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Infection and Immunity, August 2005, p. 4581-4587, Vol. 73, No. 8
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.73.8.4581-4587.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 1300 York Avenue, Box 57, New York, New York 10021,1 Graduate Program in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis and Graduate Program in Molecular Biology, Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University, New York, New York2
Received 4 October 2004/ Returned for modification 13 December 2004/ Accepted 18 March 2005
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Exposure to M. tuberculosis often results in latent infection in humans rather than sterilizing immunity (10). In wild-type (wt) mice, phagocytes in mice infected with M. tuberculosis express inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) (11, 14) and control M. tuberculosis infection for months or years but fail to eradicate it. In contrast, M. tuberculosis infection progresses rapidly to lethality in mice that lack iNOS (11). These observations suggested that M. tuberculosis, to a relevant degree, resists the damaging effects of iNOS in vivo. We tested this hypothesis by screening for M. tuberculosis mutants that are hypersusceptible to mildly acidified nitrite (a physiological source of nitric oxide [NO]) in vitro (6). Mutations in genes that encode subunits of a presumptive M. tuberculosis proteasome resulted in severe attenuation of M. tuberculosis lethality in mice (5, 6). This phenotype was partially reversed in mice lacking iNOS, supporting the notion that susceptibility to products of iNOS was one of the defects of these M. tuberculosis mutants. Thus, M. tuberculosis must resist products of iNOS to kill wt mice.
Among the other mutants identified in the screen, we found two with mutations in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) gene uvrB. Of all NO-sensitive mutants identified in the screen, uvrB mutants were the most profoundly sensitive to acidified nitrite (6). In earlier studies, a recA mutant of Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) had no detectable phenotype in a mouse for up to 80 days postinfection (17). A mutation in dnaE2, a homolog of dnaE, attenuated M. tuberculosis in wt C57BL/6 mice but did not affect the bacterial load until late in the infection (2). Thus, although recA and dnaE2 mutants had increased susceptibility to mutagenesis in vitro, they had distinctively different phenotypes in the mouse. This suggested that not all DNA repair pathways in M. tuberculosis contribute equally, if at all, to survival in the host.
In this study, we examined the role of uvrB after exposure of M. tuberculosis to UV light, RNI, and ROI. Furthermore, we determined the contribution of uvrB in a mouse model of infection. Similar to what was observed for the dnaE2 M. tuberculosis mutant, a uvrB mutant did not grow to the same levels as wt M. tuberculosis in a wt mouse. Inactivation of iNOS only partially reduced the attenuation of the uvrB mutant. However, the uvrB mutant was almost fully virulent in mice deficient in both gp91phox and iNOS. This suggested that uvrB is required for M. tuberculosis to resist both RNI and ROI in vivo.
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TABLE 1. Bacterial strains and plasmids used in this work
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TABLE 2. Primers used in this work
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UV light exposure. Single-cell suspensions of M. tuberculosis cultures were made as described for the NO-killing assays but using regular 7H9-ADN. An aliquot (5 to 10 µl) of serially diluted cultures was spotted onto Middlebrook 7H11-OADC and exposed to UV light in a biosafety cabinet, measuring UV intensity with a dosimeter.
Susceptibility to ROI. M. tuberculosis cultures were grown to stationary phase and diluted to an OD580 of 0.15. An aliquot (150 µl) of culture was spread onto 7H11-OADC agar and allowed to dry for about 10 min. Six-millimeter paper disks (BBL) were placed in the center of the bacterial lawns and spotted with the compound of interest. Duplicate plates were prepared. After 1 week, zones of inhibition were measured. The vehicle controls, dimethyl sulfoxide or ethanol, resulted in no inhibition of M. tuberculosis growth (data not shown).
