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Yong SS, Lee JI, Kang DH. Airborne survival and stress response in Listeria monocytogenes across different growth temperatures. JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS 2024; 468:133706. [PMID: 38364578 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.133706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
In the food industry, ensuring food safety during transportation and storage is vital, with temperature regulation preventing spoilage. However, airborne contamination through foodborne pathogens remains a concern. Listeria monocytogenes, a psychrotolerant foodborne pathogen, has been linked to various foodborne outbreaks. Therefore, understanding how its airborne characteristics depend on the growth temperature is imperative. As a result, when the L. monocytogenes was floated in air for 30 and 60 min, the surviving population of 15 °C-grown L. monocytogenes that was suspended in air and attached on the surface was significantly higher than L. monocytogenes grown at 25°C and 37 °C. The fatty acid analysis revealed a significantly higher proportion of shorter chain fatty acids in L. monocytogenes grown at 15 °C compared to those grown at 37 °C. Under aerosolization, L. monocytogenes encountered osmotic and cold stresses regardless of their growth temperature. Transcriptomic analysis showed that stress response related genes, such as oxidative and cold stress response, as well as PTS system related genes were upregulated at 15 °C, resulting in the enhanced resistance to various stresses during aerosolization. These results provide insights into the different responses of aerosolized L. monocytogenes according to the different growth temperatures, highlighting a critical factor in preventing airborne cross-contamination.
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Affiliation(s)
- So-Seum Yong
- Department of Food and Animal Biotechnology, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Center for Food and Bioconvergence, and Research Institute of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Jae-Ik Lee
- Department of Food and Animal Biotechnology, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Center for Food and Bioconvergence, and Research Institute of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Dong-Hyun Kang
- Department of Food and Animal Biotechnology, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Center for Food and Bioconvergence, and Research Institute of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea; Institutes of Green Bio Science & Technology, Seoul National University, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do 25354, Republic of Korea.
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Wu J, Wang C, O'Byrne C. Metabolic reprogramming in the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes as a critical defence against acid stress. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2024; 371:fnae060. [PMID: 39118365 PMCID: PMC11334721 DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnae060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2024] [Revised: 05/29/2024] [Accepted: 08/07/2024] [Indexed: 08/10/2024] Open
Abstract
The ability to sense and respond effectively to acidic stress is important for microorganisms to survive and proliferate in fluctuating environments. As specific metabolic activities can serve to buffer the cytoplasmic pH, microorganisms rewire their metabolism to favour these reactions and thereby mitigate acid stress. The orally acquired pathogen Listeria monocytogenes exploits alternative metabolic activities to overcome the acidic stress encountered in the human stomach or food products. In this minireview, we discuss the metabolic processes in L. monocytogenes that mitigate acid stress, with an emphasis on the proton-depleting reactions, including glutamate decarboxylation, arginine/agmatine deimination, and fermentative acetoin production. We also summarize the recent findings on regulatory mechanisms that control the expression of genes that are responsible for these metabolic activities, including the general stress response regulator SigB, arginine repressor ArgR, and the recently discovered RofA-like transcriptional regulatory GadR. We further discuss the importance of this metabolic reprogramming in the context of food products and within the host. Finally, we highlight some outstanding challenges in the field, including an understanding of acid-sensing mechanisms, the role of intraspecies heterogeneity in acid resistance, and how a fundamental understanding of acid stress response can be exploited for food formulation to improve food safety and reduce food waste.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jialun Wu
- Bacterial Stress Response Group, Microbiology, Ryan Institute, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, H91 TK33, Galway, Ireland
| | - Chuhan Wang
- Bacterial Stress Response Group, Microbiology, Ryan Institute, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, H91 TK33, Galway, Ireland
| | - Conor O'Byrne
- Bacterial Stress Response Group, Microbiology, Ryan Institute, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, H91 TK33, Galway, Ireland
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Xu L, Wu Y, Yang X, Pang X, Wu Y, Li X, Liu X, Zhao Y, Yu L, Wang P, Ye B, Jiang S, Ma J, Zhang X. The Fe-S cluster biosynthesis in Enterococcus faecium is essential for anaerobic growth and gastrointestinal colonization. Gut Microbes 2024; 16:2359665. [PMID: 38831611 PMCID: PMC11152105 DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2024.2359665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2024] [Accepted: 05/21/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024] Open
Abstract
