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Infection and Immunity, August 2006, p. 4694-4707, Vol. 74, No. 8
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.00210-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06536,1 454 Life Sciences, Branford, Connecticut 064052
Received 6 February 2006/ Returned for modification 4 April 2006/ Accepted 11 May 2006
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Despite its importance, remarkably little is known about the mechanisms by which C. jejuni causes disease. A number of studies have demonstrated the importance of motility, as well as a number of surface structures and metabolic adaptations, in the pathogenesis of this bacterium (6, 17, 20, 22, 24, 29, 30, 44). The genome sequences of two C. jejuni isolates have provided important clues about its metabolism, as well as a catalogue of phase-variable surface proteins and determinants involved in the assembly or modification of highly variable surface structures such as, lipooligosaccharide (LOS) and capsule (16, 50). This genomic information, coupled with a number of comparative studies (13, 32, 35, 36, 51, 55), has revealed a remarkable degree of diversity among different C. jejuni isolates. This diversity is thought to be largely responsible for the different pathogenic properties of different isolates of this enteropathogen.
Many research laboratories use in their studies a strain of C. jejuni, 81-176, which exhibits unique pathogenic features. Originally isolated from a patient during an outbreak of C. jejuni campylobacteriosis (33), this strain has been shown to be highly pathogenic in monkeys (58), as well as in two human trials (9, 56). Furthermore, this strain exhibits high levels of invasion of tissue culture cells (25, 48), a property that has been correlated with virulence (4, 14, 70). Although a number of studies have described some of the unique genetic features of C. jejuni 81-176 (19, 31, 37, 63), the complete nucleotide sequence of its genome is not available. With a recently developed nucleotide sequencing technology based on the microfabricated high-density PicoTiterPlate (41), we have determined the entire nucleotide sequence of the genome of C. jejuni 81-176. The genome sequence revealed several new genetic loci, as well as a number of deletions, which may explain the unique pathogenic features of this strain.
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Nucleotide sequencing and genome sequence analysis. Total DNA of C. jejuni 81-176 was isolated with the DNeasy tissue kit (QIAGEN) according to the manufacturer's protocol. Sample preparation and genome sequencing in microfabricated high-density picoliter reactors were performed as described before (41), at the 454 Life Sciences Measurement Service Center (Branford, CT). Predictions of open reading frames (ORFs) in regions specific for C. jejuni 81-176 were performed with ARTEMIS (http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Software/Artemis) with a cutoff of 100 bp and BLASTX (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/). Homology searches were performed with BLASTP/N and PSI- and PHI-BLAST (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST). CampyDB (http://campy.bham.ac.uk/) was used for specific comparison of the C. jejuni 81-176 contigs with the published genome sequences of C. jejuni and H. pylori. Analysis of secondary structural properties and detection of specific domains or motifs in the predicted proteins were carried out with SMART (http://smart.embl-heidelberg.de), SCANPROSITE (http://www.expasy.org/tools/scanprosite/), and MOTIF (http://motif.genome.ad.jp).
Construction of recombinant plasmids and generation of C. jejuni mutants.
DNA manipulations were performed according to standard protocols (40). Plasmid isolation was carried out with the QIAGEN QIAprep Spin Miniprep kit according to the manufacturer's instructions. The C. jejuni strains carrying insertion mutations in the genes encoding
-glutamyltranspeptidase (ggt), cytochrome c (cytC), and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) reductase (dmsA) were constructed by inserting a terminatorless aphA3 cassette within the respective genes (amplified by PCR) by standard recombinant DNA methods. The mutated genes were then introduced into C. jejuni 81-176 by natural transformation. All mutant strains were verified by PCR analysis.
