Salmonella typhimurium LT2 metF operator mutations

Human milk oligosaccharides and non-digestible carbohydrates reduce pathogen adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells by decoy effects or by attenuating bacterial virulence

This work investigated the effects of different chemical structures of human milk oligosaccharides (hMOs) and non-digestible carbohydrates (NDCs) on pathogen adhesion by serving as decoy receptors. Pre-exposure of pathogens to inulins and low degree of methylation (DM) pectin prevented binding to gut epithelial Caco2-cells, but effects were dependent on the molecules' chemistry, pathogen strain and growth phase. Pre-exposure to 3-fucosyllactose increased E. coli WA321 adhesion (28%, p < 0.05), and DM69 pectin increased E. coli ET8 (15 fold, p < 0.05) and E. coli WA321 (50%, p < 0.05) adhesion. Transcriptomics analysis revealed that DM69 pectin upregulated flagella and cell membrane associated genes. However, the top 10 downregulated genes were associated with lowering of bacteria virulence. DM69 pectin increased pathogen adhesion but bacterial virulence was attenuated illustrating different mechanisms may lower pathogen adhesion. Our study illustrates that both hMOs and NDCs can reduce adhesion or attenuate virulence of pathogens but that these effects are chemistry dependent.

In vivo hydrolysis of S-adenosylmethionine induces the met regulon of Escherichia coli

Regulation of methionine biosynthesis inEscherichia coliinvolves a complex of the MetJ aporepressor protein andS-adenosylmethionine (SAM) repressing expression of most genes in themetregulon. To test the role of SAM in the regulation ofmetgenes directly, SAM pools were depleted by thein vivoexpression of the cloned plasmid vector-based coliphage T3 SAM hydrolase (SAMase) gene. Cultures within vivoSAMase activity were assayed for expression of themetA,B,C,E,F,H,J,KandRgenes in cells grown in methionine-rich complete media as well as in defined media with and withoutl-methionine.In vivoSAMase activity dramatically induced expression between 11- and nearly 1000-fold depending on the gene assayed for all butmetJandmetH, and these genes were induced over twofold.metJ : : Tn5(aporepressor defective) andmetK : : Tn5(SAM synthetase impaired; produces <5 % of wild-type SAM) strains containingin vivoSAMase activity produced even highermetgene activity than that seen in comparably prepared cells with wild-type genes for all butmetJin a MetJ-deficient background. The SAMase-mediated hyperinduction ofmetHin wild-type cells and of themetgenes assayed inmetJ : : Tn5andmetK : : Tn5cells provokes questions about how other elements such as the MetR activator protein or factors beyond themetregulon itself might be involved in the regulation of genes responsible for methionine biosynthesis.

Genetic map of Salmonella typhimurium, edition VIII

We present edition VIII of the genetic map of Salmonella typhimurium LT2. We list a total of 1,159 genes, 1,080 of which have been located on the circular chromosome and 29 of which are on pSLT, the 90-kb plasmid usually found in LT2 lines. The remaining 50 genes are not yet mapped. The coordinate system used in this edition is neither minutes of transfer time in conjugation crosses nor units representing "phage lengths" of DNA of the transducing phage P22, as used in earlier editions, but centisomes and kilobases based on physical analysis of the lengths of DNA segments between genes. Some of these lengths have been determined by digestion of DNA by rare-cutting endonucleases and separation of fragments by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Other lengths have been determined by analysis of DNA sequences in GenBank. We have constructed StySeq1, which incorporates all Salmonella DNA sequence data known to us. StySeq1 comprises over 548 kb of nonredundant chromosomal genomic sequences, representing 11.4% of the chromosome, which is estimated to be just over 4,800 kb in length. Most of these sequences were assigned locations on the chromosome, in some cases by analogy with mapped Escherichia coli sequences.

A mutation in the rpoA gene encoding the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase that affects metE-metR transcription in Escherichia coli

The DNA-binding protein MetR belongs to the LysR family of transcriptional activators and is required for expression of the metE and metH promoters in Escherichia coli. However, it is not known if this activation is mediated by a direct interaction of MetR with RNA polymerase. In a search for RNA polymerase mutants defective in MetR-mediated activation of the metE gene, we isolated a mutation in the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase that decreases metE expression independently of the MetR protein. The mutation does not affect expression from the metH promoter, suggesting that the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase interacts differently at these two promoters. The mutation was mapped to codon 261 of the rpoA gene, resulting in a change from a glutamic acid residue to a lysine residue. Growth of the mutant is severely impaired in minimal medium even when supplemented with methionine and related amino acids, indicating a pleiotropic effect on gene expression. This rpoA mutation may identify either a site of contact with an as yet unidentified activator protein for metE expression or a site of involvement by the alpha subunit in sequence-specific recognition of the metE promoter.

Regulation of the Salmonella typhimurium metF gene by the MetR protein

The metF gene in Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium is under negative transcriptional control by the MetJ repressor. Expression of an S. typhimurium metF-lacZ gene fusion is repressed up to 10-fold by methionine addition to the growth medium in E. coli hosts encoding wild-type MetJ repressor; this repression is not seen in metJ mutants. metR mutations which eliminate the MetR activator protein result in two- to threefold-more-severe repression by the MetJ repressor. In a metJ metR double mutant, however, the level of metF-lacZ expression is the same as in a metJ mutant, suggesting that MetR antagonizes MetJ-mediated methionine repression of the metF promoter. A DNA footprint analysis showed that MetR binds to a DNA fragment carrying the metF promoter and protects two separate regions from DNase I digestion: a 46-bp region from position -50 to -95 upstream of the transcription initiation site and a 24-bp region from about position +62 to +85 downstream of the transcription initiation site and within the metF structural gene. Nucleotide changes in each of the MetR-binding sites away from the consensus sequence disrupt MetR-mediated regulation of the metF-lacZ fusion.

Control site location and transcriptional regulation in Escherichia coli

The regulatory regions for 119 Escherichia coli promoters have been analyzed, and the locations of the regulatory sites have been cataloged. The following observations emerge. (i) More than 95% of promoters are coregulated with at least one other promoter. (ii) Virtually all sigma 70 promoters contain at least one regulatory site in a proximal position, touching at least position -65 with respect to the start point of transcription. There are not yet clear examples of upstream regulation in the absence of a proximal site. (iii) Operators within regulons appear in very variable proximal positions. By contrast, the proximal activation sites of regulons are much more fixed. (iv) There is a forbidden zone for activation elements downstream from approximately position -20 with respect to the start of transcription. By contrast, operators can occur throughout the proximal region. When activation elements appear in the forbidden zone, they repress. These latter examples usually involve autoregulation. (v) Approximately 40% of repressible promoters contain operator duplications. These occur either in certain regulons where duplication appears to be a requirement for repressor action or in promoters subject to complex regulation. (vi) Remote operator duplications occur in approximately 10% of repressible promoters. They generally appear when a multiple promoter region is coregulated by cyclic AMP receptor protein. (vii) Sigma 54 promoters do not require proximal or precisely positioned activator elements and are not generally subject to negative regulation. Rationales are presented for all of the above observations.