IAI FigSearch
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Jacobsen, I.
Right arrow Articles by Gerlach, G.-F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Jacobsen, I.
Right arrow Articles by Gerlach, G.-F.
Infection and Immunity, June 2005, p. 3740-3744, Vol. 73, No. 6
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.73.6.3740-3744.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Deletion of the Ferric Uptake Regulator Fur Impairs the In Vitro Growth and Virulence of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae

Ilse Jacobsen,1 Jörg Gerstenberger,1 Achim D. Gruber,2 Janine T. Bossé,3 Paul R. Langford,3 Isabel Hennig-Pauka,1,4 Jochen Meens,1 and Gerald-F. Gerlach1*

Department of Infectious Diseases, Institute for Microbiology,1 Department of Pathology,2 Clinic for Pigs and Small Ruminants, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover Foundation, Hannover, Germany,4 Department of Paediatrics, Imperial College London, St. Mary's Campus, London W2 1PG, United Kingdom3

Received 14 December 2004/ Returned for modification 24 January 2005/ Accepted 14 February 2005


   ABSTRACT
Top
 Abstract
Text
 References
 
In order to investigate the role of the ferric uptake regulator Fur in the porcine lung pathogen Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, we constructed an isogenic in-frame deletion mutant, A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur. This mutant showed constitutive expression of transferrin-binding proteins, growth deficiencies in vitro, and reduced virulence in an aerosol infection model.


   TEXT
Top
 Abstract
 Text
References
 
Iron is essential for most bacteria but of limited availability inside the host (21). Iron uptake systems developed to overcome this problem are often regulated by the ferric uptake regulator protein, Fur. Additionally, Fur has been shown to regulate virulence and virulence-associated factors (5, 21). Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, the causative agent of porcine pleuropneumonia, expresses two iron-regulated transferrin-binding proteins, TbpA and TbpB, which are essential for colonization of the host (3). Transcriptional regulation of the tbpB gene has been suggested to be mediated by Fur (13). Recently, the sequence of the fur gene of A. pleuropneumoniae 4074 has been published by Hsu et al. (17) (GenBank accession no. AF330229). In order to elucidate the role of Fur in A. pleuropneumoniae, an isogenic deletion mutant was constructed and analyzed in vitro and in vivo.

Construction and complementation of the isogenic deletion mutant A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur. Primers oFU1a and oFU2 were used to amplify a 1,250-bp fragment containing the 447-bp fur gene of the A. pleuropneumoniae wild-type (wt) strain AP76. This fragment was cloned, and a 171-bp in-frame deletion (positions 157 to 327 of the fur open reading frame) was constructed (Table 1). By using the conjugative plasmid pFU600 (Table 1) in a single-step transconjugation system as described previously (23), this deletion was introduced by allelic replacement into the A. pleuropneumoniae wt, resulting in the mutant strain A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur. The deletion was confirmed by PCR, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, Southern blot analyses, and nucleotide sequencing (data not shown). In order to complement A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur, the fur gene was amplified and cloned into the broad-host-range vector pLS88. The resulting plasmids pFU1310 and pFU1311 (Table 1), carrying the fur gene in either orientation, were transformed into A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur by electroporation according to the protocol of Tung and Chow (29). The resulting transformants were confirmed by PCR analyses.


View this table:
[in this window]
[in a new window]
  		TABLE 1. Strains, plasmids, and primers used in this study

 
Fur-mediated regulation of TbpB and ExbB. Fur-mediated regulation has been proposed for the small transferrin-binding protein TbpB (13), and it has been shown that the TbpB and ExbB protein-encoding genes are transcriptionally linked (28). Hence, we analyzed TbpB and ExbB expression under standard and iron-restricted conditions using Western blot analyses as described previously (11, 28).