Bacterial invasion assay. The ability of C. jejuni to enter cultured intestinal epithelial cells was evaluated by the standard gentamicin protection assay. Briefly, T84 intestinal epithelial cells grown to 70% confluence in 24-well dishes were infected with C. jejuni grown to mid-logarithmic phase at a multiplicity of infection of 100. Plates were centrifuged at 200 x g for 5 min to maximize bacterium-host cell contact and incubated for 2 h at 37°C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2. Monolayers were then washed three times with Hanks balanced salt solution, followed by incubation with Dulbecco modified Eagle medium containing gentamicin (100 µg ml1) for 2 h to kill extracellular bacteria. Epithelial cells were then washed three times and lysed in phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.1% deoxycholic acid to release the intracellular bacteria. The intracellular bacteria (i.e., those that survived the gentamicin treatment) were enumerated by plating of serial dilutions on tryptic soy agar plates supplemented with 5% defibrinated sheep blood.
Mouse infections.
The ability of C. jejuni to colonize mice was tested with a recently established mouse model of infection, which will be described in detail elsewhere (R. O. Watson et al., submitted for publication). Briefly, this animal model makes use of a mouse line which lacks the Myd88 adaptor protein and therefore is defective in Toll-like receptor signaling. Absence of Myd88 permits stable colonization by C. jejuni. Equal numbers (
109 bacterial CFU) of CFU of C. jejuni 81-176 and its isogenic mutants were simultaneously administered orally to 6-week-old Myd88/ mice. Colonization by the different strains was monitored by enumerating the number of CFU in the feces of the inoculated animals. Equal amounts of homogenized feces were plated on blood agar plates containing Campylobacter-selective supplements (Oxoid SR0167E) with or without kanamycin (50 µg ml1). At the end of the experiment, mice were sacrificed and the bacterial loads in the intestines were determined by plating on selective plates as described above. Statistical analysis of the results was carried out with the Wilcoxon (Mann-Whitney) rank test.
Nucleotide sequence accession numbers. The annotated genome sequence has been deposited in the GenBank/EMBL sequence database under accession numbers DQ489494, DQ492685, DQ493918, DQ493919, DQ493920, DQ493921, DQ493922, DQ493923, DQ493924, DQ493925, and DQ493926.
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TABLE 1. C. jejuni 81-176 genome sequencing raw statistics
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FIG. 1. Differences in synteny between C. jejuni NCTC 11168 and C. jejuni 81-176. A schematic comparison of the genomes of C. jejuni NCTC 11168 and 81-176 indicating the positions of insertions (triangles) and deletions (T symbols) in 81-176 is shown. Detail maps of the loci marked with capital letters are shown in other figures (A, see Fig. S2 in the supplemental material; B, see Fig. 3; C, see Fig. 7; D, see Fig. 5A; E, see Fig. S3 in the supplemental material; F, see Fig. 4; G, see Fig. S4 in the supplemental material; H, see Fig. S5 in the supplemental material; I, see Fig. S6 in the supplemental material; J, see Fig. 2; K, see Fig. 6A).
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(i) Electron transport, energy metabolism, and respiratory pathways. C. jejuni is an obligate microaerophile with a remarkably versatile respiratory chain which allows the utilization of a large variety of electron donors and acceptors. Under low-oxygen conditions, C. jejuni can use a variety of alternative electron acceptors, including fumarate, nitrate, nitrite, trimethylamine-N-oxide, DMSO, and sulfite (45, 53, 60). Such versatility is thought to be important for the ability of this pathogen to colonize the low-oxygen environment of the intestinal tract. C. jejuni 81-176 encodes respiratory functions additional to those encoded by reference strain NCTC 11168 or RM1221 which may contribute to its unique ability to efficiently colonize the intestines of human or animal hosts. For example, instead of the putative oxidoreductase encoded by Cj1585c in reference strain NCTC 11168, C. jejuni 81-176 possesses a gene cluster that encodes predicted proteins with significant sequence similarity to DmsA, DmsB, DmsC, and DmsD/TorD, which are components of a putative anaerobic DMSO reductase of Wolinella succinogenes (Fig. 2). It has been shown in Escherichia coli that DmsA and DmsB form a catalytic dimer that is anchored to the membrane by DmsC (59). The DmsA/DmsB complex is targeted to the cytoplasmic membrane by the twin-arginine translocase (TAT) system (8). Indeed, C. jejuni 81-176 encodes the putative components of the TAT system, TatA (Cj0576c), TatB (Cj0579c), and TatC (Cj0578c). Furthermore, immediately adjacent to the dms locus, C. jejuni 81-176 encodes a putative homolog of E. coli TorD (Fig. 2). This cytoplasmic protein binds tightly to the Tat signal peptide of DmsA, and therefore it has been proposed to function as a chaperone that escorts the DmsA protein to the TAT translocon (26, 27). Taken together, these observations indicate that C. jejuni 81-176 has an additional DMSO reductase system that may be important for respiration under oxygen-restricted conditions.