Bone marrow macrophage isolation and infection.
wt C57BL/6 mice were from Jackson Laboratories. Mice deficient in iNOS or both iNOS and gp91phox on the C57BL/6 background were from our own colony (18) or purchased from Jackson Laboratories. For convenience, mice lacking both phoxgp91 and iNOS are termed "phox/NOS/." Femoral bone marrow cells were seeded into 1-cm-diameter tissue culture wells at 2 x 105/well in 0.5 ml of Dulbecco's minimal Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 10% L-cell conditioned medium, 10 mM HEPES, 0.6 g/liter L-glutamine, and 1 mM pyruvate, with or without 50 U/ml of pure, recombinant mouse gamma interferon (IFN-
; Genentech). After 6 to 7 days of differentiation, the medium was replaced with fresh medium with or without 50 U/ml of IFN-
. To prepare the M. tuberculosis inocula, bacteria from mid-logarithmic-phase cultures (OD580 of 0.4) were centrifuged in 50-ml conical tubes at 3,310 x g for 8 min at room temperature. Pellets were resuspended in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS)-0.05% Tween 80 (PBS-Tween) and then centrifuged at 130 x g for 8 min. The OD580 of the supernatant was measured, and the amount of bacteria per ml was determined. Bacteria were then centrifuged at 3,310 x g for 8 min and resuspended in Dulbecco's minimal Eagle's medium. Macrophages were infected with M. tuberculosis at a multiplicity of infection of 4. Infected macrophages were washed with PBS and lysed with 0.5% Triton X-100 to recover intracellular bacteria at 4, 72, and 144 h. To assess macrophage activation, nitrite production was measured by a Griess assay (7). In the experiments presented, wt macrophages produced 30 to 40 µM nitrite by day 2.
Mouse infections.
To prepare bacteria for aerosol infection, M. tuberculosis from mid-logarithmic-phase cultures (OD580 of 0.4) were centrifuged in 50-ml conical tubes at 3,310 x g for 8 min at room temperature. Pellets were resuspended in a half volume of PBS-Tween and then centrifuged at 130 x g for 8 min. The OD580 of the supernatant was measured, and the suspension was diluted to an OD580 of 0.04 in PBS. CFU (108) were placed into the nebulizer of a Glas-Col inhalation exposure system (Terre Haute, IN). Each mouse received
100 to 200 bacilli. This was determined in 3 mice per strain of mouse and per strain of M. tuberculosis 1 day after infection by counting CFU recovered from the lungs. Organs were homogenized in 4 ml of PBS-Tween on day 1 or in 5 ml of PBS-Tween at week 3, 8, or 15. For survival experiments, groups of 4 to 5 mice were infected. Mice were humanely sacrificed when they became cachectic and lethargic.
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MycoMarT7 mutants for M. tuberculosis that were sensitive to acidified nitrite (6). Two uvrB mutants of 12 mutants total were the most sensitive to acidified nitrite. The uvrB stop codon overlaps the putative start codon of Rv1634, which putatively encodes an efflux pump protein (http://genolist.pasteur.fr/TubercuList/). Therefore, it is possible that the two genes are cotranscribed. The
MycoMarT7 transposon insertion in both uvrB mutants had the kanamycin gene expressed in the same direction as uvrB and Rv1634. Therefore, it was possible that even if uvrB and Rv1634 were in an operon, the kanamycin resistance promoter allowed for wt Rv1634 expression. To determine whether the nitrite-sensitive phenotype was due to disruption of uvrB or polar effects on Rv1634, we complemented both uvrB mutations in single copy. A plasmid encoding only uvrB was sufficient to fully complement the uvrB mutations for sensitivity to nitrite (Fig. 1A).
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FIG. 1. Complementation of uvrB mutations for nitrite sensitivity. (A) Two independent uvrB:: MycoMarT7 mutants were complemented with the integrative plasmid pMV-uvrB. (B) Nitrite dose-response curves of wt, uvrB, and complemented strains. All strains contain either the empty vector pMV306 or pMV-uvrB integrated at the att site of the chromosome. Each datum point represents the average of triplicates from one experiment and is representative of the results from three independent experiments. Error bars represent standard deviations.
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FIG. 2. uvrB mutants are hypersusceptible to UV light. (A) Growth of M. tuberculosis strains after exposure to 8.5 mJ/m2 of UV light. (B) UV dose-response curve. All strains were transformed by either plasmid pMV306 or pMV-uvrB. Each datum point represents the average of duplicates from one experiment and is representative of the results from three independent experiments.
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TABLE 3. Susceptibility to ROI
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did not enhance the growth restriction. Therefore, additional factors independent of exogenous IFN-
help control the growth of M. tuberculosis in macrophages in vitro.