In A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur, TbpB and ExbB were constitutively expressed, whereas the A. pleuropneumoniae wt showed only low expression levels under standard culturing conditions and a clear upregulation upon iron restriction (Fig. 1). Complementation of A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur with plasmid pFU1310 but not plasmid pFU1311 restored iron-dependent regulation of TbpB and ExbB expression (Fig. 1). The transcriptional start point of the exbBD-tbpBA transcript was determined using the 5'-RACE system for rapid amplification of cDNA ends, version 2.0 (Invitrogen, Groningen, The Netherlands) and was found to be an "A" 41 bp upstream of the tonB start codon within a putative Fur box (GATAATGATTTTCATTAAC, 94% identical with the consensus sequence [7]; boldfaced letter indicates transcriptional start point), as is typical for Fur-regulated promoters (30). Together the results of the genetic analyses and the expression studies strongly suggest that expression of the exbBD-tbpBA operon is regulated by Fur.



View larger version (73K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
  		FIG. 1. Coomassie blue-stained sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gel (top) and corresponding Western blots of whole-cell lysates from wt A. pleuropneumoniae (lanes 1 and 2), the uncomplemented isogenic deletion mutant A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur (lanes 3 and 4), or A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur complemented with plasmid pFU1310 (lanes 5 and 6) or pFU1311 (lanes 7 and 8) grown under standard (odd-numbered lanes) or iron-depleted (even-numbered lanes) conditions. Ten micrograms of protein was loaded per lane. The blots were developed with antibodies directed against TbpB (center) and ExbB (bottom), respectively. The closed arrowhead indicates the position of the TbpB protein; the open arrowhead indicates the position of the ExbB protein.

 
Growth deficiencies of A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur. Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur showed significantly reduced growth (i) in nonagitated PPLO broth under an atmosphere with 5% CO2 (Fig. 2A; P < 0.01 by Student's t test), (ii) under anaerobic conditions (growth for 16 h in an anaerobic chamber) (Fig. 2B; P < 0.01 by Student's t test), (iii) on NAD (10 µg/ml)-supplemented PPLO agar plates (Fig. 2C), and (iv) on selective NAD-supplemented blood agar (Fig. 2D) containing crystal violet (1 µg/ml), lincomycin (2 µg/ml), bacitracin (100 µg/ml), or nystatin (50 µg/ml) (19), due to iron-dependent sensitivity to bacitracin (Fig. 2E and F). Complementation with fur in trans completely (plasmid pFU1310) or partially (plasmid pFU1311) restored growth on both solid media (Fig. 2C and D), thereby confirming that the absence of fur is responsible for these growth deficiencies. These deficiencies might be due to (i) increased iron uptake leading to toxic concentrations of iron in the cell, as described for other pathogens (10, 27), (ii) redundant energetic investment in the production of Fur-regulated proteins in the presence of sufficient iron, or (iii) downregulation of metabolic enzymes positively regulated by Fur.



View larger version (76K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
  		FIG. 2. Growth characteristics of A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur in liquid (A, B) and on solid (C, D, E, F) medium. (A and B) Growth of wt A. pleuropneumoniae and its isogenic mutant A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur in supplemented PPLO medium under a 5% CO2 atmosphere (A) and under anaerobic conditions (B). The asterisk indicates statistical significance (P < 0.01) as determined by Student's t test. Data in panels A and B were derived from five and three independent experiments, respectively. The central symbol in each box indicates the geometric mean, the hinges indicate the values in the middle half of the data, and the top and bottom symbols indicate the maximum and minimum values, respectively. (C and D) Growth of wt A. pleuropneumoniae and its isogenic mutant A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur on supplemented PPLO agar (C) and on selective supplemented blood agar (D); pFU1310 and pFU1311 indicate the position of A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur complemented in trans with the respective plasmid. (E and F) Growth of wt A. pleuropneumoniae and its isogenic mutant A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur on supplemented blood agar containing bacitracin (100 µg/ml) alone (E) or bacitracin (100 µg/ml) and the iron chelator calcium trisodium pentetate (F).