The facultative anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium Enterococcus faecium is a ubiquitous member of the human gut microbiota. However, it has gradually evolved into a pathogenic and multidrug resistant lineage that causes nosocomial infections. The establishment of high-level intestinal colonization by enterococci represents a critical step of infection. The majority of current research on Enterococcus has been conducted under aerobic conditions, while limited attention has been given to its physiological characteristics in anaerobic environments, which reflects its natural colonization niche in the gut. In this study, a high-density transposon mutant library containing 26,620 distinct insertion sites was constructed. Tn-seq analysis identified six genes that significantly contribute to growth under anaerobic conditions. Under anaerobic conditions, deletion of sufB (encoding Fe-S cluster assembly protein B) results in more extensive and significant impairments on carbohydrate metabolism compared to aerobic conditions. Consistently, the pathways involved in this utilization-restricted carbohydrates were mostly expressed at significantly lower levels in mutant compared to wild-type under anaerobic conditions. Moreover, deletion of sufB or pflA (encoding pyruvate formate lyase-activating protein A) led to failure of gastrointestinal colonization in mice. These findings contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms by which E. faecium maintains proliferation under anaerobic conditions and establishes colonization in the gut.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linan Xu
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
- Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, China
| | - Yajing Wu
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xiangpeng Yang
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
| | - Xinxin Pang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao, China
| | - Yansha Wu
- Institute of Edible Fungi, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Xingshuai Li
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
| | - Xiayu Liu
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yuzhong Zhao
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
- Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, China
| | - Lumin Yu
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
| | - Peikun Wang
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
| | - Bin Ye
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
| | - Shijin Jiang
- Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, China
| | - Junfei Ma
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
| | - Xinglin Zhang
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
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Elfmann C, Zhu B, Stülke J, Halbedel S. ListiWiki: A database for the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. Int J Med Microbiol 2023; 313:151591. [PMID: 38043216 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmm.2023.151591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2023] [Revised: 11/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram positive foodborne pathogen that regularly causes outbreaks of systemic infectious diseases. The bacterium maintains a facultative intracellular lifestyle; it thrives under a variety of environmental conditions and is able to infect human host cells. L. monocytogenes is genetically tractable and therefore has become an attractive model system to study the mechanisms employed by facultative intracellular bacteria to invade eukaryotic cells and to replicate in their cytoplasm. Besides its importance for basic research, L. monocytogenes also serves as a paradigmatic pathogen in genomic epidemiology, where the relative stability of its genome facilitates successful outbreak detection and elucidation of transmission chains in genomic pathogen surveillance systems. In both terms, it is necessary to keep the annotation of the L. monocytogenes genome up to date. Therefore, we have created the database ListiWiki (http://listiwiki.uni-goettingen.de/) which stores comprehensive information on the widely used L. monocytogenes reference strain EDG-e. ListiWiki is designed to collect information on genes, proteins and RNAs and their relevant functional characteristics, but also further information such as mutant phenotypes, available biological material, and publications. In its present form, ListiWiki combines the most recent annotation of the EDG-e genome with published data on gene essentiality, gene expression and subcellular protein localization. ListiWiki also predicts protein-protein interactions networks based on protein homology to Bacillus subtilis proteins, for which detailed interaction maps have been compiled in the sibling database SubtiWiki. Furthermore, crystallographic information of proteins is made accessible through integration of Protein Structure Database codes and AlphaFold structure predictions. ListiWiki is an easy-to-use web interface that has been developed with a focus on an intuitive access to all information. Use of ListiWiki is free of charge and its content can be edited by all members of the scientific community after registration. In our labs, ListiWiki has already become an important and easy to use tool to quickly access genome annotation details that we can keep updated with advancing knowledge. It also might be useful to promote the comprehensive understanding of the physiology and virulence of an important human pathogen.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph Elfmann
- Department of General Microbiology, Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Bingyao Zhu
- Department of General Microbiology, Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Jörg Stülke
- Department of General Microbiology, Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
| | - Sven Halbedel
- FG11 Division of Enteropathogenic bacteria and Legionella, Robert Koch Institute, Burgstrasse 37, 38855 Wernigerode, Germany; Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany.
