Evaluation of phoP and rpoS mutants of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi as attenuated typhoid vaccine candidates: virulence and protective immune responses in intranasally immunized mice

The attenuation and immunoenhancing effects of rpoS and phoP Salmonella enterica serovar strain Typhi (Salmonella typhi) mutants have not been compared. Here, three S. typhi deletion mutants (phoP, rpoS, and rpoS-phoP double mutant) are constructed and these mutants are characterized with respect to invasiveness, virulence, and protective immune response compared with wild-type Ty2. It was found that phoP and phoP-rpoS deletion mutants are less invasive to HT-29 cells than the wild-type Ty2 and the rpoS single-deleted strain. The LD(50) of immunized mice was higher for phoP than for rpoS mutants, and the highest for the phoP-rpoS double mutant. In addition, all S. typhi mutants showed an increase in the specific serum IgG levels and T-cell-mediated immunity, and showed equal protection abilities against a wild-type Ty2 challenge after two rounds of immunization in BALB/c mice. It is concluded that phoP genes appear to play a more important role than rpoS genes in both cellular invasion and virulence of S. typhi, but not in immunogenicity in mice. Furthermore, the data indicate that the phoP-rpoS double mutant may show promise as a candidate for an attenuated typhoid vaccine.     

Comparative Proteomic Analysis of the PhoP Regulon in Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi Versus Typhimurium

Background

S. Typhi, a human-restricted Salmonella enterica serovar, causes a systemic intracellular infection in humans (typhoid fever). In comparison, S. Typhimurium causes gastroenteritis in humans, but causes a systemic typhoidal illness in mice. The PhoP regulon is a well studied two component (PhoP/Q) coordinately regulated network of genes whose expression is required for intracellular survival of S. enterica.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Using high performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), we examined the protein expression profiles of three sequenced S. enterica strains: S. Typhimurium LT2, S. Typhi CT18, and S. Typhi Ty2 in PhoP-inducing and non-inducing conditions in vitro and compared these results to profiles of phoP⁻/Q⁻ mutants derived from S. Typhimurium LT2 and S. Typhi Ty2. Our analysis identified 53 proteins in S. Typhimurium LT2 and 56 proteins in S. Typhi that were regulated in a PhoP-dependent manner. As expected, many proteins identified in S. Typhi demonstrated concordant differential expression with a homologous protein in S. Typhimurium. However, three proteins (HlyE, STY1499, and CdtB) had no homolog in S. Typhimurium. HlyE is a pore-forming toxin. STY1499 encodes a stably expressed protein of unknown function transcribed in the same operon as HlyE. CdtB is a cytolethal distending toxin associated with DNA damage, cell cycle arrest, and cellular distension. Gene expression studies confirmed up-regulation of mRNA of HlyE, STY1499, and CdtB in S. Typhi in PhoP-inducing conditions.

Conclusions/Significance

This study is the first protein expression study of the PhoP virulence associated regulon using strains of Salmonella mutant in PhoP, has identified three Typhi-unique proteins (CdtB, HlyE and STY1499) that are not present in the genome of the wide host-range Typhimurium, and includes the first protein expression profiling of a live attenuated bacterial vaccine studied in humans (Ty800).     

Comparative genomics of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi strains Ty2 and CT18

We present the 4.8-Mb complete genome sequence of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi strain Ty2, a human-specific pathogen causing typhoid fever. A comparison with the genome sequence of recently isolated S. enterica serovar Typhi strain CT18 showed that 29 of the 4,646 predicted genes in Ty2 are unique to this strain, while 84 genes are unique to CT18. Both genomes contain more than 200 pseudogenes; 9 of these genes in CT18 are intact in Ty2, while 11 intact CT18 genes are pseudogenes in Ty2. A half-genome interreplichore inversion in Ty2 relative to CT18 was confirmed. The two strains exhibit differences in prophages, insertion sequences, and island structures. While CT18 carries two plasmids, one conferring multiple drug resistance, Ty2 has no plasmids and is sensitive to antibiotics.     

Harvesting of novel polyhydroxyalkanaote (PHA) synthase encoding genes from a soil metagenome library using phenotypic screening

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and Typhimurium are closely related serovars. However, S. Typhi, a human-specific pathogen, has 5% of genes as pseudogenes, far more than S. Typhimurium, which only has 1%. One of these pseudogenes corresponds to sopD2, which in S. Typhimurium encodes an effector protein involved in Salmonella-containing vacuole biogenesis in human epithelial cell lines, which is needed for full virulence of the pathogen. We investigated whether S. Typhi trans-complemented with the functional sopD2 gene from S. Typhimurium (sopD2(STM) ) would reduce the invasion of human epithelial cell lines. Our results showed that the presence of sopD2(STM) in S. Typhi significantly modified the bacterial ability to alter cellular permeability and decrease the CFUs recovered after cell invasion of human epithelial cell line. These results add to mounting evidence that pseudogenes contribute to S. Typhi adaptation to humans.     