 
A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur shows reduced virulence in an aerosol infection model. We previously showed that an A. pleuropneumoniae fur transposon-insertion mutant was highly attenuated in competition assays in vitro and in vivo (26). To investigate the effects of the fur deletion in vivo, we challenged clinically healthy pigs 7 to 9 weeks of age from an A. pleuropneumoniae-free herd by using a previously described aerosol infection model (4) with either A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur (8 animals) or the wt A. pleuropneumoniae parental strain (12 animals) (Table 2). Animals challenged with the parental strain showed a significantly higher clinical score (Table 2; P = 0.015 by Student's t test), determined as described previously (18), and a significantly higher lung lesion score, determined by the method of Hannan et al. (14) (Table 2; P = 0.017 by the Wilcoxon test) than pigs challenged with A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur. Further, all animals in both groups had developed antibodies against the ApxIIA toxin (20) as well as against surface-associated proteins (12) (Table 2). For histopathology, lung tissues were immersion-fixed in formalin and embedded in paraffin, and 5-µm thin sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Lung tissue on day 7 after infection with wt A. pleuropneumoniae revealed acute pleuritis, bronchitis, thrombosis, vasculitis, and multifocal coagulative and liquefaction necroses lined by active immune cells (Fig. 3A). Lung lesions in pigs infected with A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur differed insofar as the area of active immune defense was broader and included fibroblasts and collagen fibers, and cell debris was less prominent (Fig. 3C). This difference was even more distinct on day 21 postinfection. The histological differences observed, especially the presence of fibroblasts and collagen in the demarcation wall of lesions caused by A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur as early as day 7 (Fig. 3C) postinfection and the absence of the prominent layer of decayed immune cells on day 21 (Fig. 3D), suggest that A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur was more susceptible to the host immune response than the A. pleuropneumoniae wt and therefore was eliminated faster, with less destruction of immune cells.


View this table:
[in this window]
[in a new window]
  		TABLE 2. Virulence of A. pleuropneumoniae AP76 and A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur in an aerosol infection model

 


View larger version (159K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
  		FIG. 3. Histopathology of lung lesions revealed by a hematoxylin-and-eosin stain. Animals were infected with the A. pleuropneumoniae wt (A, B) or its isogenic mutant A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur (C, D) and were sacrificed on day 7 (A, C) or 21 (B, D) postinfection. L, normal lung tissue, with some alveolar edema; F, demarcation by fibroblasts and collagen fibers; D, cell debris consisting mainly of decayed neutrophils and macrophages; N, center of necrosis. Histopathology was performed for four animals (two lesions each) per group; results similar to those shown here were found for each sample within the respective group.

 
The A. pleuropneumoniae wt could be reisolated in large numbers from surface swabs of lymph nodes and from intact and altered lung tissue of all animals, as well as from tonsils for 9 of 12 animals in the respective challenge group. In contrast, reisolation of A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur was successful only from altered lung tissue (Table 2). This supports the hypothesis that A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur is more susceptible to the host immune response and is cleared faster from healthy lung tissue than from the centers of necrotic areas, where it is shielded from the active immune response to a certain extent by necrotic tissue and fibrous demarcation.

The lack of persistence of A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur on the respiratory epithelium might be mediated by the continuous expression of TbpB, since TbpB is highly immunogenic (25). An additional possible cause for the inability of fur mutants to persist is a deregulation of iron uptake, resulting in toxic levels of intracellular iron and reduced growth (16). Furthermore, in other bacteria, Fur was found to upregulate factors that might influence survival inside the host, such as superoxide dismutase (8, 22) and catalase (15). Finally, Hsu et al. (17) demonstrated that expression of ApxI, one of the RTX toxins that are major virulence factors of A. pleuropneumoniae (9), is positively regulated by Fur under high calcium conditions. Since the impact of Fur on the expression of ApxII and ApxIV, the only toxins present in A. pleuropneumoniae serotype 7, is unknown, a decreased toxin production as an additional cause for attenuation of A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur cannot be excluded, although pigs infected with A. pleuropneumoniae {Delta}fur did mount an immune response to ApxII similar to that of wt-infected pigs.


   ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
This work was supported by Sonderforschungsbereich 587 (project A4) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Bonn, Germany. I.J. is a fellow of the graduate college 745 (project A1) of the DFG. Vector sequencing was supported by a grant given by the Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) within the BioProfile program. P.R.L. and J.T.B. were supported by the Wellcome Trust and BBSRC.


