The Gram-negative outer membrane is an important barrier that provides protection against toxic compounds, which include antibiotics and host innate immune molecules such as cationic antimicrobial ...peptides. Recently, significant research progress has been made in understanding the biogenesis, regulation, and functioning of the outer membrane, including a recent paper from the laboratory of Dr. Brett Finlay at the University of British Columbia (J. van der Heijden et al., mBio 7:e01238-16, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01541-16). These investigators demonstrate that toxic oxygen radicals, such as those found in host tissues, regulate outer membrane permeability by altering the outer membrane porin protein channels to regulate the influx of oxygen radicals as well as β-lactam antibiotics. This commentary provides context about this interesting paper and discusses the prospects of utilizing increased knowledge of outer membrane biology to develop new antibiotics for antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.
Gram-negative bacteria are surrounded by two membrane bilayers separated by a space termed the periplasm. The periplasm is a multipurpose compartment separate from the cytoplasm whose distinct ...reducing environment allows more efficient and diverse mechanisms of protein oxidation, folding, and quality control. The periplasm also contains structural elements and important environmental sensing modules, and it allows complex nanomachines to span the cell envelope. Recent work indicates that the size or intermembrane distance of the periplasm is controlled by periplasmic lipoproteins that anchor the outer membrane to the periplasmic peptidoglycan polymer. This periplasm intermembrane distance is critical for sensing outer membrane damage and dictates length of the flagellar periplasmic rotor, which controls motility. These exciting results resolve longstanding debates about whether the periplasmic distance has a biological function and raise the possibility that the mechanisms for maintenance of periplasmic size could be exploited for antibiotic development.
Salmonellae invasion and intracellular replication within host cells result in a range of diseases, including gastroenteritis, bacteraemia, enteric fever and focal infections. In recent years, ...considerable progress has been made in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that salmonellae use to alter host cell physiology; through the delivery of effector proteins with specific activities and through the modulation of defence and stress response pathways. In this Review, we summarize our current knowledge of the complex interplay between bacterial and host factors that leads to inflammation, disease and, in most cases, control of the infection by its animal hosts, with a particular focus on Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium. We also highlight gaps in our knowledge of the contributions of salmonellae and the host to disease pathogenesis, and we suggest future avenues for further study.
It is interesting to speculate that the evolutionary drive for microbes to develop pathogenic characteristics was to access the nutrient resources that animals provided. Animal environments that ...pathogens colonize have likely driven the evolution of new bacterial characteristics to maximize these new nutritional opportunities. This review focuses on genomic and functional aspects of pathogen metabolism that allow efficient utilization of nutrient resources provided by animals. Similar to genes encoding specific virulence traits, genes encoding metabolic functions have been horizontally acquired by pathogens to provide a selective advantage in host tissues. Selective advantage in host tissues can also be gained by loss of function mutations that alter metabolic capabilities. Greater understanding of bacterial metabolism within host tissues should be important for increased understanding of host–pathogen interactions and the development of future therapeutic strategies.
Salmonella Typhimurium can invade and survive within macrophages where the bacterium encounters a range of host environmental conditions. Like many bacteria, S. Typhimurium rapidly responds to ...changing environments by the use of second messengers such as cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP). Here, we generate a fluorescent biosensor to measure c-di-GMP concentrations in thousands of individual bacteria during macrophage infection and to define the sensor enzymes important to c-di-GMP regulation. Three sensor phosphodiesterases were identified as critical to maintaining low c-di-GMP concentrations generated after initial phagocytosis by macrophages. Maintenance of low c-di-GMP concentrations by these phosphodiesterases was required to promote survival within macrophages and virulence for mice. Attenuation of S. Typhimurium virulence was due to overproduction of c-di-GMP−regulated cellulose, as deletion of the cellulose synthase machinery restored virulence to a strain lacking enzymatic activity of the three phosphodiesterases. We further identified that the cellulose-mediated reduction in survival was constrained to a slow-replicating persister population of S. Typhimurium induced within the macrophage intracellular environment. As utilization of glucose has been shown to be required for S. Typhimurium macrophage survival, one possible hypothesis is that this persister population requires the glucose redirected to the synthesis of cellulose to maintain a slow-replicating, metabolically active state.