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FIG. 2. Gene arrangement of the dmsA locus in C. jejuni 81-176. In the genome of C. jejuni 81-176, the putative oxidoreductase gene Cj1585c is replaced by a cluster of four genes whose products show very significant sequence similarity to the components of a DMSO reductase complex encoded by an operon of W. succinogenes.
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C. jejuni 81-176 encodes all of the different cytochromes c and cytochrome c oxidoreductases present in reference strains NCTC 11168 and RM1221. In addition, however, 81-176 possesses a cluster of genes encoding putative proteins with amino acid sequence similarity to cytochrome c and a number of cytochrome c biogenesis proteins (Fig. 3). These proteins are closely related to corresponding gene products of Campylobacter lari, with sequence identities between 53% and 80%. Although the specificity of this putative electron transfer pathway is not known, this finding is another example of the expanded respiratory pathways in this C. jejuni strain.
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FIG. 3. Gene arrangement of a novel cytochrome c biosynthesis locus in C. jejuni 81-176. Two genes of NCTC 11168 are replaced in C. jejuni 81-176 by a 15-kb region encoding biosynthesis genes for cytochrome c with the closest homologs found in C. lari. In addition, this region also encodes a -glutamyltranspeptidase, a type II restriction-modification enzyme, and two hypothetical proteins with unknown functions. White boxes indicate the positions of tRNA genes.
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The nucleotide sequences of C. jejuni NCTC 11168 and RM1221 revealed the presence of a relatively large number of pseudogenes (16, 50). Some of these pseudogenes are the result of frame shifts, but others exhibited significant degeneration of the ORFs, suggesting that mutations may have accumulated over time. Interestingly, we found several ORFs that appear as pseudogenes in NCTC 11168 or RM1221 but encode apparently functional proteins in C. jejuni 81-176 (see Table S2 in the supplemental material). Genes encoding restriction and modification enzymes, two-component signal transduction proteins, and membrane proteins involved in several transport processes, like iron uptake, anion and cation transport, and sugar and peptide transport, are often pseudogenes in C. jejuni. This variability may explain some of the diversity in several metabolic traits that is often observed among different C. jejuni isolates (16, 50). For example, C. jejuni 81-176 possesses a gene for a glycerol-3-phosphate transporter (GlpT), although this gene appears disrupted in C. jejuni RM1221. Glycerol-3-phosphate is a central intermediate in glycolysis and in phospholipid metabolism (34). The enzyme glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GpsA; Cj1196c/CJE1330) of C. jejuni converts glycerol-3-phosphate to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, which can enter the glycolysis pathway. Given the fact that C. jejuni is unable to utilize glucose because of the lack of phosphofructokinase (66), the ability to take up glycerol-3-phosphate may confer significant metabolic advantages on this strain.
(ii) Potassium uptake. The genes kdpA, kdpB, and kdpC, which encode a potassium-transporting ATPase (3), are apparently functional in C. jejuni 81-176 although they are pseudogenes in C. jejuni NCTC 11168 and RM1221. Besides this potassium transport system, all three C. jejuni strains encode the KtrA/KtrB potassium uptake system, a high-affinity uptake system described for Vibrio alginolyticus (47, 64). The kdp system is induced under low-potassium conditions and repressed under high potassium concentrations. The coordinated activity of these systems may contribute to the establishment of a balanced intracellular potassium concentration, which is important for maintaining constant turgor pressure within the cell. In E. coli, turgor pressure regulates the expression of the kdpABC genes via the membrane-bound KdpD regulatory protein (39). Interestingly, the kdpD gene is truncated and presumably nonfunctional in C. jejuni 81-176, suggesting a different regulatory mechanism for the expression of the potassium transport system. It is possible that the presence of an additional functional potassium uptake system may benefit the growth of C. jejuni 81-176 in environments such as that within the phagocytic vacuole, where the potassium concentration may be low (67).
