Epigenetic Control of Salmonella enterica O-Antigen Chain Length: A Tradeoff between Virulence and Bacteriophage Resistance

Cota, Ignacio; Sánchez-Romero, María Antonia; Hernández, Sara B.; Pucciarelli, M. Graciela; Portillo, Francisco García‐del; Casadesús, Josep

doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1005667

Cited by 91 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…An analogous situation has also been observed in other bacteria. For example in Salmonella , where phase variation of O‐antigen chain length potentiates the bacterium to be either phage resistant or virulent (Cota et al, ). This study showed that the effect was epigenetically regulated, and therefore only transient.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Galactosylated wall teichoic acid, but not lipoteichoic acid, retains InlB on the surface of serovar 4b Listeria monocytogenes

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Schefer

Rismondo

et al. 2020

Molecular Microbiology

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Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram‐positive, intracellular pathogen harboring the surface‐associated virulence factor InlB, which enables entry into certain host cells. Structurally diverse wall teichoic acids (WTAs), which can also be differentially glycosylated, determine the antigenic basis of the various Listeria serovars. WTAs have many physiological functions; they can serve as receptors for bacteriophages, and provide a substrate for binding of surface proteins such as InlB. In contrast, the membrane‐anchored lipoteichoic acids (LTAs) do not show significant variation and do not contribute to serovar determination. It was previously demonstrated that surface‐associated InlB non‐covalently adheres to both WTA and LTA, mediating its retention on the cell wall. Here, we demonstrate that in a highly virulent serovar 4b strain, two genes gtlB and gttB are responsible for galactosylation of LTA and WTA respectively. We evaluated the InlB surface retention in mutants lacking each of these two genes, and found that only galactosylated WTA is required for InlB surface presentation and function, cellular invasiveness and phage adsorption, while galactosylated LTA plays no role thereof. Our findings demonstrate that a simple pathogen‐defining serovar antigen, that mediates bacteriophage susceptibility, is necessary and sufficient to sustain the function of an important virulence factor.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Galactosylated wall teichoic acid, but not lipoteichoic acid, retains InlB on the surface of serovar 4b Listeria monocytogenes

Sumrall

Schefer

Rismondo

et al. 2020

Molecular Microbiology

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“…In bacteria local methylation changes may correlate with altered virulence behaviour and may underlie cell cycle-control in pathogens, endosymbionts or other microbial systems. Methylation is known to influence virulence functions in γ-proteobacteria, often by imposing bistability from phase-variable virulence promoters in subpopulations via transcriptional regulators such as Lrp, Fur or OxyR [5, 9, 42, 48, 51–55]. Phenotypic heterogeneity in antibiotic drug tolerance in vivo (a state known as persistence), which is acquired in a low fraction of bacterial cells, may also underlie epigenetic changes induced stochastically by methylation, either deterministically (during the cell cycle) or environmentally.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell Cycle Constraints and Environmental Control of Local DNA Hypomethylation in α-Proteobacteria

et al. 2016

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Heritable DNA methylation imprints are ubiquitous and underlie genetic variability from bacteria to humans. In microbial genomes, DNA methylation has been implicated in gene transcription, DNA replication and repair, nucleoid segregation, transposition and virulence of pathogenic strains. Despite the importance of local (hypo)methylation at specific loci, how and when these patterns are established during the cell cycle remains poorly characterized. Taking advantage of the small genomes and the synchronizability of α-proteobacteria, we discovered that conserved determinants of the cell cycle transcriptional circuitry establish specific hypomethylation patterns in the cell cycle model system Caulobacter crescentus. We used genome-wide methyl-N6-adenine (m6A-) analyses by restriction-enzyme-cleavage sequencing (REC-Seq) and single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing to show that MucR, a transcriptional regulator that represses virulence and cell cycle genes in S-phase but no longer in G1-phase, occludes 5’-GANTC-3’ sequence motifs that are methylated by the DNA adenine methyltransferase CcrM. Constitutive expression of CcrM or heterologous methylases in at least two different α-proteobacteria homogenizes m6A patterns even when MucR is present and affects promoter activity. Environmental stress (phosphate limitation) can override and reconfigure local hypomethylation patterns imposed by the cell cycle circuitry that dictate when and where local hypomethylation is instated.

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“…Infection of Salmonella with a virulent phage kills the opvAB OFF subpopulation and selects the opvAB ON subpopulation, preadapting these bacteria to survive phage challenge in a reversible manner. 28 Next, Olivier Espeli (College de France, Paris, France) gave a talk dedicated to the adaptation of the adherentinvasive E. coli LF82 strain inside mature phagolysosomes. This strain has been isolated from a Crohn's disease patient and has the ability to invade epithelial cells and to proliferate within macrophages.…”

Section: Session 2: Regulatory Mechanisms Of Adaptation Of Intracellumentioning

confidence: 99%

Meeting report: Adaptation and communication of bacterial pathogens

2016

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Bacteria usually live in complex environments, sharing niche and resources with other bacterial species, unicellular eukaryotic cells or complex organisms. Thus, they have evolved mechanisms to communicate, to compete and to adapt to changing environment as diverse as human tissues, animals or plants. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying these adaptation processes is therefore of primary importance for epidemiology and human health protection, and was the focus of a Current Trends in Biomedicine workshop organized by the International University of Andalucia in late October 2015 in Baeza (Spain). The topic was covered by complementary sessions: (i) interbacterial communication and competition that enable a better access to nutrients or a more efficient colonization of the ecological niche, (ii) adaptation of intracellular pathogens to their host, focusing on metabolic pathways, adaptive mechanisms and populational heterogeneity, and (iii) adaptation of animal and plant pathogens as well as plant-associated bacteria to a plant niche. This workshop emphasized the broad repertoire of mechanisms and factors bacteria have evolved to become efficient pathogens.

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Epigenetic Control of Salmonella enterica O-Antigen Chain Length: A Tradeoff between Virulence and Bacteriophage Resistance

Cited by 91 publications

References 68 publications

Galactosylated wall teichoic acid, but not lipoteichoic acid, retains InlB on the surface of serovar 4b Listeria monocytogenes

Galactosylated wall teichoic acid, but not lipoteichoic acid, retains InlB on the surface of serovar 4b Listeria monocytogenes

Cell Cycle Constraints and Environmental Control of Local DNA Hypomethylation in α-Proteobacteria

Meeting report: Adaptation and communication of bacterial pathogens

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