The Molecular Nature and Replication of R Factor 222 in Proteus Mirabilis

The molecular nature and replicative behavior of R factor 222 was examined in Proteus mirabilis . In deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA} from R+ P. mirabilis , R factor 222 was identified by CsCl density gradient centrifugation as 2 satellite DNA bands at densities corresponding to 50 and 58 moles percent guanine plus cytosine (% GC) . Replication of the 50 and 58% GC components of R factor 222 in P. mirabilis was analyzed during growth in the presence and absence of chloramphenicol (CAM} and after shifting exponentialand stationary- phase cells to conditions which inhibit host protein or DNA synthesis . CAM reduced the cellular growth rate but increased the amount of both R factor components relative to host chromosomal DNA . However, the 58% GC component showed a larger proportionate increase. This was inferred to indicate reduced synthesis of an inhibitor that acts on both R factor components and an initiator required for replication of the 50% GC component . Replicative patterns observed after shifting exponential- and stationary-phase cel ls grown with or without CAM to minimal medium or CAM for one generation, or puromycin for 3 hr , corroborated this interpretation. After shifts of exponential- phase cells from either medium, replication of the 50% GC components parallel ed host replication, thus indicating a requirement for protein synthesis . Under these conditions , replication of the 58% GC replicon increased due to reduced inhibitor synthesis . R factor DNA content remained constant after shifting stationary- phase cells from drug-free medium, whereas increased replication of the 58% GC component occurred after identical shifts of CAM- grown cells of the same chronological age. This indicated that effective concentrations of the regulatory inhibitor were attained in the stationary-phase cells grown in drug-free medium . Similar responses were observed after shifts to 5 C or to medium containing streptomycin or tetracycline . Absence of replication of the 50% GC component after shifting to medium containing nalidixic acid or phenethyl alcohol and the hereditary persistence of this replicon during growth indicated that the 50% GC replicon was attached to the membrane . Thus , in P . mirabilis the three replicons of R factor 222 are regulated as follows : the composite R factor and transfer portion (RTF) replicons , represented by the 50% GC component, require protein synthesis and membrane attachment for replication and are negatively regulated by an inhibitor ; the 58% GC or resistance determinant s replicon exists cytoplasmically and is subject only to negative replicative control . The unusually low hyper chromic shift and the abnormal buoyant density shifts in CsCl observed after thermal denaturation of R f actor DNA indicated an abnormal chemical composition . DNA from P. mirabilis harboring R factor 222 was examined chromatographically after enzymatic and chemical hydrolyses . Preliminary results indicated the presence of an unusual chemical component in R factor DNA which reacts positively to carbohydrate development and possesses chromatographic and spectrophotometric properties similar to 5-hydroxymethyl cytosine

Campylobacter jejuni Induces Maturation and Cytokine Production in Human Dendritic Cells

Campylobacter jejuni is a leading bacterial cause of human diarrheal disease in both developed and developing nations. Colonic mucosal invasion and the resulting host inflammatory responses are thought to be the key contributing factors to the dysenteric form of this disease. Dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role in both the innate and adaptive immune responses to microbial infection. In this study, the interaction between human monocyte-derived dendritic cells and C. jejuni was studied. We found that C. jejuni was readily internalized by DCs over a 2-h period. However, after a prolonged infection period (24 or 48 h) with C. jejuni, only a few viable bacteria remained intracellularly. Minimal cytotoxicity of C. jejuni to dendritic cells was observed. C. jejuni induced the maturation of dendritic cells over 24 h, as indicated by up-regulation of cell surface marker proteins CD40, CD80, and CD86. In addition, Campylobacter-infected DCs triggered activation of NF-κB and significantly stimulated production of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, gamma interferon, and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) compared to uninfected DCs. Active bacterial invasion of DCs was not necessary for the induction of these cytokines, as heat-killed C. jejuni stimulated similar levels of cytokine production as live bacteria. Purified lipooligosaccharide of C. jejuni appears to be the major stimulant for the increased production of cytokines by DCs. Taken together, these data indicate that during infection, Campylobacter triggers an innate inflammatory response through increased production of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α and initiates a Th1-polarized adaptive immune response as predicted from the high level of production of IL-12