Molecular modelling, docking and interaction studies of human-plasmogen and salmonella enolase with enolase inhibitors

Salmonella enteric serovar Typhi Ty2 is a human specific pathogen and an etiological agent for typhoid fever. Most of Salmonella serotypes produce glycogen which has a comparatively minor role in virulence and colonization, but has a more significant role in survival. Enzymes present in glycolytic pathway of bacteria help bacteria to survive by activating other factors inside host. Numerous pathogenic bacteria species intervene with the plasminogen system, and this plasminogen-enolase association may play a critical role in the virulence of S. Typhi by causing direct damage to the host cell extracellular matrix, possibly by enzymic degradation of extracellular matrix proteins or other protein constituents. In this study, molecular modelling of enolase of Salmonella has been accomplished in silico by comparative modelling; we have then analyzed Human alpha enolase which is a homodimer and serves on epithelial cells with our model. Both Structures were docked by D-tartronate semialdehyde phosphate (TSP) and 3-aminoenolpyruvate phosphate (AEP) enolase inhibitors. Our study shows that salmonella enolase and human enolase have different active sites in their structure. This will help in development of new ligands, more suitable for inhibiting bacterial survival inside host as vaccines for typhoid fever are not fully protective. The study also confirmed that enolase Salmonella and Human Plasminogen suggested direct physical interaction between both of them as the activation loop of plasminogen residues showed conformational changes similar to the tissue type plasminogen activator. Various computational biology tools were used for our present study such as Modeller, Molegro Virtual Docker, Grommacs.     

Characterization of MgtC,a Virulence Factor of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi

The MgtC is a virulence factor in Salmonella Typhimurium that is required for growth at low-Mg²⁺ concentrations and intramacrophage survival. This gene is codified in a conserved region of the Salmonella pathogenicity island 3 (SPI-3), and is also present in the chromosome of other Salmonella serovars. In this study we characterized the MgtC factor in S. Typhi, a human specific pathogen, by using mgtC and SPI-3 mutant strains. We found that MgtC is the most important factor codified in the SPI-3 of S. Typhi for growth in low-Mg²⁺ media and survival within human cells. In addition, by using reporter genes we determined that the low-Mg²⁺ concentration, acidic media and PhoP regulator induce mgtC expression in S. Typhi. We suggest that MgtC is the most important virulence factor codified in the SPI-3 of S. Typhi.     

Crystal structure of a novel prokaryotic Ser/Thr kinase and its implication in the Cpx stress response pathway

The Cpx signalling system of Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica senses extracytoplasmic stress and controls expression of factors that allow the bacterium to adapt to these stressors and thereby enhance survival. Many of the Cpx-responsive genes products are of unknown function. We determined the crystal structure of one of these gene products, called YihE in E. coli, which exhibits a eukaryotic kinase fold. Functional assays established that both YihE and the S. enterica YihE homologue, RdoA, undergo autophosphorylation and phosphorylate protein substrates at Ser/Thr residues in vitro, demonstrating that YihE/RdoA is a novel Ser/Thr protein kinase in prokaryotic cells. Phenotypic analysis of yihE/rdoA null strains indicates that this kinase is most abundant in stationary phase, and is important for long-term cell survival and for expression of surface appendages in both a Cpx-independent and -dependent manner. YihE/RdoA is therefore a previously unknown kinase component of a new type of bacterial phosphorelay mechanism, adding kinase activity as another response to the Cpx sensing system that functions to maintain cellular homeostasis.     

伤寒沙门菌基因组DNA芯片的制备与基因表达谱分析应用

伤寒沙门菌是一种具有鞭毛的革兰阴性人类肠道致病菌,也是一种重要的原核生物研究用模式菌．基因组芯片能够系统、全面且高效地观察生物的基因表达及进行基因组结构比较．利用伤寒沙门菌现有的全基因组序列,以Ty2菌株的基因组为基准,选取CT18菌株和z66阳性菌株的特异性蛋白编码基因,设计特异性引物,经PCR有效扩增出4 201个基因,产物纯化后点样于多聚赖氨酸玻片制备伤寒沙门菌基因组DNA芯片,并验证了芯片样点位次与效果．通过对基因表达谱分析的各种条件进行优化,建立相应的表达谱分析方法,并用于比较伤寒沙门菌野生株在高渗、低渗条件下的基因表达差异,结果与以前的报道基本一致．结果表明,成功建立了伤寒沙门菌基因组DNA芯片及表达谱分析方法,可为有关伤寒沙门菌基因表达调控及致病性机理、进化和基因多样性等方面的深入研究提供有效的技术支持．     

Identification of novel vaccine candidate against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi by reverse vaccinology method and evaluation of its immunization

