Recent Evolution of Bacterial Pathogens: The Gall-Forming <i>Pantoea agglomerans</i> Case

Pantoea agglomerans, a widespread epiphyte and commensal bacterium, has evolved into an Hrp-dependent and host-specific tumorigenic pathogen by acquiring a plasmid containing a pathogenicity island (PAI). The PAI was evolved on an iteron plasmid of the IncN family, which is distributed among genetically diverse populations of P. agglomerans. The structure of the PAI supports the premise of a recently evolved pathogen. This review offers insight into a unique model for emergence of new bacterial pathogens. It illustrates how horizontal gene transfer was the major driving force in the creation of the PAI, although a pathoadaptive mechanism might also be involved. It describes the crucial function of plant-produced indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and cytokinines (CK) in gall initiation as opposed to the significant but secondary role of pathogen-secreted phytohormones. It also unveils the role of type III effectors in determination of host specificity and evolution of the pathogen into pathovars. Finally, it describes how interactions between the quorum sensing system, hrp regulatory genes, and bacterially secreted IAA or CKs affect gall formation and epiphytic fitness. </jats:p

Relationship of Genes Conferring Epiphytic Fitness and Internal Multiplication in Plants in Erwinia herbicola

Most bacterial plant pathogens colonize the surface of healthy plants as epiphytes before colonizing internally and initiating disease. The epiphytic phase of these pathogens is thus an important aspect of their epidemiology and a stage at which chemical and biological control is aimed. However, little is known of the genes and phenotypes that contribute to the ability of bacteria to grow on leaves and survive the variable physical environment in this habitat. In addition, while genes such as hrp awr and others which confer pathogenicity and in planta growth ability have been described, their contribution to other aspects of bacterial epidemiology such as epiphytic fitness have not been addressed. We hypothesized that bacterial genes conferring virulence or pathogenicity to plants also contribute to the epiphytic fitness of these bacteria and that many of these genes are preferentially located on plasmids. We addressed these hypotheses by independently identifying genes that contribute to epiphytic fitness, in planta growth, virulence and pathogenicity in the phytopathogenic bacterium Erwinia herbicola pv gypsophilae which causes gall formation on gypsophila. This species is highly epiphytically fit and has acquired a plasmid (pPATH) that contains numerous pathogenicity and virulence determinants, which we have found to also contribute to epiphytic fitness. We performed saturation transposon mutagenesis on pPATH as well as of the chromosome of E.h. gypsophilae, and identified mutants with reduced ability to grow in plants and/or cause disease symptoms, and through a novel competition assay, identified mutants less able to grow or survive on leaves. The number and identity of plasmid-borne hrp genes required for virulence was determined from an analysis of pPATH mutants, and the functional role of these genes in virulence was demonstrated. Likewise, other pPATH-encoded genes involved in IAA and cytokinin biosynthesis were characterized and their pattern of transcriptional activity was determined in planta. In both cases these genes involved in virulence were found to be induced in plant apoplasts. About half of avirulent mutants in pPATH were also epiphytically unfit whereas only about 10% of chromosomal mutants that were avirulent also had reduced epiphytic fitness. About 18% of random mutants in pPATH were avirulent in contrast to only 2.5% of random chromosomal mutants. Importantly, as many as 28% of pPATH mutants had lower epiphytic fitness while only about 10% of random chromosomal mutants had lower epiphytic fitness. These results support both of our original hypotheses, and indicate that genes important in a variety of interactions with plant have been enriched on mobile plasmids such as pPATH. The results also suggest that the ability of bacteria to colonize the surface of plants and to initiate infections in the interior of plants involves many of the same traits. These traits also appear to be under strong regulatory control, being expressed in response to the plant environment in many cases. It may be possible to alter the pattern of expression of such genes by altering the chemical environment of plants either by genetic means or by additional or chemical antagonists of the plant signals. The many novel bacterial genes identified in this study that are involved in plant interactions should be useful in further understanding of bacterial plant interactions.</p

Role of Proteins Secreted by the Hrp-Pathways of Erwinia stewartii and E. herbicola pv. gypsophilae in Eliciting Water-Soaking Symptoms and Initiating Galls