(iii)
-Glutamyltranspeptidase.
Within the same segment that contains the novel cytochrome c in C. jejuni 81-176 (Fig. 3), there is an ORF also absent from reference strains NCTC 11168 and RM1221 which encodes a protein with very significant amino acid sequence similarity to a
-glutamyltranspeptidase of Helicobacter pylori. This enzyme has been shown to be required for H. pylori colonization in animal models (11, 42). The mechanisms by which this
-glutamyltranspeptidase contributes to virulence are not understood, although it has been reported that its addition to cultured gastric cells induces apoptosis (61). Alternatively,
-glutamyltranspeptidases are part of the antioxidant glutathione pathway and therefore it is possible that they may contribute to counteract oxidative stress. It is noteworthy that in addition to C. jejuni 81-176, we have detected this
-glutamyltranspeptidase by PCR analysis in 3 out of 15 human isolates analyzed (data not shown), suggesting that this enzyme may contribute to the virulence of a subset of C. jejuni isolates.
(iv) Restriction-modification systems. A recent study has described a great deal of diversity in the DNA restriction and modification systems encoded by C. jejuni isolates (43). It is believed that this diversity may influence the ability of C. jejuni to horizontally acquire genetic information. C. jejuni 81-176 encodes a number of DNA restriction-modification systems, and consistent with the diversity observed in other strains, some of these systems are absent from the genomes of reference strains NCTC 11168 and RM1221. For example, C jejuni 81-176 encodes a complete additional type I DNA restriction and modification system (see Fig. S3 in the supplemental material). The GC content of this genomic region (28.8%) is different from that of the rest of the C. jejuni chromosome, suggesting that these genes may have been acquired horizontally. In this context, the three subunits of the restriction-modification system encoded in this locus possess the closest sequence similarity to the HsdR, HsdS, and HsdM proteins of Campylobacter upsaliensis (see Table S1 in the supplemental material).
(v) Serine protease. C. jejuni 81-176 encodes a putative serine protease that belongs to the autotransporter family and is absent from both reference strains. The enzymatic domain of this protein, located at its amino terminus, belongs to the subtilinase family of serine proteases and has the closest significant amino acid sequence similarity to a serine protease from C. upsaliensis (see Fig. S5 in the supplemental material). The autotransporter domain is located at the carboxy terminus, which ends in phenylalanine, a characteristic shared by most of the described autotransporter proteins (23).
(vi) Integrated plasmid. C. jejuni 81-176 carries two previously described plasmids, pTet and pVir (7), which have been proposed to contribute to the virulence of this strain (4, 5). The nucleotide sequence analysis of C. jejuni 81-176 did not reveal the presence of any other extrachromosomal element or the presence of large integrated prophages or insertion sequences, as seen in C. jejuni RM1221. However, we identified a 6-kb insertion element located immediately adjacent to a Leu tRNA which exhibits the features of an integrated plasmid (Fig. 4). This element encodes homologs of the TraN and TraG proteins of type IV secretion systems, proteins with homology to CCOA0053 and CCOA0054 of plasmid pCC178 of Campylobacter coli RM2228 (16), and one protein nearly identical to CJE1155 which is encoded by the CJIE3 integrated element of C. jejuni RM1221 (16). The TraN homolog is truncated at its N terminus, and the gene encoding a putative TraG homolog carries a frameshift mutation, indicating that these genes do not encode functional proteins. This integrated element also encodes a homolog of the RepA protein of several C. jejuni plasmids. Another remnant of an extrachromosomal element in C. jejuni 81-176 is represented by a unique ORF (Cju30), located immediately adjacent to the Ser tRNA (see Fig. 7), which encodes a protein with significant amino acid sequence similarity to plasmid-stabilizing protein ParE. Since these integrated elements lack essential functions that would allow their transmission and/or replication and do not encode any other obvious function, they probably represent vestigial elements that do not contribute to the biology of this strain.
