Iron acquisition in the dental pathogen Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans: What does it use as a source and how does it get this essential metal?

Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans requires iron to grow under limiting conditions imposed by synthetic and natural chelators. Although none of the strains tested used hemoglobin, lactoferrin or transferrin, all of them used FeCl₃ and hemin as iron sources under chelated conditions. Dot-blot binding assays showed that all strains bind lactoferrin, hemoglobin, and hemin but not transferrin. When compared with smooth strains, the rough isolates showed higher hemin binding activity, which was sensitive to proteinase K treatment. A. actinomycetemcomitans harbors the Fur-regulated afeABCD locus coding for iron acquisition in isogenic and non-isogenic cell backgrounds. The genome of this oral pathogen also harbors several other predicted iron uptake genes including the hitABC locus, which restored iron acquisition in the E. coli 1017 ent mutant. However, the disruption of this locus in the parental strain did not affect iron acquisition as drastically as the inactivation of AfeABCD, suggesting that the latter system could be more involved in iron transport than the HitABC system. The genome of this oral pathogen also harbors an active copy of the exbBexbDtonB operon, which could provide the energy needed for hemin acquisition. However, inactivation of each coding region of this operon did not affect the hemin and iron acquisition phenotypes of isogenic derivatives. This observation suggests that the function of these proteins could be replaced by those coded for by tolQ, tolR and tolA as it was described for other bacterial transport systems. Interruption of a hasR homolog, an actively transcribed gene that is predicted to code for an outer membrane hemophore receptor protein, did not affect the ability of an isogenic derivative to bind and use hemin under chelated conditions. This result also indicates that A. actinomycetemcomitans could produce more than one outer membrane hemin receptor as it was described in other human pathogens. All strains tested formed biofilms on plastic under iron-rich and iron-chelated conditions. However, smooth strains attached poorly and formed weaker biofilms when compared with rough isolates. The incubation of rough cells in the presence of FeCl₃ or hemin resulted in an increased number of smaller aggregates and microcolonies as compared to the fewer but larger aggregates formed when cells were grown in the presence of dipyridyl.     

Hemin uptake system of Yersinia enterocolitica: similarities with other TonB-dependent systems in gram-negative bacteria.

The hemin receptor HemR of Yersinia enterocolitica was identified as a 78 kDa iron regulated outer membrane protein. Cells devoid of the HemR receptor as well as cells mutated in the tonB gene were unable to take up hemin as an iron source. The hemin uptake operon from Y. enterocolitica was cloned in Escherichia coli K12 and was shown to encode four proteins: HemP (6.5 kDa), HemR (78 kDa), HemS (42 kDa) and HemT (27 kDa). When expressed in E.coli hemA aroB, a plasmid carrying genes for HemP and HemR allowed growth on hemin as a porphyrin source. Presence of genes for HemP, HemR and HemS was necessary to allow E.coli hemA aroB cells to use hemin as an iron source. The nucleotide sequence of the hemR gene and its promoter region was determined and the amino acid sequence of the HemR receptor deduced. HemR has a signal peptide of 28 amino acids and a typical TonB box at its amino-terminus. Upstream of the first gene in the operon (hemP), a well conserved Fur box was found which is in accordance with the iron-regulated expression of HemR.     

Power plays: iron transport and energy transduction in pathogenic vibrios

The Vibrios are a unique group of bacteria inhabiting a vast array of aquatic environments. Many Vibrio species are capable of infecting a wide assortment of hosts. Some of these species include V. parahaemolyticus, V. alginolyticus, V. vulnificus, V. anguillarum, and V. cholerae. The ability of these organisms to utilize iron is essential in establishing both an infection in their hosts as well as surviving in the environment. Bacteria are able to sequester iron through the secretion of low molecular weight iron chelators termed siderophores. The iron-siderophore complexes are bound by specific outer membrane receptors and are brought through both the outer and inner membranes of the cell. The energy needed to drive this active transport is achieved through the TonB energy transduction system. When first elucidated in E. coli, the TonB system was shown to be a three protein complex consisting of TonB, ExbB and ExbD. Most Vibrio species carry two TonB systems. The second TonB system includes a fourth protein; TtpC, which is essential for TonB2 mediated iron transport. Some Vibrio species have been shown to carry a third TonB system that also includes a TtpC protein.     