Many bacterial pathogens of plants can inject pathogenicity proteins into host cells using a specialized type III secretion system encoded by hrpgenes. This system deliver effector proteins, into plant cells that function in both susceptible and resistant interactions. We have found that the virulence of Erwinia stewartii(Es; syn. Pantoea stewartii) and Erwinia herbicola pv. gypsophilae (Ehg, syn. Pantoea agglomerans), which cause Stewart's wilt of corn and galls on Gypsophila, respectively, depends on hrpgenes. The major objectives of this project were: To increase expression of hrpgenes in order to identify secreted proteins; to identify genes for proteins secreted by the type-III systems and determine if they are required for pathogenicity; and to determine if the secreted proteins can function within eukaryotic cells.   We found that transcription of the hrp and effector genes in Es and Ehg is controlled by at least four genes that constitute a regulatory cascade. Environmental and/or physiological signaling appears to be mediated by the HrpX/HrpY two component system, with HrpX functioning as a sensor-kinase and HrpY as a response regulator. HrpYupregulateshrpS, which encodes a transcriptional enhancer. HrpS then activates hrpL, which encodes an alternate sigma factor that recognizes "hrp boxes". All of the regulatory genes are essential for pathogenicity, except HrpX, which appears only to be required for induction of the HR in tobacco by Es. In elucidating this regulatory pathway in both species, we made a number of significant new discoveries. HrpX is unusual for a sensor-kinase because it is cytoplasmic and contains PAS domains, which may sense the redox state of the bacterium. In Es, a novel methyl-accepting protein may function upstream of hrpY and repress hrp gene expression in planta. The esaIR quorum sensing system in Es represses hrp gene expression in Es in response to cell-density.   We have discovered six new type III effector proteins in these species, one of which (DspE in Ehg and WtsE in Es) is common to both pathogens. In addition, Es wtsG, which is a homolog of an avrPpiB from P. syringae pv. pisi, and an Ehg ORF, which is a homolog of P. syringae pv. phaseolicola AvrPphD, were both demonstrated to encode virulence proteins. Two plasmidborne, Ehg Hop proteins, HsvG and PthG, are required for infection of gypsophilia, but interestingly, PthG also acts as an Avr elicitor in beets. Using a calmodulin-dependent adenylate cyclase (cyaA) reporter gene, we were successful in demonstrating that an HsvG-CyaA fusion protein can be transferred into human HeLa cells by the type-III system of enteropathogenic E. coli. This is a highly significant accomplishment because it is the first direct demonstration that an effector protein from a plant pathogenic bacterium is capable of being translocated into a eukaryotic cell by a type-III secretion system.   Ehg is considered a limiting factor in Gypsophila production in Israel and Stewart’s Wilt is a serious disease in the Eastern and North Central USA, especially on sweet corn in epidemic years. We believe that our basic research on the characterization of type III virulence effectors should enable future identification of their receptors in plant cells. This may lead to novel approaches for genetically engineering resistant plants by modifying their receptors or inactivating effectors and thus blocking the induction of the susceptible response. Alternatively, hrp gene regulation might also provide a target for plant produced compounds that interfere with recognition of the host by the pathogen. Such strategies would be broadly applicable to a wide range of serious bacterial diseases on many crops throughout the USA and Israel.</p

Acquisition of iron by <i>Stemphylium botryosum</i> under iron-replete conditions

The assimilation of iron by Stemphylium botryosum under iron-replete conditions involved mainly three steps: (i) binding of iron to the cell surface, (ii) reduction of Fe3+ into Fe2+, and (iii) transport of the ferrous iron across the cell membrane. However, the possibility that the fungus is capable of transporting ferric iron also has not been excluded. Adsorption was responsible for up to 75% of the iron accumulated by the cells. Mycelial cells exhibited a high capacity for Fe3+ reduction. Approximately 70% of the reductive activity was assigned to cell surface bound reducing compounds which were also released to the medium. Iron transport by S. botryosum was an energy-dependent saturable process that required sulfhydryl groups. Uptake was significantly inhibited by Cu2+ but not by various other cations. On the basis of inhibition studies with chelates specific for Fe3+or Fe2+ and on the high capacity of the mycelium to reduce external ferric iron, it was suggested that uptake of iron into the cell occurred predominantly in the ferrous form. The phytotoxic iron chelate stemphyloxin I induced iron adsorption on the mycelial surface but did not appear to exert a direct effect on the membrane-mediated transport of iron. </jats:p

roles Hrp-dependent effector proteins and hrp gene regulation as determinants of virulence and host-specificity in Erwinia stewartii and E. herbicola pvs. gypsophilae and betae