   FOOTNOTES
 
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut für Mikrobiologie, Zentrum für Infektionsmedizin, Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany. Phone: 49-511-856 7598. Fax: 49-511-856 7697. E-mail: gfgerlach{at}gmx.de. Back

Editor: F. C. Fang


   REFERENCES
Top
 Abstract
 Text
 References
 
1. Reference deleted.
2. Anderson, C., A. A. Potter, and G. F. Gerlach. 1991. Isolation and molecular characterization of spontaneously occurring cytolysin-negative mutants of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 7. Infect. Immun. 59:4110-4116.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3. Baltes, N., I. Hennig-Pauka, and G. F. Gerlach. 2002. Both transferrin binding proteins are virulence factors in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 7 infection. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 209:283-287.[CrossRef][Medline]
4. Baltes, N., W. Tonpitak, G. F. Gerlach, I. Hennig-Pauka, A. Hoffmann-Moujahid, M. Ganter, and H. J. Rothkotter. 2001. Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae iron transport and urease activity: effects on bacterial virulence and host immune response. Infect. Immun. 69:472-478.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
5. Cooksley, C., P. J. Jenks, A. Green, A. Cockayne, R. P. Logan, and K. R. Hardie. 2003. NapA protects Helicobacter pylori from oxidative stress damage, and its production is influenced by the ferric uptake regulator. J. Med. Microbiol. 52:461-469.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
6. Dehio, C., and M. Meyer. 1997. Maintenance of broad-host-range incompatibility group P and group Q plasmids and transposition of Tn5 in Bartonella henselae following conjugal plasmid transfer from Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 179:538-540.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
7. de Lorenzo., V, S. Wee, M. Herrero, and J. B. Neilands. 1987. Operator sequences of the aerobactin operon of plasmid ColV-K30 binding the ferric uptake regulation (fur) repressor. J. Bacteriol. 169:2624-2630.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
8. Dubrac, S., and D. Touati. 2000. Fur positive regulation of iron superoxide dismutase in Escherichia coli: functional analysis of the sodB promoter. J. Bacteriol. 182:3802-3808.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
9. Frey, J., J. T. Bosse, Y. F. Chang, J. M. Cullen, B. Fenwick, G. F. Gerlach, D. Gygi, F. Haesebrouck, T. J. Inzana, and R. Jansen. 1993. Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae RTX-toxins: uniform designation of haemolysins, cytolysins, pleurotoxin and their genes. J. Gen. Microbiol. 139:1723-1728.[Medline]
10. Furano, K., and A. A. Campagnari. 2003. Inactivation of the Moraxella catarrhalis 7169 ferric uptake regulator increases susceptibility to the bactericidal activity of normal human sera. Infect. Immun. 71:1843-1848.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
11. Gerlach, G. F., C. Anderson, A. A. Potter, S. Klashinsky, and P. J. Willson. 1992. Cloning and expression of a transferrin-binding protein from Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. Infect. Immun. 60:892-898.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
12. Goethe, R., O. F. Gonzales, T. Lindner, and G. F. Gerlach. 2000. A novel strategy for protective Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae subunit vaccines: detergent extraction of cultures induced by iron restriction. Vaccine 19:966-975.[CrossRef][Medline]
13. Gonzalez, G. C., R. H. Yu, P. R. Rosteck, Jr., and A. B. Schryvers. 1995. Sequence, genetic analysis, and expression of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae transferrin receptor genes. Microbiology 141:2405-2416.[Abstract]
14. Hannan, P. C., B. S. Bhogal, and J. P. Fish. 1982. Tylosin tartrate and tiamutilin effects on experimental piglet pneumonia induced with pneumonic pig lung homogenate containing mycoplasmas, bacteria and viruses. Res. Vet. Sci. 33:76-88.[Medline]
15. Harris, A. G., F. E. Hinds, A. G. Beckhouse, T. Kolesnikow, and S. L. Hazell. 2002. Resistance to hydrogen peroxide in Helicobacter pylori: role of catalase (KatA) and Fur, and functional analysis of a novel gene product designated 'KatA-associated protein', KapA (HP0874). Microbiology 148:3813-3825.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
16. Horsburgh, M. J., E. Ingham, and S. J. Foster. 2001. In Staphylococcus aureus, fur is an interactive regulator with PerR, contributes to virulence, and is necessary for oxidative stress resistance through positive regulation of catalase and iron homeostasis. J. Bacteriol. 183:468-475.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
