Contribution of TAT System Translocated PhoX to Campylobacter jejuni Phosphate Metabolism and Resilience to Environmental Stresses

Campylobacter jejuni is a common gastrointestinal pathogen that colonizes food animals; it is transmitted via fecal contamination of food, and infections in immune-compromised people are more likely to result in serious long-term illness. Environmental phosphate is likely an important sensor of environmental fitness and the ability to obtain extracellular phosphate is central to the bacteria's core metabolic responses. PhoX is the sole alkaline phosphatase in C. jejuni, a substrate of the TAT transport system. Alkaline phosphatases mediate the hydrolytic removal of inorganic phosphate (Pi) from phospho-organic compounds and thereby contribute significantly to the polyphosphate kinase 1 (ppk1) mediated formation of poly P, a molecule that regulates bacterial response to stresses and virulence. Similarly, deletion of the tatC gene, a key component of the TAT system, results in diverse phenotypes in C. jejuni including reduced stress tolerance and in vivo colonization. Therefore, here we investigated the contribution of phoX in poly P synthesis and in TAT-system mediated responses. The phoX deletion mutant showed significant decrease (P<0.05) in poly P accumulation in stationary phase compared to the wild-type, suggesting that PhoX is a major contributor to the inorganic phosphate pool in the cell which is essential for poly P synthesis. The phoX deletion is sufficient for a nutrient stress defect similar to the defect previously described for the ΔtatC mutant. Additionally, the phoX deletion mutant has increased resistance to certain antimicrobials. The ΔphoX mutant was also moderately defective in invasion and intracellular survival within human intestinal epithelial cells as well as in chicken colonization. Further, the ΔphoX mutant produced increased biofilm that can be rescued with 1 mM inorganic phosphate. The qRT-PCR of the ΔphoX mutant revealed transcriptional changes that suggest potential mechanisms for the increased biofilm phenotype

Survival of Enterococcus faecalis in Seawater Microcosms Is Limited in the Presence of Bacterivorous Zooflagellates

International audienceThe survival and persistence of growing and starved cells of Enterococcus faecalis in untreated and differentially filtered (20 μm, 5 μm, 3 μm, 1.2 μm, and 0.1 μm) seawater was analyzed in samples taken at different times over a 1-year period by plate counts and scanning electron microscopy. Whereas seawater filtered through a 0.1-μm mesh was not at all or only slightly bactericidal during incubation at 16°C in the dark, culturability of E. faecalis in the other systems decreased as a function of increasing pore size of the filters. Recovery of culturable, glucose pre-starved cells was always higher than that of cells harvested from the exponential growth phase. Electron microscopic analysis showed that the disappearance of enterococci appeared related to the presence and multiplication of various zooflagellates

Identification of new genes related to osmotic adaptation in Enterococcus faecalis

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The osmoprotectant glycine betaine inhibits salt-induced cross-tolerance towards lethal treatment in Enterococcus faecalis

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Analyse de l'osmoadaptation chez Enterococcus faecalis

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

External pH modulation during the growth of Vibrio tapetis , the aetiological agent of brown ring disease

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