosidase assays were as previously described (16, 25). Figure 1A shows that expression of ß-galactosidase in the absence of a cloned promoter is negligible both inside and outside of the transfected RAW cells and does not change significantly over time or in relation to the Nramp1 status of the cells. This indicates that the copy number of the pFZY1-based plasmids remains constant during the course of these experiments. In contrast, hilA, mntH, and sitA are induced upon reaching the intracellular environment of the Nramp1 cells when compared to expression in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium alone, characteristic of Salmonella virulence factors (6, 13, 18, 25). However, upon comparison between expression in the Nramp1+ and Nramp1 cell lines (Fig. 1C and D) mntH and sitA but not hilA are further upregulated in the presence of functional Nramp1. Specifically, expression of mntH and sitA increased approximately 7-fold and 2-fold, respectively, in the Nramp1 cells between 2 and 24 h, and an average of 115-fold and 20-fold over the same time course in the Nramp1+ cell lines. The differences between the gene expression patterns for hilA, sitA, and mntH in the two transfected cell lines indicate that the influence of Nramp1 on Salmonella gene expression in these experiments is specific for mntH and sitA and most likely reflects Nramp1-dependent changes in divalent cation concentration (25).
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FIG. 1. Expression of mntH and sitA is upregulated by intracellular S. enterica serovar Typhimurium in the presence of Nramp1 upon infection of IFN- -activated Nramp1 or Nramp1+ transfected RAW 264.7 cells. The Results shown represent the average number of relative light units (RLU) normalized to the number of bacteria present in each well as determined by parallel plate counts and multiplied by 106 to obtain larger numbers for easier interpretation. Results are the average of triplicate experiments performed with duplicate wells. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. Asterisks indicate statistical significance to P < 0.05 as determined by the Wilcoxon rank sum test for unpaired samples.
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) overnight. Bacteria opsonized with normal mouse serum were centrifuged onto the macrophages at a multiplicity of infection of approximately 5:1 and allowed to internalize for 15 min before washing and addition of gentamicin to remove extracellular bacteria. Macrophages were lysed at 0, 4, and 18 h with 0.5% deoxycholate, and bacteria were enumerated by serial dilution and plating onto Luria-Bertani (LB) agar. No difference in survival of mutant and wild-type S. enterica serovar Typhimurium was observed in C57BL/6 macrophages. However, sitABCD and sitABCD mntH mutant S. enterica serovar Typhimurium exhibited significantly reduced survival after 18 h in congenic Nramp1G169 primary macrophages (Fig. 2). In contrast to previously published results (1), we were only able to detect effects of Nramp1 on Salmonella survival in primary macrophages by using mutant bacterial strains, as there was no significant difference in the survival of wild-type S. enterica serovar Typhimurium upon infection of the congenic macrophages; this is probably attributable to differences in experimental protocol and may be influenced by the ability of wild-type Salmonella to resist or antagonize the trafficking of Nramp1 to the SCV (21). The explanation for Nramp1-dependent survival of phoP mutant S. enterica serovar Typhimurium is not known but might be rationalized by known effects of Nramp1 on phagosome acidification (12), which in turn influences PhoPQ activation (2).
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FIG. 2. sitABCD and sitABCD mntH mutant S. enterica serovar Typhimurium exhibit reduced survival in IFN- -activated Nramp1+ peritoneal macrophages. The data representing the number of surviving CFU at 18 h divided by the number of CFU at 0 h in C57BL/6 (A) or congenic Nramp1+ (B) macrophages is shown. phoP mutant S. enterica serovar Typhimurium MS7953 (8) was included as a macrophage-sensitive control. Significance comparisons were made between the mutant bacteria compared to the wild-type bacteria within a given cell type. *, P < 0.0001 by two-tailed t test; **, P 0.0015. NS, not significant.
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To confirm the role of mntH and sitA in S. enterica serovar Typhimurium pathogenesis, virulence assays were performed in 6- to 8-week-old C57BL/6 or congenic Nramp1G169 mice. Wild-type SL1344 or isogenic sitA::Cm, mntH::Km, or sitA::Cm mntH::Km mutant strains (15, 16) were grown in LB broth supplemented with the desired antibiotic overnight, diluted in phosphate-buffered saline, and administered intraperitoneally to groups of five female mice at a dose of approximately 400 to 800 CFU (C57BL/6; Fig. 3A) or 1,800 to 3,100 CFU (Nramp1G169; Fig. 3B). Different inocula were used to compensate for the ability of Nramp1G169 animals to withstand higher doses of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium than Nramp1D169 animals. Infected animals were monitored daily for survival until the experiment was terminated 28 days postinfection. Figure 3 shows that deletion of mntH or sitA, alone or in combination, had little effect on virulence in susceptible C57BL/6 mice. However, both the mntH and sitA deletion strains were attenuated in Nramp1G169 mice, as only 40% succumbed to infection by days 26 and 28, respectively, while the double mutant was completely avirulent. This demonstrates that during infection of a resistant host, both divalent cation transport systems are required for full virulence of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium, and the effects of these transporters are additive.
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FIG. 3. mntH and sitA are required for full virulence of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium upon infection of Nramp1G169 mice. (A) C57BL/6. (B) Nramp1G169. Solid diamonds, SL1344 wild type; open squares, sit::Cm; open triangles, mntH::Km; crosses, sitA::Cm mntH::Km. This experiment was performed three times with essentially identical results. Representative results are shown.
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It should be noted that we have demonstrated a role for MntH and SitABCD following intraperitoneal infection of mice but have not investigated the role of mntH and sitA in the intestinal phase of infection. There is evidence indicating that iron levels are quite high in the gastrointestinal tract (24), which suggests that MntH and SitABCD would not be important at this stage of infection. The possibility remains that the mntH and sitA mutants may cause pathology by unhindered replication in intestinal epithelial cells. However, as mutant strains attenuated following intraperitoneal infection are virtually always attenuated following oral infection as well, we believe that these genes are unlikely to be essential for the intestinal phase of infection.
In summary, S. enterica serovar Typhimurium requires both of the divalent cation transport systems, MntH and SitABCD, for full virulence in wild-type Nramp1G169 mice following intraperitoneal infection. Genes encoding these transport systems are expressed by intracellular S. enterica serovar Typhimurium within the macrophage and are upregulated in the presence of functional Nramp1. Although there was no apparent effect on intracellular bacterial survival during infection of cell lines, the studies in activated primary macrophages and in congenic mice confirm that transport of divalent cations such as Mn2+ or Fe2+ is essential for Salmonella virulence and demonstrate that host and pathogen compete for essential metals within the SCV by both homologous and paralogous mechanisms.
This work was supported by operating grants to B.B.F. from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). B.B.F. is a CIHR Distinguished Investigator, an HHMI International Research Scholar, and a University of British Columbia Peter Wall Distinguished Professor. Grant support to F.C.F. was from NIH grant AI39557. Grant support to M.E.M. was from NIH grant GM61748. M.L.Z. is supported by a CIHR Doctoral Research Award.
Present address: Chlamydia Research Laboratory, UBC CDC, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada. ![]()
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