17. Hsu, Y. M., N. Chin, C. F. Chang, and Y. F. Chang. 2003. Cloning and characterization of the Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae fur gene and its role in regulation of ApxI and AfuABC expression. DNA Sequence 14:169-181.[Medline]
18. Jacobsen, I., I. Hennig-Pauka, N. Baltes, M. Trost, and G. F. Gerlach. 2005. Enzymes involved in anaerobic respiration appear to play a role in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae virulence. Infect. Immun. 73:226-234.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
19. Jacobsen, M. J., and J. P. Nielsen. 1995. Development and evaluation of a selective and indicative medium for isolation of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae from tonsils. Vet. Microbiol. 47:191-197.[CrossRef][Medline]
20. Leiner, G., B. Franz, K. Strutzberg, and G. F. Gerlach. 1999. A novel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using the recombinant Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae ApxII antigen for diagnosis of pleuropneumonia in pig herds. Clin. Diagn. Lab. Immunol. 6:630-632.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
21. Litwin, C. M., and S. B. Calderwood. 1993. Role of iron in regulation of virulence genes. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 6:137-149.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
22. Loprasert, S., R. Sallabhan, W. Whangsuk, and S. Mongkolsuk. 2000. Characterization and mutagenesis of fur gene from Burkholderia pseudomallei. Gene 254:129-137.[CrossRef][Medline]
23. Oswald, W., W. Tonpitak, G. Ohrt, and G. Gerlach. 1999. A single-step transconjugation system for the introduction of unmarked deletions into Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 7 using a sucrose sensitivity marker. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 179:153-160.[CrossRef][Medline]
24. Raleigh, F. A., K. Lech, and R. Brent. 1989. Select topics from classical bacterial genetics, p. 1.4.1-1.4.14. In F. M. Ausubel et al. (ed.), Current protocols in molecular biology. Publishing Associates and Wiley Interscience, New York, N.Y.
25. Rossi-Campos, A., C. Anderson, G. F. Gerlach, S. Klashinsky, A. A. Potter, and P. J. Willson. 1992. Immunization of pigs against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae with two recombinant protein preparations. Vaccine 10:512-518.[CrossRef][Medline]
26. Sheehan, B. J., J. T. Bossé, A. J. Beddek, A. N. Rycroft, J. S. Kroll, and P. R. Langford. 2003. Identification of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae genes important for survival during infection in its natural host. Infect. Immun. 71:3960-3970.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
27. Staggs, T. M., J. D. Fetherston, and R. D. Perry. 1994. Pleiotropic effects of a Yersinia pestis fur mutation. J. Bacteriol. 176:7614-7624.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
28. Tonpitak, W., S. Thiede, W. Oswald, N. Baltes, and G. F. Gerlach. 2000. Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae iron transport: a set of exbBD genes is transcriptionally linked to the tbpB gene and required for utilization of transferrin-bound iron. Infect. Immun. 68:1164-1170.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
29. Tung, W. L., and K. C. Chow. 1995. A modified medium for efficient electrotransformation of E. coli. Trends Genet. 11:128-129.[CrossRef][Medline]
30. Vassinova, N., and D. Kozyrev. 2000. A method for direct cloning of fur-regulated genes: identification of seven new fur-regulated loci in Escherichia coli. Microbiology 146:3171-3182.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
31. Willson, P. J., W. L. Albritton, L. Slaney, and J. K. Setlow. 1989. Characterization of a multiple antibiotic resistance plasmid from Haemophilus ducreyi. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 33:1627-1630.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Infection and Immunity, June 2005, p. 3740-3744, Vol. 73, No. 6
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.73.6.3740-3744.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:


This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Jacobsen, I.
Right arrow Articles by Gerlach, G.-F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Jacobsen, I.
Right arrow Articles by Gerlach, G.-F.

Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. J. Virol. Eukaryot. Cell
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. All ASM Journals