Dataset Information

Differential impact of lipopolysaccharide defects caused by loss of RfaH in Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Yersinia pestis.

ABSTRACT: RfaH enhances transcription of a select group of operons controlling bacterial surface features such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Previous studies have suggested that rfaH may be required for Yersinia pseudotuberculosis resistance to antimicrobial chemokines and survival during mouse infections. In order to further investigate the role of RfaH in LPS synthesis, resistance to host defense peptides, and virulence of Yersinia, we constructed ?rfaH mutants of Y. pseudotuberculosis IP32953 and Y. pestis KIM6+. Loss of rfaH affected LPS synthesis in both species, resulting in a shorter core oligosaccharide. Susceptibility to polymyxin and the antimicrobial chemokine CCL28 was increased by loss of rfaH in Y. pseudotuberculosis but not in Y. pestis. Transcription of genes in the ddhD-wzz O-antigen gene cluster, but not core oligosaccharide genes, was reduced in ?rfaH mutants. In addition, mutants with disruptions in specific ddhD-wzz O-antigen cluster genes produced LPS that was indistinguishable from the ?rfaH mutant. This suggests that both Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. pestis produce an oligosaccharide core with a single O-antigen unit attached in an RfaH-dependent fashion. Despite enhanced sensitivity to host defense peptides, the Y. pseudotuberculosis ?rfaH strain was not attenuated in mice, suggesting that rfaH is not required for acute infection.

SUBMITTER: Hoffman JM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5589760 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Differential impact of lipopolysaccharide defects caused by loss of RfaH in Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Yersinia pestis.

Hoffman Jared M JM Sullivan Shea S Wu Erin E Wilson Eric E Erickson David L DL

Scientific reports 20170907 1

RfaH enhances transcription of a select group of operons controlling bacterial surface features such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Previous studies have suggested that rfaH may be required for Yersinia pseudotuberculosis resistance to antimicrobial chemokines and survival during mouse infections. In order to further investigate the role of RfaH in LPS synthesis, resistance to host defense peptides, and virulence of Yersinia, we constructed ΔrfaH mutants of Y. pseudotuberculosis IP32953 and Y. pes ...[more]

PMID: 28883503

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Project description:Yersinia pestis, the etiologic agent of plague, emerged as a fleaborne pathogen only within the last 6,000 years. Just five simple genetic changes in the Yersinia pseudotuberculosis progenitor, which served to eliminate toxicity to fleas and to enhance survival and biofilm formation in the flea digestive tract, were key to the transition to the arthropodborne transmission route. To gain a deeper understanding of the genetic basis for the development of a transmissible biofilm infection in the flea foregut, we evaluated additional gene differences and performed in vivo transcriptional profiling of Y. pestis, a Y. pseudotuberculosis wild-type strain (unable to form biofilm in the flea foregut), and a Y. pseudotuberculosis mutant strain (able to produce foregut-blocking biofilm in fleas) recovered from fleas 1 day and 14 days after an infectious blood meal. Surprisingly, the Y. pseudotuberculosis mutations that increased c-di-GMP levels and enabled biofilm development in the flea did not change the expression levels of the hms genes responsible for the synthesis and export of the extracellular polysaccharide matrix required for mature biofilm formation. The Y. pseudotuberculosis mutant uniquely expressed much higher levels of Yersinia type VI secretion system 4 (T6SS-4) in the flea, and this locus was required for flea blockage by Y. pseudotuberculosis but not for blockage by Y. pestis. Significant differences between the two species in expression of several metabolism genes, the Psa fimbrial genes, quorum sensing-related genes, transcription regulation genes, and stress response genes were evident during flea infection. IMPORTANCE Y. pestis emerged as a highly virulent, arthropod-transmitted pathogen on the basis of relatively few and discrete genetic changes from Y. pseudotuberculosis. Parallel comparisons of the in vitro and in vivo transcriptomes of Y. pestis and two Y. pseudotuberculosis variants that produce a nontransmissible infection and a transmissible infection of the flea vector, respectively, provided insights into how Y. pestis has adapted to life in its flea vector and point to evolutionary changes in the regulation of metabolic and biofilm development pathways in these two closely related species.

Dataset Information

Differential impact of lipopolysaccharide defects caused by loss of RfaH in Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Yersinia pestis.

Publications

Differential impact of lipopolysaccharide defects caused by loss of RfaH in Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Yersinia pestis.

Similar Datasets

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