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Adaptive mutations in the signal peptide of the type 1 fimbrial adhesin of uropathogenic Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: Signal peptides (SPs) are critical for protein transport across cellular membranes, have a highly conserved structure, and are cleaved from the mature protein upon translocation. Here, we report that naturally occurring mutations in the SP of the adhesive, tip-associated subunit of type 1 fimbriae (FimH) are positively selected in uropathogenic Escherichia coli. On the one hand, these mutations have a detrimental effect, with reduced FimH transport across the inner membrane, fewer FimH and fimbriae expressed on the bacterial surface, and decreased bacterial adhesion under flow conditions. On the other hand, the fimbriae expressed by the mutants are significantly longer on average, with many fimbriae able to stretch to >20 microm in length. More surprisingly, the SP mutant bacteria display an increased ability to resist detachment from the surface upon a switch from high to low flow. This functional effect of longer fimbriae highlights the importance of the nonadhesive fimbrial rod for adhesive function. Also, whereas bacterial adhesion to bladder epithelial cells was preserved in most mutants, binding to and killing by human neutrophils was decreased, providing an additional reason the SP mutations are relatively common among uropathogenic strains. Thus, this study demonstrates how mutations in an SP, while decreasing transport function and not affecting the final structure of the translocated protein, can lead to functional gains of the extracellular organelles that incorporate the protein and overall adaptive changes in the organism's fitness.

SUBMITTER: Ronald LS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2504816 | biostudies-other | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Adaptive mutations in the signal peptide of the type 1 fimbrial adhesin of uropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Ronald Leah S LS Yakovenko Olga O Yazvenko Nina N Chattopadhyay Sujay S Aprikian Pavel P Thomas Wendy E WE Sokurenko Evgeni V EV

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20080729 31

Signal peptides (SPs) are critical for protein transport across cellular membranes, have a highly conserved structure, and are cleaved from the mature protein upon translocation. Here, we report that naturally occurring mutations in the SP of the adhesive, tip-associated subunit of type 1 fimbriae (FimH) are positively selected in uropathogenic Escherichia coli. On the one hand, these mutations have a detrimental effect, with reduced FimH transport across the inner membrane, fewer FimH and fimbr ...[more]

PMID: 18664574

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Project description:Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is the main etiologic agent. Fimbriae assembled on the bacterial surface are essential for adhesion to the urinary tract epithelium. In this study, the FimH, CsgA, and PapG adhesins were fused to generate biomolecules for use as potential target vaccines against UTIs. The fusion protein design was generated using bioinformatics tools, and template fusion gene sequences were synthesized by GenScript in the following order fimH-csgA-papG-fimH-csgA (fcpfc) linked to the nucleotide sequence encoding the [EAAAK]5 peptide. Monomeric (fimH, csgA, and papG), dimeric (fimH-csgA), and trimeric (fimH-csgA-papG) genes were cloned into the pLATE31 expression vector and generated products of 1040, 539, 1139, 1442, and 2444 bp, respectively. Fusion protein expression in BL21 E. coli was induced with 1 mM IPTG, and His-tagged proteins were purified under denaturing conditions and refolded by dialysis using C-buffer. Coomassie blue-stained SDS-PAGE gels and Western blot analysis revealed bands of 29.5, 11.9, 33.9, 44.9, and 82.1 kDa, corresponding to FimH, CsgA, PapG, FC, and FCP proteins, respectively. Mass spectrometry analysis by MALDI-TOF/TOF revealed specific peptides that confirmed the fusion protein structures. Dynamic light scattering analysis revealed the polydispersed state of the fusion proteins. FimH, CsgA, and PapG stimulated the release of 372-398 pg/mL IL-6; interestingly, FC and FCP stimulated the release of 464.79 pg/mL (p ≤ 0.018) and 521.24 pg/mL (p ≤ 0.002) IL-6, respectively. In addition, FC and FCP stimulated the release of 398.52 pg/mL (p ≤ 0.001) and 450.40 pg/mL (p ≤ 0.002) IL-8, respectively. High levels of IgA and IgG antibodies in human sera reacted against the fusion proteins, and under identical conditions, low levels of IgA and IgG antibodies were detected in human urine. Rabbit polyclonal antibodies generated against FimH, CsgA, PapG, FC, and FCP blocked the adhesion of E. coli strain CFT073 to HTB5 bladder cells. In conclusion, the FC and FCP proteins were highly stable, demonstrated antigenic properties, and induced cytokine release (IL-6 and IL-8); furthermore, antibodies generated against these proteins showed protection against bacterial adhesion.

