Differences in carbon source utilisation distinguish Campylobacter jejuni from Campylobacter coli

Abstract

BackgroundCampylobacter jejuni and C. coli are human intestinal pathogens that are the most frequent causes of bacterial foodborne gastroenteritis in humans in the UK. In this study, we aimed to characterise the metabolic diversity of both C. jejuni and C. coli using a diverse panel of clinical strains isolated from the UK, Pakistan and Thailand, thereby representing both the developed and developing world. Our aim was to apply multi genome analysis and Biolog phenotyping to determine differences in carbon source utilisation by C. jejuni and C. coli strains.ResultsWe have identified a core set of carbon sources (utilised by all strains tested) and a set that are differentially utilised for a diverse panel of thirteen C. jejuni and two C. coli strains. This study used multi genome analysis to show that propionic acid is utilised only by C. coli strains tested. A broader PCR screen of 16 C. coli strains and 42 C. jejuni confirmed the absence of the genes needed for propanoate metabolism.ConclusionsFrom our analysis we have identified a phenotypic method and two genotypic methods based on propionic utilisation that might be applicable for distinguishing between C. jejuni and C. coli.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12866-014-0262-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Characterisation of Aerotolerant Forms of a Robust Chicken Colonizing Campylobacter coli

“…Colonies on solid medium from microaerobically incubated aerotolerant C. coli OR12 were slightly smaller than the wild type, but this is not similar to the pycB mutant which had a threefold reduction in growth compared to the wild type (Velayudhan and Kelly, 2002). Comparisons of carbon metabolism in C. jejuni and C. coli indicate these species share a core set of carbon sources including amino acids, citric acid cycle intermediates and carboxylic acids (Wagley et al, 2014). However, exceptions were noted such as the inability of C. coli strains to metabolize D -malic acid and the inability of C. jejuni strains to metabolize propionic acid.…”

Loving the poison: the methylcitrate cycle and bacterial pathogenesis

“…One such victim of genome reduction is the methylcitrate pathway, which appears to have been specifically deleted from many of these enteroinvasive pathogens, although it is found in all other E. coli genomes [43,44]. Additionally, four genes (prpDBCE) found in Campylobacter coli but not in C. jejuni are involved in the methylcitrate cycle, which could account for the enhanced ability of C. coli strains to grow on odd-chain fatty acids compared with C. jejuni [45,46]. However, the precise driver(s) for the loss of this pathway in certain pathogens remains to be elucidated.…”

Unexpected differential metabolic responses of Campylobacter jejuni to the abundant presence of glutamate and fucose

“…Characterisation of metabolic capabilities of Campylobacters has mainly focussed on defining substrates utilised as energy and/or carbon sources and on associated proteins/genes. Notably, C. jejuni and Campylobacter coli are typically non-glycolytic, lacking both necessary sugar transport systems and several enzymes involved in glycolysis (Hofreuter 2014 ; Wagley et al 2014 ). Rather, these bacteria utilise several TCA cycle intermediaries (pyruvate; malate; succinate; fumarate), some organic acids (acetate; lactate; hydroxylbutyrate; formate) and several amino acids as substrates (Mohammed et al 2004 ; Stahl et al 2012 ; Wright et al 2009 ), and C. jejuni strains were observed to be methionine auxotrophic (Alazzam et al 2011 ; Tenover and Patton 1987 ).…”

“…Rather, these bacteria utilise several TCA cycle intermediaries (pyruvate; malate; succinate; fumarate), some organic acids (acetate; lactate; hydroxylbutyrate; formate) and several amino acids as substrates (Mohammed et al 2004 ; Stahl et al 2012 ; Wright et al 2009 ), and C. jejuni strains were observed to be methionine auxotrophic (Alazzam et al 2011 ; Tenover and Patton 1987 ). Several investigations have identified aspartic acid, glutamic acid, proline and serine as primary amino acid substrates (Wagley et al 2014 ; Wright et al 2009 ) for many strains whilst selected strains of C. jejuni possess determinants which permit utilisation of additional amino acids, principally asparagine and glutamine, and oligopeptides like γ-glutamyl-cysteine and glutathione (Hofreuter et al 2008 ). Also, although not utilised as a carbon source, cysteine has recently been identified as a crucial source of sulphur (Vorwerk et al 2014 ).…”