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FIG. 4. Remnants of an integrated plasmid in the genome of C. jejuni 81-176. Adjacent to a leucine tRNA gene in the C. jejuni 81-176 genome, there are a group of genes with significant amino acid sequence similarity to proteins known to be important for plasmid replication (Cju21) or transfer (Cju25, Cju26, and Cju28). Furthermore, this region encodes polypeptides with significant amino acid sequence similarity to proteins encoded in plasmids present in C. jejuni RM1221 (Cju22 and Cju23) or C. coli RM2228 (Cju27). The positions of tRNA genes in this region are indicated by open boxes.
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FIG. 7. Iron uptake loci in C. jejuni 81-176. The genome location and arrangement of the five identified putative iron uptake systems in C. jejuni NCTC 11168 are shown. Two of these loci exhibit significant degradation in C. jejuni 81-176. A putative iron uptake system (bounded by Cj0173c and Cj0182 in reference strain NCTC 11168) is missing critical components in C. jejuni 81-176. In addition, in C. jejuni 81-176 tonB3 and cfrA, which encodes a ferric uptake receptor, are replaced by a protein of unknown function (Cju15) (see text for details).
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FIG. 5. Hypervariable region in the C. jejuni genome. (A) A genetic locus between ORFs Cj0564 and Cj0570 of reference strain NCTC 11168 shows significant variability across the sequenced strains of C. jejuni. Each of the strains shows a different genomic fragment integrated at this site. (B) PCR amplification of this region with primers complementary to sequences within conserved ORFs Cj0564 and Cj0570 yielded fragments of various sizes, an indication of the diversity of this region. The gel shows fragments amplified from 15 different clinical isolates. Amplification of DNAs from isolates 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10 yielded a band of a size similar to that of C. jejuni NCTC 11168; isolates 2, 8, 11, 13, 14, and 15 yielded a band of a size similar to that of C. jejuni 81-176; and isolate 6 yielded a band of a size similar to that of C. jejuni RM1221. The lack of amplification of a DNA fragment from isolate 7 may be due to sequence diversity within the Cj0564 and Cj0570 ORFs.
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FIG. 6. Identification of an integration hot spot in the C. jejuni genome. (A) C. jejuni 81-176 exhibits an insertion of genetic material between homologous ORFs Cj1687 and secY (NCTC 11168 nomenclature) not seen in sequenced reference strains NCTC 11168 and RM1221. The 3.5-kb insert contains a gene encoding a peptidase (cju38) and a pseudogene of a putative permease of the major facilitator superfamily (hatched arrow). (B) PCR amplification of this region with primers complementary to sequences within Cj1687 and secY yielded fragments of various sizes, an indication of the presence of novel genetic material in this region (see text for more details). The gel shows fragments amplified from 15 different clinical isolates. Amplification of DNAs from isolates 2 and 6 yielded a band similar in size to that of C. jejuni 81-176, while isolates 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 14 yielded a band similar in size to that of C. jejuni NCTC 11168 and RM1221, indicating the absence of inserted genetic material in these strains. Amplification from isolates 8, 11, 13, and 15 yielded a band of a size different from those of any of the sequenced strains, suggesting the presence of novel genetic material (see text for more details). *, nonspecific PCR product. The strain numbers correspond to those in Fig. 5.