Classifying individual bacterial species comprising complex, polymicrobial patient specimens remains a challenge for culture-based and molecular microbiology techniques in common clinical use. We ...therefore adapted practices from metagenomics research to rapidly catalog the bacterial composition of clinical specimens directly from patients, without need for prior culture. We have combined a semiconductor deep sequencing protocol that produces reads spanning 16S ribosomal RNA gene variable regions 1 and 2 (∼360 bp) with a de-noising pipeline that significantly improves the fraction of error-free sequences. The resulting sequences can be used to perform accurate genus- or species-level taxonomic assignment. We explore the microbial composition of challenging, heterogeneous clinical specimens by deep sequencing, culture-based strain typing, and Sanger sequencing of bulk PCR product. We report that deep sequencing can catalog bacterial species in mixed specimens from which usable data cannot be obtained by conventional clinical methods. Deep sequencing a collection of sputum samples from cystic fibrosis (CF) patients reveals well-described CF pathogens in specimens where they were not detected by standard clinical culture methods, especially for low-prevalence or fastidious bacteria. We also found that sputa submitted for CF diagnostic workup can be divided into a limited number of groups based on the phylogenetic composition of the airway microbiota, suggesting that metagenomic profiling may prove useful as a clinical diagnostic strategy in the future. The described method is sufficiently rapid (theoretically compatible with same-day turnaround times) and inexpensive for routine clinical use.
S. Typhimurium is a broad host range Gram-negative pathogen that must evade killing by host innate immune systems to colonize, replicate, cause disease, and be transmitted to other hosts. A major ...pathogenic strategy of Salmonellae is entrance, survival, and replication within eukaryotic cell phagocytic vacuoles. These phagocytic vacuoles and gastrointestinal mucosal surfaces contain multiple cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) which control invading bacteria. S. Typhimurium possesses several key mechanisms to resist killing by CAMPs which involve sensing CAMPs and membrane damage to activate signaling cascades that result in remodeling of the bacterial envelope to reduce its overall negative charge with an increase in hydrophobicity to decrease binding and effectiveness of CAMPs. Moreover Salmonellae have additional mechanisms to resist killing by CAMPs including an outer membrane protease which targets cationic peptides at the surface, and specific efflux pumps which protect the inner membrane from damage. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Bacterial Resistance to Antimicrobial Peptides.
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•An effective outer membrane barrier is essential for evading the host immune system.•Multiple regulatory systems control the remodel of the bacterial surface.•Decreased negative charge prevents CAMP from binding to the bacterial surface.•Proteolytic degradation and efflux systems inhibit CAMP from reaching its targets.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa can develop resistance to polymyxin and other cationic antimicrobial peptides. Previous work has shown that mutations in the PmrAB and PhoPQ regulatory systems can confer low ...to moderate levels of polymyxin resistance (MICs of 8 to 64 mg/liter) in laboratory and clinical strains of this organism. To explore the role of PhoPQ in high-level clinical polymyxin resistance, P. aeruginosa strains with colistin MICs > 512 mg/liter that had been isolated from cystic fibrosis patients treated with inhaled colistin (polymyxin E) were analyzed. Probable loss-of-function phoQ alleles found in these cystic fibrosis strains conferred resistance to polymyxin. Partial and complete suppressor mutations in phoP were identified in some cystic fibrosis strains with resistance-conferring phoQ mutations, suggesting that additional loci can be involved in polymyxin resistance in P. aeruginosa. Disruption of chromosomal phoQ in the presence of an intact phoP allele stimulated 4-amino-L-arabinose addition to lipid A and induced transcription from the promoter of the pmrH (arnB) operon, consistent with the known role of this lipid A modification in polymyxin resistance. These results indicate that phoQ loss-of-function mutations can contribute to high-level polymyxin resistance in clinical strains of P. aeruginosa.
Salmonellae interplay with host cells Miller, Samuel I; Haraga, Andrea; Ohlson, Maikke B
Nature reviews. Microbiology,
200801, 2008-Jan, 2008-1-00, 20080101, Letnik:
6, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Salmonellae are important causes of enteric diseases in all vertebrates. Characterization of the molecular mechanisms that underpin the interactions of salmonellae with their animal hosts has ...advanced greatly over the past decade, mainly through the study of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in tissue culture and animal models of infection. Knowledge of these bacterial processes and host responses has painted a dynamic and complex picture of the interaction between salmonellae and animal cells. This Review focuses on the molecular mechanisms of these host-pathogen interactions, in terms of their context, significance and future perspectives.
Highlights • The Salmonellae PhoPQ virulence system is a major regulator of outer membrane (OM) lipids and proteins. • Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) regulation increases bacterial resistance to host ...killing. • PhoPQ regulates modification to LPS phosphates and controls acylation of lipid A. • PhoPQ promotes pamitoylation of phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and increases cardiolipin content of the OM. • The PhoPQ-regulated OM palmitoyltransferase, PagP, transfers palmitoyl groups to PG and lipid A within the OM of S. Typhimurium.
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