Vibrio cholerae VciB promotes iron uptake via ferrous iron transporters

Vibrio cholerae uses a variety of strategies for obtaining iron in its diverse environments. In this study we report the identification of a novel iron utilization protein in V. cholerae, VciB. The vciB gene and its linked gene, vciA, were isolated in a screen for V. cholerae genes that permitted growth of an Escherichia coli siderophore mutant in low-iron medium. The vciAB operon encodes a predicted TonB-dependent outer membrane receptor, VciA, and a putative inner membrane protein, VciB. VciB, but not VciA, was required for growth stimulation of E. coli and Shigella flexneri strains in low-iron medium. Consistent with these findings, TonB was not needed for VciB-mediated growth. No growth enhancement was seen when vciB was expressed in an E. coli or S. flexneri strain defective for the ferrous iron transporter Feo. Supplying the E. coli feo mutant with a plasmid encoding either E. coli or V. cholerae Feo, or the S. flexneri ferrous iron transport system Sit, restored VciB-mediated growth; however, no stimulation was seen when either of the ferric uptake systems V. cholerae Fbp and Haemophilus influenzae Hit was expressed. These data indicate that VciB functions by promoting iron uptake via a ferrous, but not ferric, iron transport system. VciB-dependent iron accumulation via Feo was demonstrated directly in iron transport assays using radiolabeled iron. A V. cholerae vciB mutant did not exhibit any growth defects in either in vitro or in vivo assays, possibly due to the presence of other systems with overlapping functions in this pathogen.     

Cloning and characterization of the Vibrio cholerae genes encoding the utilization of iron from haemin and haemoglobin

Vibrio cholerae can utilize haemin or haemoglobin as its sole source of iron. Four haem utilization mutants of a classical strain of V. cholerae were isolated. These mutations were complemented with pHUT1, a cosmid clone isolated from a library of wild-type CA401 DNA. Two independent Tn5 insertions into the cloned sequence disrupted function in all of the complemented mutants. Escherichia coli 1017 transformed with pHUT1 failed to utilize haemin as an iron source; a second plasmid containing a different cloned fragment of V. cholerae DNA (pHUT3) was required in addition to pHUT1 to reconstitute the system in E. coli. Minicell analysis and SDS-PAGE of protein fractions indicate that pHUT10 (a subclone of p>HUT1) encodes a 26 kDa inner membrane protein, and pHUT3 encodes a 77 kDa outer membrane protein. Loss of either protein by Tn5 mutagenesis abolishes haem utilization in E. coli. An E. coli hemA mutant that cannot synthesize porphyrins was transformed with the recombinant plasmids to determine whether the plasmids encoded the ability to transport the porphyrin as well as the iron. The transformants grew aerobically in media containing haemin, whereas the parental strain was unable to grow under these conditions. This indicates that V. cholerae haem-iron utilization genes allow transport of the entire haem moiety into the cell.     

Localization and characterization of VVA0331, a 489-kDa RTX-like protein,in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Vibrio vulnificus</Emphasis> YJ016

Vibrio vulnificus YJ016 contains three genes encoding proteins homologous to repeats-in-toxin proteins. One of these genes, vva0331, possesses a long open reading frame of 13,971 bp in length and resides on the small chromosome between two gene clusters encoding a type I secretion system and several regulatory proteins, respectively. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that VVA0331 consist of nineteen 87-amino acid repeats, two Arg-Gly-Asp motifs, four cysteine residues, an outer membrane protein domain, a polysaccharide-binding site and several motifs related to cell adhesions. These features are distinct from those of typical repeat-in-toxins and autotransporter adhesins. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis indicates that vva0331 gene expression is activated at 30°C and regulated by iron. In addition, VVA0331 is present primarily in a secreted form as determined by cell fractionation assay and Western blot analysis. No significant difference in Hep2 cell adherence, cytotoxicity, and virulence was observed between the wild type and vva0331 mutant strains. In contrast, these strains exhibited apparently different outer membrane protein profiles, and antiserum raised against C-terminal region of VVA0331 reacted with an 85-kDa outer membrane protein of V. vulnificus YJ016. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Characterization of heme uptake cluster genes in the fish pathogen Vibrio anguillarum