Gram-negative plant pathogenic bacteria employ specialized type-III secretion systems (TTSS) to deliver an arsenal of pathogenicity proteins directly into host cells. These secretion systems are encoded by hrp genes (for hypersensitive response and pathogenicity) and the effector proteins by so-called dsp or avr genes. The functions of effectors are to enable bacterial multiplication by damaging host cells and/or by blocking host defenses. We characterized essential hrp gene clusters in the Stewart's Wilt of maize pathogen, Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii (Pnss; formerly Erwinia stewartii) and the gall-forming bacterium, Pantoea agglomerans (formerly Erwinia herbicola) pvs. gypsophilae (Pag) and betae (Pab). We proposed that the virulence and host specificity of these pathogens is a function of a) the perception of specific host signals resulting in bacterial hrp gene expression and b) the action of specialized signal proteins (i.e. Hrp effectors) delivered into the plant cell. The specific objectives of the proposal were: 1) How is the expression of the hrp and effector genes regulated in response to host cell contact and the apoplastic environment? 2) What additional effector proteins are involved in pathogenicity? 3) Do the presently known Pantoea effector proteins enter host cells? 4) What host proteins interact with these effectors? We characterized the components of the hrp regulatory cascade (HrpXY -&gt;7 HrpS -&gt;7 HrpL -&gt;7 hrp promoters), showed that they are conserved in both Pnss and Fag, and discovered that the regulation of the hrpS promoter (hrpSp) may be a key point in integrating apoplastic signals. We also analyzed the promoters recognized by HrpL and demonstrated the relationship between their composition and efficiency. Moreover, we showed that promoter strength can influence disease expression. In Pnss, we found that the HrpXY two-component signal system may sense the metabolic status of the bacterium and is required for full hrp gene expression in planta. In both species, acyl-homoserine lactone-mediated quorum sensing may also regulate epiphytic fitness and/or pathogenicity. A common Hrp effector protein, DspE/WtsE, is conserved and required for virulence of both species. When introduced into corn cells, Pnss WtsE protein caused water-soaked lesions. In other plants, it either caused cell death or acted as an Avr determinant. Using a yeast- two-hybrid system, WtsE was shown to interact with a number of maize signal transduction proteins that are likely to have roles in either programmed cell death or disease resistance. In Pag and Pab, we have characterized the effector proteins HsvG, HsvB and PthG. HsvG and HsvB are homologous proteins that determine host specificity of Pag and Pab on gypsophila and beet, respectively. Both possess a transcriptional activation domain that functions in yeast. PthG was found to act as an Avr determinant on multiple beet species, but was required for virulence on gypsophila. In addition, we demonstrated that PthG acts within the host cell. Additional effector genes have been characterized on the pathogenicity plasmid, pPATHₚₐg, in Pag. A screen for HrpL- regulated genes in Pnsspointed up 18 candidate effector proteins and four of these were required for full virulence. It is now well established that the virulence of Gram-negative plant pathogenic bacteria is governed by Hrp-dependent effector proteins. However; the mode of action of many effectors is still unresolved. This BARD supported research will significantly contribute to the understanding of how Hrp effectors operate in Pantoea spp. and how they control host specificity and affect symptom production. This may lead to novel approaches for genetically engineering plants resistant to a wide range of bacterial pathogens by inactivating the Hrp effectors with "plantabodies" or modifying their receptors, thereby blocking the induction of the susceptible response. Alternatively, innovative technologies could be used to interfere with the Hrp regulatory cascade by blocking a critical step or mimicking plant or quorum sensing signals.   </p