Random mutagenesis strategies for Campylobacter and Helicobacter species

The Campylobacter jejuni CprRS two-component regulatory system regulates aspects of the cell envelope

Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of food-borne gastroenteritis in humans. It lives commensally in the gastrointestinal tract of animals, and tolerates variable conditions during transit/colonization of susceptible hosts. The C. jejuni CprRS two-component system contains an essential response regulator (CprR), and deletion of the cprS sensor kinase enhances biofilms. We sought to identify CprRS-regulated genes and better understand how the system affects survival. Expression from the cprR promoter was highest during logarithmic growth and dependent on CprS. CprR(D52A) did not support viability, indicating that CprR phosphorylation is essential despite the dispensability of CprS. We identified a GTAAAC consensus bound by the CprR C-terminus; the Asp52 residue of full-length CprR was required for binding, suggesting phosphorylation is required. Transcripts differing in expression in ΔcprS compared with wildtype (WT) contained a putative CprR binding site upstream of their promoter region and encoded htrA (periplasmic protease upstream of cprRS) and peb4 (SurA-like chaperone). Consistent with direct regulation, the CprR consensus in the htrA promoter was bound by CprR(CTD). Finally, ΔhtrA formed enhanced biofilms, and ΔcprS biofilms were suppressed by Mg(2+). CprRS is the first C. jejuni regulatory system shown to control genes related to the cell envelope, the first line of interaction between pathogen and changing environments.

Generation of a Tn5 transposon library in Haemophilus parasuis and analysis by transposon-directed insertion-site sequencing (TraDIS)

Haemophilus parasuis is an important respiratory tract pathogen of swine and the etiological agent of Glässer's disease. The molecular pathogenesis of H. parasuis is not well studied, mainly due to the lack of efficient tools for genetic manipulation of this bacterium. In this study we describe a Tn5-based random mutagenesis method for use in H. parasuis. A novel chloramphenicol-resistant Tn5 transposome was electroporated into the virulent H. parasuis serovar 5 strain 29755. High transposition efficiency of Tn5, up to 10(4) transformants/μg of transposon DNA, was obtained by modification of the Tn5 DNA in the H. parasuis strain HS071 and establishment of optimal electrotransformation conditions, and a library of approximately 10,500 mutants was constructed. Analysis of the library using transposon-directed insertion-site sequencing (TraDIS) revealed that the insertion of Tn5 was evenly distributed throughout the genome. 10,001 individual mutants were identified, with 1561 genes being disrupted (69.4% of the genome). This newly-developed, efficient mutagenesis approach will be a powerful tool for genetic manipulation of H. parasuis in order to study its physiology and pathogenesis.

In vivo and in silico determination of essential genes of Campylobacter jejuni

BACKGROUND

In the United Kingdom, the thermophilic Campylobacter species C. jejuni and C. coli are the most frequent causes of food-borne gastroenteritis in humans. While campylobacteriosis is usually a relatively mild infection, it has a significant public health and economic impact, and possible complications include reactive arthritis and the autoimmune diseases Guillain-Barré syndrome. The rapid developments in "omics" technologies have resulted in the availability of diverse datasets allowing predictions of metabolism and physiology of pathogenic micro-organisms. When combined, these datasets may allow for the identification of potential weaknesses that can be used for development of new antimicrobials to reduce or eliminate C. jejuni and C. coli from the food chain.

RESULTS

A metabolic model of C. jejuni was constructed using the annotation of the NCTC 11168 genome sequence, a published model of the related bacterium Helicobacter pylori, and extensive literature mining. Using this model, we have used in silico Flux Balance Analysis (FBA) to determine key metabolic routes that are essential for generating energy and biomass, thus creating a list of genes potentially essential for growth under laboratory conditions. To complement this in silico approach, candidate essential genes have been determined using a whole genome transposon mutagenesis method. FBA and transposon mutagenesis (both this study and a published study) predict a similar number of essential genes (around 200). The analysis of the intersection between the three approaches highlights the shikimate pathway where genes are predicted to be essential by one or more method, and tend to be network hubs, based on a previously published Campylobacter protein-protein interaction network, and could therefore be targets for novel antimicrobial therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

We have constructed the first curated metabolic model for the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni and have presented the resulting metabolic insights. We have shown that the combination of in silico and in vivo approaches could point to non-redundant, indispensable genes associated with the well characterised shikimate pathway, and also genes of unknown function specific to C. jejuni, which are all potential novel Campylobacter intervention targets.