Enhanced Microscopic Definition of Campylobacter jejuni 81-176 Adherence to, Invasion of, Translocation across, and Exocytosis from Polarized Human Intestinal Caco-2 Cells▿

Campylobacter jejuni-mediated pathogenesis involves gut adherence and translocation across intestinal cells. The current study was undertaken to examine the C. jejuni interaction with and translocation across differentiated Caco-2 cells to better understand Campylobacter's pathogenesis. The efficiency of C. jejuni 81-176 invasion of Caco-2 cells was two- to threefold less than the efficiency of invasion of INT407 cells. Adherence-invasion analyses indicated that C. jejuni 81-176 adhered to most INT407 cells but invaded only about two-thirds of the host cells over 2 h (two bacteria/cell). In contrast, only 11 to 17% of differentiated Caco-2 cells were observed to bind and internalize either C. jejuni strain 81-176 or NCTC 11168, and a small percentage of infected Caco-2 cells contained 5 to 20 internalized bacteria per cell after 2 h. Electron microscopy revealed that individual C. jejuni cells adhered to the tips of host cell microvilli via intimate flagellar contacts and by lateral bacterial binding to the sides of microvilli. Next, bacteria were observed to bind at the apical host membrane surface via presumed interactions at one pole of the bacterium and with host membrane protrusions located near intercellular junctions. The latter contacts apparently resulted in coordinated, localized plasma membrane invagination, causing simultaneous internalization of bacteria into an endosome. Passage of this Campylobacter endosome intracellularly from the apical surface to the basolateral surface occurred over time, and bacterial release apparently resulted from endosome-basolateral membrane fusion (i.e., exocytosis). Bacteria were found intercellularly below tight junctions at 60 min postinfection, but not at earlier times. This study revealed unique host cell adherence contacts, early endocytosis-specific structures, and a presumptive exocytosis component of the transcellular transcytosis route

Detection and characterization by differential PCR of host eukaryotic cell genes differentially transcribed following uptake of intracellular bacteria

Host eukaryotic cell genes that are differentially transcribed after phagocytosis of various pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacterial cells were identified by a differential PCR (DPCR) system. This DPCR procedure favors detection and isolation of host genes affected at the transcriptional level by selecting for poly(A) tails but differs substantially from reverse transcription-PCR. Several unidentified macrophage gene fragments from genes that were either transcriptionally activated or downregulated following uptake of Listeria monocytogenes into J774 mouse macrophage cells were initially defined by this DPCR procedure. Because of the sensitivity of the DPCR technique, all of the genes exhibited less than a 10-fold difference in transcription compared with noninfected cells as measured by limiting-dilution PCR. One of the gene fragments has a very high level of homology with a mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase (MKP-1), whereas the other affected fragments showed no homologies to known gene sequences. In addition, one of the gene fragments (WS30-B2/1) was specifically downregulated after L. monocytogenes uptake and another gene was repressed by uptake of either Shigella flexneri or L. monocytogenes, while transcription of the genes represented by fragment WS13-B9/9, and to some extent MKP-1, was activated following general phagocytosis (i.e., following uptake of any species of bacterium tested). Further characterization of the affected genes was conducted by using mutants of L. monocytogenes. A hemolysin-negative mutant of L. monocytogenes failed to elicit transcriptional regulation of gene fragment WS10-B4/14 or WS30-B2/1, and it elicited only minimal regulation of MKP-1, suggesting that escape from the phagosome may be required to initiate these responses. Furthermore, mutants with mutations in mpl and actA, two genes whose gene products are involved in actin polymerization and intrahost spread, also did not induce regulation of WS10-B4/14. These results demonstrate that (i) DPCR can identify specific host cell genes which are differentially transcribed after infection with certain microorganisms and (ii) some of these genes may be new or may never before have been linked to interactions between hosts and pathogens