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Another hypervariable plasticity region of C. jejuni (bounded by cj0295 and cj0306c of reference strain NCTC 11168) covers loci essential for molybdenum transport and pantothenate and biotin synthesis (51). The modABCD genes of C. jejuni, which encode a molybdenum transport apparatus, were reported to be missing in C. jejuni 81-176 in a microarray-based comparison of different strains of C. jejuni. However, a recent study detected a potential homolog of modD in this strain, although no homologs of the other components of the molybdenum transport system were found (54). In contrast to these observations, we found that all of the genes encoding a molybdenum transport system are present in C. jejuni 81-176. Interestingly, there is significant diversity in this gene cluster across the different Campylobacter sp. strains. Although the C. jejuni 81-176 modABCD cluster is nearly identical to the equivalent gene clusters in C. jejuni RM1221 and Campylobacter coli RM2228, it is significantly divergent from the modABCD genes in C. jejuni reference strain NCTC 11168. The plasticity of this region is also reflected by the observation that C. jejuni 81-176 is missing two genes in this region that are conserved in reference strains NCTC 11168 and RM1221, i.e., cj0295, encoding a putative acetyltransferase of the GNAT family, and Cj0299, whose product is similar to a penicillin-binding protein and contains a transpeptidase domain. It is unclear what the selection pressure is to maintain this variability across C. jejuni strains.
The porin protein Omp50 and the flagellar protein FlgE2 are two examples of localized variability across strains within a protein. In this case, the variability is localized to discrete regions of the predicted protein while other regions of the same protein are highly conserved (12, 38). This type of variability cannot usually be detected by standard microarray analysis unless many probes are used to query each gene. The Omp50 protein of C. jejuni 81-176 is very closely related to corresponding protein CJE1304 of C. jejuni RM1221 (94% amino acid sequence identity) but much more divergent from the equivalent protein from NCTC 11168. In contrast, the C. jejuni 81-176 FlgE2 protein shows only 82% and 78% amino acid sequence identity to the FlgE2 homologues in RM1221 and NCTC 11168, respectively. This divergence explains why the gene for FlgE2 was not detected in C. jejuni 81-176 in a microarray analysis and was therefore reported to be missing from this strain.
Diversity of iron uptake systems in C. jejuni. Acquisition of iron is an important virulence factor for pathogens to cope with the severe iron limitation that occurs in their host environment (10). No siderophore has so far been identified in C. jejuni (15, 52), which is in agreement with the absence of putative genes encoding these factors in the genome sequences of C. jejuni NCTC 11168 and RM1221 and the genome sequence of C. jejuni 81-176 reported here. However, it has been reported that C. jejuni makes use of exogenous siderophores produced by other bacteria or the host (e.g., ferrichrome, enterochelin, and heme compounds) (15, 52). Several putative uptake systems for these siderophores have been identified in the genomes of C. jejuni, and some of them have been functionally characterized (65).
Similar to reference strains NCTC 11168 and RM1221, C. jejuni 81-176 encodes a complete hemin/hemoglobin uptake system (ChuABCD; Cj1614 to Cj1617) and an enterochelin transport system (CeuBCDE; Cj1352 to Cj1355) (Fig. 7). In addition, and as previously reported for other strains, we could not detect the presence of a gene encoding a CeuA homolog in C. jejuni 81-176. The N- and C-terminal regions of the siderophore receptor ChuA are well conserved across C. jejuni strains. However, three internal regions of this protein exhibit considerable variability across strains (data not shown). With the algorithm PRED-TMBB (http://bioinformatics.biol.uoa.gr/PRED-TMBB/), these variable regions are predicted to be exposed loops between the membrane-embedded ß sheets. It is not known whether this diversity may influence the ability of these proteins to interact with the siderophore or if this variability in the surface-exposed domains is the result of selective pressure by the immune system.
C. jejuni 81-176 also encodes the CfpB ferric-uptake system (Cj0173c to Cj0176c), which is broadly conserved across strains. However, an ORF capable of encoding a hemin receptor, which is located immediately adjacent to the cfpB genes in the two sequenced reference strains, is absent from C. jejuni 81-176 (Fig. 7). The predicted ferrichrome uptake system encoded by the cfhUABD locus in some strains of C. jejuni (18) is also missing from 81-176 (Fig. 7). Also absent from C. jejuni 81-176 are the TonB-dependent ferric uptake receptor CfrA (Cj0755/CJE0847) and another putative siderophore receptor, Cj0178. This finding is surprising since both systems have been shown to be important for colonization by C. jejuni NCTC 11168 in a chicken infection model (49). Since C. jejuni 81-176 has been shown to efficiently colonize chickens, it must be able to use alternative iron uptake systems to acquire iron in the chicken intestine. It should be noted that the substrate specificity of the CfrA homolog in C. coli is not known since its absence has no effect on the utilization of hemin, enterochelin, or ferrichrome as an iron source (21).