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Liu X, Pang X, Wu Y, Wu Y, Xu L, Chen Q, Niu J, Zhang X. New Insights into the Lactic Acid Resistance Determinants of Listeria monocytogenes Based on Transposon Sequencing and Transcriptome Sequencing Analyses. Microbiol Spectr 2023; 11:e0275022. [PMID: 36541787 PMCID: PMC9927151 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02750-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen that can tolerate a variety of extreme environments. In particular, its acid resistance (AR) capability is considered one of the key factors threating food safety. Here, we employed a microbial functional genomic technology termed transposon sequencing (Tn-seq), leading to the identification of two genes involved in cell wall peptidoglycan biosynthesis (murF) and phosphate transport (lmo2248) that play key roles in lactic acid resistance (LAR) of L. monocytogenes. Deletion of lmo2248 significantly impaired the ability of LAR in L. monocytogenes, demonstrating the accuracy of the Tn-seq results. Transcriptome analysis revealed that 31.7% of the L. monocytogenes genes on the genome were differentially expressed under lactic acid (LA) treatment, in which genes involved in phosphate transport were influenced most significantly. These findings shed light on the LAR mechanisms of L. monocytogenes, which may contribute to the development of novel strategies against foodborne pathogens. IMPORTANCE Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive foodborne pathogen with high lethality and strong stress resistance, and its strong acid tolerance leads to many foodborne illnesses occurring in low-pH foods. Lactic acid is a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) food additive approved for use by the FDA. However, the genetic determinants of lactic acid resistance in L. monocytogenes have not been fully identified. In this study, the lactic acid resistance determinants of L. monocytogenes were comprehensively identified by Tn-seq on a genome-wide scale. Two genes, murF (cell wall peptidoglycan biosynthesis) and lmo2248 (phosphate transport), were identified to play an important role in the lactic acid resistance. Moreover, genome-wide transcriptomic analysis showed that phosphotransferase system (PTS)-related genes play a key role at the transcriptional level. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the lactic acid resistance mechanism of L. monocytogenes and may provide unique targets for the development of other novel antimicrobial agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiayu Liu
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xinxin Pang
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yansha Wu
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yajing Wu
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Linan Xu
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
| | - Qihe Chen
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Jianrui Niu
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
| | - Xinglin Zhang
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi, China
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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Liu X, Pang X, Wu Y, Wu Y, Shi Y, Zhang X, Chen Q. Synergistic Antibacterial Mechanism of Mannosylerythritol Lipid-A and Lactic Acid on Listeria monocytogenes Based on Transcriptomic Analysis. Foods 2022; 11:foods11172660. [PMID: 36076848 PMCID: PMC9455235 DOI: 10.3390/foods11172660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Revised: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 08/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Mannosylerythritol lipids-A (MEL-A) is a novel biosurfactant with multiple biological effects. The synergistic antibacterial activity and mechanism of MEL-A and lactic acid (LA) against Listeria monocytogenes were investigated. The synergistic effect resulted in a significant increase in the antibacterial rate compared to LA treatment alone. Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis was applied to deeply investigate the synergistic antibacterial mechanism. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis showed that the synergy between MEL-A and LA affected many potential cellular responses, including the sugar phosphotransferase system, carbohydrate transport, and ribosomes. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the PTS system and ribosome-related pathways were significantly enriched. In addition, synergistic treatment affected locomotion and membrane-related cellular responses in GO enrichment analysis and carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid metabolism pathways in KEGG enrichment analysis compared to LA treatment alone. The accuracy of the transcriptome analysis results was verified by qPCR (R2 = 0.9903). This study will provide new insights for the prevention and control of L. monocytogenes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiayu Liu
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Rd. 866, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Xinxin Pang
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Rd. 866, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Yansha Wu
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Rd. 866, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Yajing Wu
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Rd. 866, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Ying Shi
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Rd. 866, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Xinglin Zhang
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Rd. 866, Hangzhou 310058, China
- College of Agriculture and Forestry, Linyi University, Linyi 276005, China
| | - Qihe Chen
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Rd. 866, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +86-571-86984316
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