Characterization of Temperate Lactobacillus gasseri Phage LgaI and Its Impact as Prophage on Autolysis of Its Lysogenic Host Strains

Acetate modulates the inhibitory effect of Lactobacillus gasseri against the pathogenic yeasts Candida albicans and Candida glabrata

The exploration of the interference prompted by commensal bacteria over fungal pathogens is an interesting alternative to develop new therapies. In this work we scrutinized how the presence of the poorly studied vaginal species Lactobacillus gasseri affects relevant pathophysiological traits of Candida albicans and Candida glabrata. L. gasseri was found to form mixed biofilms with C. albicans and C. glabrata resulting in pronounced death of the yeast cells, while bacterial viability was not affected. Reduced viability of the two yeasts was also observed upon co-cultivation with L. gasseri under planktonic conditions. Either in planktonic cultures or in biofilms, the anti-Candida effect of L. gasseri was augmented by acetate in a concentration-dependent manner. During planktonic co-cultivation the two Candida species counteracted the acidification prompted by L. gasseri thus impacting the balance between dissociated and undissociated organic acids. This feature couldn't be phenocopied in single-cultures of L. gasseri resulting in a broth enriched in acetic acid, while in the co-culture the non-toxic acetate prevailed. Altogether the results herein described advance the design of new anti-Candida therapies based on probiotics, in particular, those based on vaginal lactobacilli species, helping to reduce the significant burden that infections caused by Candida have today in human health.

Occurrence and activity of a type II CRISPR-Cas system in Lactobacillus gasseri

Bacteria encode clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) and CRISPR-associated genes (cas), which collectively form an RNA-guided adaptive immune system against invasive genetic elements. In silico surveys have revealed that lactic acid bacteria harbour a prolific and diverse set of CRISPR-Cas systems. Thus, the natural evolutionary role of CRISPR-Cas systems may be investigated in these ecologically, industrially, scientifically and medically important microbes. In this study, 17 Lactobacillus gasseri strains were investigated and 6 harboured a type II-A CRISPR-Cas system, with considerable diversity in array size and spacer content. Several of the spacers showed similarity to phage and plasmid sequences, which are typical targets of CRISPR-Cas immune systems. Aligning the protospacers facilitated inference of the protospacer adjacent motif sequence, determined to be 5'-NTAA-3' flanking the 3' end of the protospacer. The system in L. gasseri JV-V03 and NCK 1342 interfered with transforming plasmids containing sequences matching the most recently acquired CRISPR spacers in each strain. We report the distribution and function of a native type II-A CRISPR-Cas system in the commensal species L. gasseri. Collectively, these results open avenues for applications for bacteriophage protection and genome modification in L. gasseri, and contribute to the fundamental understanding of CRISPR-Cas systems in bacteria.

Spontaneously induced prophages in Lactobacillus gasseri contribute to horizontal gene transfer

Lactobacillus gasseri is an endogenous species of the human gastrointestinal tract and vagina. With recent advances in microbial taxonomy, phylogenetics, and genomics, L. gasseri is recognized as an important commensal and is increasingly being used in probiotic formulations. L. gasseri strain ADH is lysogenic and harbors two inducible prophages. In this study, prophage adh was found to spontaneously induce in broth cultures to populations of ∼ 10(7) PFU/ml by stationary phase. The adh prophage-cured ADH derivative NCK102 was found to harbor a new, second inducible phage, vB_Lga_jlb1 (jlb1). Phage jlb1 was sequenced and found to be highly similar to the closely related phage LgaI, which resides as two tandem prophages in the neotype strain L. gasseri ATCC 33323. The common occurrence of multiple prophages in L. gasseri genomes, their propensity for spontaneous induction, and the high degree of homology among phages within multiple species of Lactobacillus suggest that temperate bacteriophages likely contribute to horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in commensal lactobacilli. In this study, the host ranges of phages adh and jlb1 were determined against 16 L. gasseri strains. The transduction range and the rate of spontaneous transduction were investigated in coculture experiments to ascertain the degree to which prophages can promote HGT among a variety of commensal and probiotic lactobacilli. Both adh and jlb1 particles were confirmed to mediate plasmid transfer. As many as ∼10(3) spontaneous transductants/ml were obtained. HGT by transducing phages of commensal lactobacilli may have a significant impact on the evolution of bacteria within the human microbiota.

Complete nucleotide sequence of the temperate bacteriophage LBR48, a new member of the family Myoviridae

The complete genomic sequence of LBR48, a temperate bacteriophage induced from a lysogenic strain of Lactobacillus brevis, was found to be 48,211 nucleotides long and to contain 90 putative open reading frames. Based on structural characteristics obtained from microscopic analysis and nucleic acid sequence determination, phage LBR48 can be classified as a member of the family Myoviridae. Analysis of the genome showed the conserved gene order of previously reported phages of the family Siphoviridae from lactic acid bacteria, despite low nucleotide sequence similarity. Analysis of the attachment sites revealed 15-nucleotide-long core sequences.