In addition to a reduced spectrum of iron receptor proteins, C. jejuni 81-176 is also missing essential components of the ExbB-ExbD-TonB energy-transducing system that are essential for the function of some iron uptake systems. The genes exbB1, exbD1, tonB1 (Cj0179-0181), and tonB3 (Cj0754c), which are highly conserved in C. jejuni NCTC 11168 and RM1221, are absent in C. jejuni 81-176 (Fig. 7).
The diversity in the iron metabolism genes in C. jejuni is also illustrated by the variability in a number of genes or pseudogenes that encode putative iron-binding proteins. For example, Cj0045c, Cj0072c, Cj0241c, and Cj1224 of reference strain NCTC 11168 encode putative iron-binding proteins with weak similarities to members of the eukaryotic hemerythrin family. The genes Cj0045c and Cj1224 and their homologs presumably encode functional proteins in the three sequenced strains of C. jejuni, while cj0072 and its homologs are apparently pseudogenes in all of these C. jejuni strains. In contrast, Cj0241c is a pseudogene in C. jejuni RM1221 but its homologs in NCTC 11168 and 81-176 seem to encode functional proteins. Another pseudogene in C. jejuni NCTC 11168 (Cj0444) and RM1221 (cJE0496), which encodes a putative TonB-dependent siderophore receptor, seems to encode a functional protein in C. jejuni 81-176. Taken together, these observations indicate a great deal of diversity in the iron uptake systems of different strains of C. jejuni. Whether this diversity contributes specific pathogenic properties on different strains of C. jejuni is not known.
Genes of C. jejuni NCTC 11168 that are absent from C. jejuni 81-176. Comparison of C. jejuni strains has revealed significant differences in gene content among different isolates. In fact, some microarray-based comparisons have reported up to 20% difference in gene content between certain isolates (13), although this is probably an overestimate as microarray comparisons often cannot distinguish between genes that are absent and genes that significantly deviate from the query. Besides variations in gene content in the hypervariable regions encoding LOS and capsule biosynthesis, as well as glycosylation loci, our analysis revealed the absence of 51 genes in C. jejuni 81-176 compared to reference strain NCTC 11168 (see Table S3 in the supplemental material). Gene deletions encompass either single ORFs or entire clusters of genes. For example, a 9-kb genomic segment (Cj0480 to Cj0490) encoding a putative transcription regulator, an L-fucose permease, and a tartrate transporter is missing from C. jejuni 81-176 although it is highly conserved in both reference strains. Several of the C. jejuni NCTC 11168 genes that could not been identified in the genome sequence of C. jejuni 81-176 are pseudogenes in the reference strain (e.g., Cj0501, Cj0565, Cj0752, and Cj1528). Other genes of C. jejuni NCTC 11168 missing in C. jejuni 81-176 encode putative periplasmic proteins (Cj0299, Cj0424, Cj0425, Cj1376, Cj1722c, and Cj1723c) or lipoproteins (Cj0177) with unknown functions.