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FIG. 3. A uvrB mutant has a slight growth defect in wt and phox/iNOS/ bone marrow-derived macrophages. Macrophages were infected with M. tuberculosis at a multiplicity of infection of 4. Each datum point represents the average of triplicates ± standard deviation from one of two representative experiments. Differences between wt and uvrB strains in unactivated wt or phox/iNOS/ macrophages are statistically significant according to Student's unpaired t test (P < 0.05). compl., complemented; , IFN- .
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FIG. 4. A uvrB mutant does not grow as well as wt M. tuberculosis in either wt or iNOS/ mice but returns to virulence in phox/iNOS-deficient mice. (A) CFU from the lungs of wt, iNOS, or phox/iNOS-deficient mice. The difference between wt and uvrB M. tuberculosis in wt mice at day 56 was statistically significant based on Student's unpaired t test (P = 0.006). Values between wt and uvrB M. tuberculosis in phox/iNOS/ mice were not considered statistically significant. (B) CFU from spleens of the same mice represented in panel A. Each datum point represents the average of the results from 3 to 4 mice. Error bars represent ±1 standard deviation. *, no mice survived to this time point.
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FIG. 5. A uvrB mutant is attenuated in wt and iNOS/ mice but returns to virulence in phox/iNOS-deficient mice. (A) The first experiment shows that the uvrB mutant is attenuated in both wt and iNOS/ mice (left panel). The uvrB mutant is attenuated in iNOS/ mice but is almost as virulent as wt M. tuberculosis in phox/iNOS/ mice (right panel). Groups of 4 to 5 mice were infected for each survival curve. wt mice for the second experiment were all still alive at the time the manuscript was submitted. (B) An fbiC mutant is not attenuated in mice. Groups of 5 wt or iNOS/ mice were infected with an aerosol of an fbiC mutant M. tuberculosis strain as described for the uvrB mutants.
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In addition to the uvrB mutants, two fbiC mutants were identified in our screen for RNI-sensitive mutants (6). Unlike the uvrB mutant, an fbiC mutant did not appear to produce a different course of infection from wt M. tuberculosis in either wt or iNOS/ mice (Fig. 5B). This suggests that although fbiC is essential for resistance to RNI in vitro, it is dispensable for in vivo exposure to RNI.
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Phagocyte oxidase has not previously been shown to be important for the control of M. tuberculosis infections either alone or in conjunction with deficiency of iNOS (4, 10). However, judging by the life span of the mice, it is apparent that phox plays a potential role in protecting the host that is normally fended off by UvrB, as revealed when uvrB is disrupted.
It is notable that other genes (e.g., uvrA, C, and D) involved in the repair of UV-induced damage were not identified in our screen (6). Other gene products may be able to substitute for their functions. Alternatively, the original screen may not have been saturating. Thus, it remains possible that other uvr mutants would have the same phenotype as the uvrB mutants.
Although NER and other forms of DNA repair have been intensely studied in bacteria (2, 13, 17, 21, 24), the role of NER for bacterial survival in a mammalian host has apparently not been reported. The function of UvrB is to excise damaged nucleotides from DNA (23). Expression of several uvr genes, including uvrB, was increased in M. tuberculosis within human macrophages (8). A mutation in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium uvrB resulted in enhanced mutagenesis by NO donors, which was thought likely to be attributable to deamination of cytosine nucleotides and resultant transition mutations (12). A recombination-defective S. enterica serovar Typhimurium recBC mutant that was attenuated in wt mice (3) was as virulent as wt bacteria in mice deficient in phox or in both phox and iNOS (18). In contrast, a recA mutant of M. bovis BCG was not attenuated in mice more than the parental strain (17), although the fact that the parental strain is already attenuated may have masked a recA phenotype. We did not identify recA, dnaE2, or other components of NER other than uvrB in our screen (6). As mentioned earlier, there are several possible reasons for this, including that the mutagenesis was not saturating or that these genes are individually dispensable for resistance to nitrite in vitro.
This work was funded by NIH grants HL61241 and AI055548 to C.F.N. and T32 AI07621 to K.H.D.
Present address: Department of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, MSB 236, New York, NY 10016. ![]()
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