This Article Full Text (PDF) Other Versions of this Article: IAI.00457-07v1 75/10/4990    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Fälker, S. Articles by Heusipp, G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Fälker, S. Articles by Heusipp, G.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infect. Immun. doi:10.1128/IAI.00457-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Overproduction of DNA Adenine Methyltransferase Alters Motility, Invasion, and Lipopolysaccharide O Antigen composition of Yersinia enterocolitica

Institut für Infektiologie, Zentrum für Molekularbiologie der Entzündung Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: heusipp{at}uni-muenster.de.

	Abstract

The DNA adenine methyltransferase (Dam) not only regulates basic cellular functions, but also interferes with the proper expression of virulence factors in various pathogens. We could show previously that in the human pathogen Yersinia enterocolitica overproduction of Dam (Dam^OP) results in an increased invasion into epithelial cells. As invasion and motility are coordinately regulated in Y. enterocolitica, we analyzed the motility of a Dam^OP strain and found it to be highly motile. In Dam^OP strains, the operon encoding the master regulator of flagella biosynthesis, flhDC, is upregulated. We show that the increased invasion is not due to enhanced expression of known and putative Y. enterocolitica invasion and adhesion factors like Inv, YadA, Ail, Myf fibrils, Pil or Flp pili. However, Dam^OP no longer results in increased invasion of an inv mutant strain, indicating that Inv is necessary for increased invasion after Dam^OP. As we show that Dam^OP results in an increased amount of rough lipopolysaccharide (LPS) molecules lacking O antigen side chains, this implies that a reduced steric hindrance by LPS might contribute to the increased invasion of a Y. enterocolitica Dam^OP strain. Our data add an important new aspect to the various virulence-associated phenotypes influenced by DNA methylation in Y. enterocolitica and indicate that Dam targets regulatory processes modulating the composition and function of the bacterial surface.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Kim, J.-S., Li, J., Barnes, I. H. A., Baltzegar, D. A., Pajaniappan, M., Cullen, T. W., Trent, M. S., Burns, C. M., Thompson, S. A. (2008). Role of the Campylobacter jejuni Cj1461 DNA Methyltransferase in Regulating Virulence Characteristics. J. Bacteriol. 190: 6524-6529 [Abstract] [Full Text]