Contribution to virulence of the C. jejuni 81-176-specific genes. To examine the potential contribution to virulence of genes that appear unique to C. jejuni 81-176, we constructed strains carrying loss-of-function mutations in a subset of these genes and examined their phenotypes in several virulence assays. We first examined the contribution to virulence of a group of genes potentially involved in respiration under low-oxygen conditions, which are most likely encountered during gut colonization. More specifically, we constructed isogenic strains of C. jejuni 81-176 carrying loss-of-function insertion mutations in dmsA, which encodes a putative DMSO reductase, and cytC, which encodes a component of a cytochrome c oxidase (see above). Neither of the mutant strains showed any defect in the ability to grow in BHI liquid medium at 37°C under an atmosphere of 10% CO2 or under anaerobic conditions (data not shown) compared to the wild type. In addition, the mutants were able to enter and survive within intestinal epithelial cells in a manner indistinguishable from that of the wild type (data not shown). When tested in a mouse model of infection, the dmsA mutants showed a significant colonization defect (Fig. 8). Mixed-infection experiments in which mice were administered equal doses of wild-type C. jejuni 81-176 and the isogenic dmsA mutant strain showed that both strains equally colonize the intestine during the first week of infection. However, after 3 weeks of infection, the numbers of CFU of the dmsA mutant strain in the feces of most mice were significantly reduced (P = 0.0092) in comparison to those of the wild type (Fig. 8A) and it could not be cultured from the intestinal tissues of 8 of the 10 infected mice (Fig. 8B). In contrast, the C. jejuni cytC mutant strain showed no detectable colonization defect (P = 0.34 at week 6) in equivalent mixed-infection experiments (data not shown). These results indicate that at least some of the C. jejuni 81-176-specific genes that may enhance its ability to respire under oxygen-limiting conditions can contribute to the ability of this strain to colonize the host and potentially cause disease.
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FIG. 8. Ability of the C. jejuni 81-176 dmsA mutant to colonize mice after mixed oral infection. C. jejuni 81-176 and its dmsA isogenic mutant were simultaneously administered orally to Myd88/ mice. The numbers of CFU of the two strains in the feces (A) and intestines (B) of the infected animals were determined at different times after infection, as indicated. The numbers of CFU of the wild type (WT) and the dmsA mutant in each mouse are indicated by linked closed and open diamonds, respectively.
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-glutamyltranspeptidase in the pathogenesis of C. jejuni 81-176. An isogenic strain carrying a loss-of-function mutation in ggt was constructed and tested for the ability to grow under microaerophilic and anaerobic conditions, as well as for the ability to enter and survive within intestinal epithelial cells. The C. jejuni ggt::kan mutant strain showed no growth defect and was able to enter and survive within cultured intestinal epithelial cells in a manner indistinguishable from that of the wild type (data not shown). However, when tested for the ability to colonize mice, the ggt mutant showed a very significant defect (Fig. 9). When administered simultaneously with the wild type via the oral route in mixed-infection experiments, both strains were isolated at roughly equal levels from the feces of infected animals during the first week of infection (Fig. 9A). However, over time, larger numbers of wild-type bacteria were isolated from the feces of the infected animals and by week 7, very few numbers of the ggt mutant bacteria were detected in the feces of the inoculated mice (significance of the difference, P = 0.004). The mutant was also detected in much smaller numbers in tissues of animals 8 weeks after infection and was not detected at all in three of the five inoculated animals even though the wild-type strain was recovered from all of the infected animals (significance of the difference, P = 0.004) (Fig. 9B). These results indicate that, similarly to what has been observed for its H. pylori homolog (11, 42), the
-glutamyltranspeptidase contributes to the virulence of C. jejuni 81-176. Taken together, these results demonstrate that at least some of the genes that are unique to C. jejuni 81-176 contribute to its virulence.
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FIG. 9. Ability of the C. jejuni 81-176 ggt mutant to colonize mice after mixed oral infection. C. jejuni 81-176 and its ggt isogenic mutant were simultaneously administered orally to Myd88/ mice. The numbers of CFU of the two strains in the feces (A) and intestines (B) of the infected animals were determined at different times after infection, as indicated. The numbers of CFU of the wild type (WT) and the ggt mutant in each mouse are indicated by linked closed and open diamonds, respectively.
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D.H. was supported by an EMBO long-term fellowship. This work was supported by a grant from the Ellison Medical Foundation to J.E.G., who is an Ellison Medical Foundation senior scholar in infectious diseases.
Supplemental material for this article may by found at http://iai.asm.org/. ![]()
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-glutamyltranspeptidase for the colonization of the gastric mucosa of mice. Mol. Microbiol. 31:1359-1372.[CrossRef][Medline]
-Glutamyltransferase is a Helicobacter pylori virulence factor but is not essential for colonization. Infect. Immun. 69:4168-4173.This article has been cited by other articles:
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