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) is an essential enteric fever causing bacterium worldwide. Due to the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains, urgently attention is needed to prevent the global spread of them. Vaccination is an alternative approach to control these kinds of infections. Currently available commercial vaccines have significant limitations such as non-recommendation for children below six years of age and poor long-term efficacy. Thus, the development of a new vaccine overcoming these limitations is immediately required. Reverse Vaccinology (RV) is one of the most robust approaches for direct screening of genome sequence assemblies to identify new protein-based vaccines. The present study aimed to identify potential vaccine candidates against S. Typhi by using the RV approach. Immunogenicity of the best candidate against S. Typhi was further investigated. The proteome of S. Typhi strain Ty2 was analyzed to identify the most immunogenic, conserved, and protective surface proteins. Among the predicted vaccine candidates, steD (fimbrial subunit) was the best for qualifying all the applied criteria. The synthetic steD gene was expressed in E.coli, and the mice were immunized with purified recombinant steD protein and then challenged with a lethal dose of S. Typhi. Immunized animals generated high protein-specific antibody titers and demonstrated 70% survival following lethal dose challenge with S. Typhi. Pretreatment of the S. Typhi cells with immunized mice antisera significantly decreased their adhesion to Caco-2 cells. Altogether, steD as a protective antigen could induce a robust and long term and protective immunity in immunized mice against S. Typhi challenge.     

Isolation and characterization of a serine/threonine protein kinase SOS2 gene from Brassica napus

A full-length cDNA of a new serine/threonine (Ser/Thr) protein kinase gene, designated as BnSOS2 (GenBank Acc. No.AY310413), was cloned from Brassica napus by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The full-length cDNA of BnSOS2 was 1779 bp and contained a 1539-bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 512 amino acids. Homology analysis shows that BnSOS2 strongly resembles other Ser/Thr protein kinase genes, and that its putative protein belongs to a typical Ser/Thr kinase family. Northern blot analysis reveals that BnSOS2 is salt-inducible. Our results indicate that BnSOS2 is a new member of the plant SOS2 gene family, which may play an important role in salt tolerance of plants.     

Relationships among the rfb regions of Salmonella serovars A, B, and D.

The O antigens of Salmonella serogroups A, B, and D differ structurally in their side chain sugar residues. The genes encoding O-antigen biosynthesis are clustered in the rfb operon. The gene rfbJ in strain LT2 (serovar typhimurium, group B) and the genes rfbS and rfbE in strain Ty2 (serovar typhi, group D) account for the known differences in the rfb gene clusters used for determination of group specificity. In this paper, we report the nucleotide sequence of 2.9 kb of DNA from the rfb gene cluster of strain Ty2 and the finding of two open reading frames which have limited similarity with the corresponding open reading frames of strain LT2. These two genes complete the sequence of the rfb region of group D strain Ty2 if we use strain LT2 sequence where restriction site data show it to be extremely similar to the strain Ty2 sequence. The restriction map of the rfb gene cluster in group A strain IMVS1316 (serovar paratyphi) is identical to that of the cluster in strain Ty2 except for a frameshift mutation in rfbE and a triplicated region. The rfb gene clusters of these three strains are compared, and the evolutionary origin of these genes is discussed.     

High-level expression of porcine liver cytochrome P-450 reductase catalytic domain in Escherichia coli by modulating the predicted local secondary structure of mRNA

A direct expression system for the solubilized catalytic domains of NADPH-cytochrome P-450 reductase (sCPR) from rat (RsCPR) and porcine (PsCPR) in Escherichia coli cells was constructed using the expression plasmid pCWori(+). PsCPR was minimally expressed, whereas RsCPR was highly expressed. Replacement of the nucleotides encoding Thr(60)Ser(61)Ser(62) in PsCPR with those for Ala(60)Pro(61)Pro(62) in RsCPR markedly increased the expression level of the protein. The local secondary structures of the mRNAs, which were predicted with the prediction program GeneBee (http://www.genebee.msu.su), suggested that the intramolecular double strand between the ribosome binding site (RBS) and the Thr(60)Ser(61)Ser(62) codons in PsCPR, and/or the base-pairing at the initiation codon of the mRNAs significantly affected protein expression. Silent mutations were systematically introduced into the codons for Thr(58) and Thr(60)Ser(61) in PsCPR to modulate the local secondary structure of the mRNA. The expression level of the silently mutated PsCPR suggests that the expression level of PsCPR depends on the stability of the local structure at the RBS in the mRNA. A high-level expression system for wild-type PsCPR was constructed by introducing silent mutations at the codons for Thr(60)Ser(61) in PsCPR. The purified PsCPR showed the characteristic absorption spectral changes of sCPR after reduction with NADPH. The yield of purified PsCPR from 1 liter of culture fluid was 45.8 mg. These results substantiate that the introduction of silent mutations in the section of the gene encoding the N-terminal region of the protein based on the predicted local secondary structure of the mRNA at the RBS is a useful approach to control and increase the expression level of heterologous proteins in E. coli cells.