Project description:Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains that produce immunologically heterogeneous fimbriae and enterotoxins are the primary cause of neonatal diarrhea and postweaning diarrhea in young pigs. A multivalent vaccine inducing protective immunity against ideally all ETEC fimbriae and enterotoxins could be effective against diarrhea in young pigs. However, developing a vaccine to broadly protect against various ETEC virulence determinants has proven challenging. Recently developed structure- and epitope-based multiepitope fusion antigen (MEFA) technology that presents neutralizing epitopes of various virulence determinants at a backbone immunogen and that mimics epitope native immunogenicity suggests the feasibility of developing multivalent vaccines. With neutralizing epitopes from ETEC fimbria F18 and enterotoxins being identified, it becomes urgent to identify protective epitopes of K88 (F4) fimbriae, which play a major role in pig neonatal and postweaning diarrhea. In this study, we identified B-cell immunodominant epitopes in silico from the K88ac fimbrial major subunit (also adhesin) FaeG and embedded each epitope in a heterogeneous carrier for epitope fusions. We then immunized mice with each epitope fusion protein and examined epitope antigenicity and also neutralizing activities of epitope-induced antibodies. Data showed that while all nine FaeG epitope fusions induced antibodies to K88ac fimbria, anti-K88 IgG antibodies derived from epitopes MTGDFNGSVD (ep1), LNDLTNGGTK (ep2), GRTKEAFATP (ep3), ELRKPDGGTN (ep4), PMKNAGGTKVGAVKVN (ep5), and RENMEYTDGT (ep8) significantly inhibited adherence of K88ac fimbrial bacteria to porcine intestinal cell line IPEC-J2, indicating that these peptides were the neutralizing epitopes of K88ac fimbrial major subunit FaeG and suggesting the future application of FaeG epitopes in ETEC vaccine development.IMPORTANCE Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains producing K88ac fimbriae and enterotoxins are a major cause of porcine neonatal diarrhea and postweaning diarrhea in the United States. Currently, there is no vaccine to induce broadly protective antiadhesin and antitoxin immunity against ETEC-associated diarrhea. To develop a broadly effective ETEC vaccine, we need to target the most important if not all ETEC virulence determinants. While conventional vaccinology approaches encounter difficulties at integrating or including heterogeneous ETEC fimbria and toxin antigens into a vaccine product, multiepitope fusion antigen (MEFA) structural vaccinology provides a new platform to combine neutralizing antigenic elements or epitopes from various heterogeneous virulence factors for broad immunity and protection. Identification of the neutralizing epitopes of K88ac fimbria from this study added the last antigens to an MEFA-based multivalent vaccine against ETEC-associated diarrhea in pigs. An effective vaccine against pig diarrhea can significantly improve swine health and well-being and reduce economic losses to the swine industry worldwide.

Project description:BACKGROUND: The global spread of bacterial resistance has given rise to a growing interest in new anti-bacterial agents with a new strategy of action. Pilicides are derivatives of ring-fused 2-pyridones which block the formation of the pili/fimbriae crucial to bacterial pathogenesis. They impair by means of a chaperone-usher pathway conserved in the Gram-negative bacteria of adhesive structures biogenesis. Pili/fimbriae of this type belong to two subfamilies, FGS and FGL, which differ in the details of their assembly mechanism. The data published to date have shown that pilicides inhibit biogenesis of type 1 and P pili of the FGS type which are encoded by uropathogenic E. coli strains. RESULTS: We evaluated the anti-bacterial activity of literature pilicides as blockers of the assembly of a model example of FGL-type adhesive structures--the Dr fimbriae encoded by a dra gene cluster of uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains. In comparison to the strain grown without pilicide, the Dr? bacteria cultivated in the presence of the 3.5 mM concentration of pilicides resulted in a reduction of 75 to 87% in the adherence properties to CHO cells expressing Dr fimbrial DAF receptor protein. Using quantitative assays, we determined the amount of Dr fimbriae in the bacteria cultivated in the presence of 3.5 mM of pilicides to be reduced by 75 to 81%. The inhibition effect of pilicides is concentration dependent, which is a crucial property for their use as potential anti-bacterial agents. The data presented in this article indicate that pilicides in mM concentration effectively inhibit the adherence of Dr? bacteria to the host cells--the crucial, initial step in bacterial pathogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: Structural analysis of the DraB chaperone clearly showed it to be a model of the FGL subfamily of chaperones. This permits us to conclude that analyzed pilicides in mM concentration are effective inhibitors of the assembly of adhesins belonging to the Dr family, and more speculatively, of other FGL-type adhesive organelles. The presented data and those published so far permit to speculate that based on the conservation of chaperone-usher pathway in Gram-negative bacteria , the pilicides are potential anti-bacterial agents with activity against numerous pathogens, the virulence of which is dependent on the adhesive structures of the chaperone-usher type.

Dataset Information

Adaptive mutations in the signal peptide of the type 1 fimbrial adhesin of uropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Publications

Adaptive mutations in the signal peptide of the type 1 fimbrial adhesin of uropathogenic Escherichia coli.

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