Vibrio anguillarum can utilize hemin and hemoglobin as sole iron sources. In previous work we identified HuvA, the V. anguillarum outer membrane heme receptor by complementation of a heme utilization mutant with a cosmid clone (pML1) isolated from a genomic library of V. anguillarum. In the present study, we describe a gene cluster contained in cosmid pML1, coding for nine potential heme uptake and utilization proteins: HuvA, the heme receptor; HuvZ and HuvX; TonB, ExbB, and ExbD; HuvB, the putative periplasmic binding protein; HuvC, the putative inner membrane permease; and HuvD, the putative ABC transporter ATPase. A V. anguillarum strain with an in-frame chromosomal deletion of the nine-gene cluster was impaired for growth with heme or hemoglobin as the sole iron source. Single-gene in-frame deletions were constructed, demonstrating that each of the huvAZBCD genes are essential for utilization of heme as an iron source in V. anguillarum, whereas huvX is not. When expressed in Escherichia coli hemA (strain EB53), a plasmid carrying the gene for the heme receptor, HuvA, was sufficient to allow the use of heme as the porphyrin source. For utilization of heme as an iron source in E. coli ent (strain 101ESD), the tonB exbBD and huvBCD genes were required in addition to huvA. The V. anguillarum heme uptake cluster shows some differences in gene arrangement when compared to homologous clusters described for other Vibrio species.     

Outer membrane proteome of Prevotella intermedia 17: identification of thioredoxin and iron-repressible hemin uptake loci

Although hemin is an indispensable nutrient for the oral pathogen Prevotella intermedia, not much is known regarding the molecular mechanisms of hemin acquisition. The availability of the genomic sequence of the bacterium allowed us to apply proteomic approaches to identify proteins that may be mediating the hemin acquisition process. As hemin acquisition mechanisms have been shown to be induced in iron-depleted conditions, we applied proteomic approaches to detect those proteins whose expressions were affected by iron. We analyzed 40 protein spots and identified 19 such proteins. Interestingly, two proteins drastically upregulated in iron-depleted conditions, PIN0009 and PINA0611, are homologs of hemin uptake receptors in other bacteria. PIN0009 is predicted to be an outer membrane lipoprotein. It is encoded by a gene that is the first of a seven-gene genomic locus encoding proteins of a novel hemin acquisition system. The second protein, PINA0611, is a homolog of numerous TonB-dependent outer membrane receptors including outer membrane iron uptake receptors of various Gram-negative bacteria. There was also another protein, regulated by iron, that was previously demonstrated to bind hemoglobin in P. intermedia. Finally, we identified a thioredoxin-like protein that has a novel outer membrane location.     

Haem utilization in Vibrio cholerae involves multiple TonB-dependent haem receptors

Vibrio cholerae has multiple iron transport systems, one of which involves haem uptake through the outer membrane receptor HutA. A hutA mutant had only a slight defect in growth using haemin as the iron source, and we show here that V. cholerae encodes two additional TonB-dependent haem receptors, HutR and HasR. HutR has significant homology to HutA as well as to other outer membrane haem receptors. Membrane fractionation confirmed that HutR is present in the outer membrane. The hutR gene was co-transcribed with the upstream gene ptrB, and expression from the ptrB promoter was negatively regulated by iron. A hutA, hutR mutant was significantly impaired, but not completely defective, in the ability to use haemin as the sole iron source. HasR is most similar to the haemophore-utilizing haem receptors from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens. A mutant defective in all three haem receptors was unable to use haemin as an iron source. HutA and HutR functioned with either V. cholerae TonB1 or TonB2, but haemin transport through either receptor was more efficient in strains carrying the tonB1 system genes. In contrast, haemin uptake through HasR was TonB2 dependent. Efficient utilization of haemoglobin as an iron source required HutA and TonB1. The triple haem receptor mutant exhibited no defect in its ability to compete with its Vib- parental strain in an infant mouse model of infection, indicating that additional iron sources are present in vivo. V. cholerae used haem derived from marine invertebrate haemoglobins, suggesting that haem may be available to V. cholerae growing in the marine environment.     

Evaluation of enrichment media for improved PCR-based detection of V. cholerae and V. vulnificus from estuarine water and plankton

Aims: Pathogenic Vibrio spp., including V. cholerae and V. vulnificus, are commonly found along the estuaries of the south‐east United States; however, it is often difficult to recover these species directly from environmental samples. Pre‐enrichment assays are commonly used to improve the detection of pathogenic vibrios from environmental sources. Here, we evaluated a novel enrichment procedure using freshly collected and autoclaved natural estuarine water amended with 1% peptone (designated as estuarine peptone water, EPW) and compared it to traditional alkaline peptone water (APW) for detection by PCR of V. cholerae and V. vulnificus. Methods and Results: Of the 50 samples collected in total, V. cholerae DNA was detected in APW 10% of the time and in EPW 40% of the time. Likewise, the cholera toxin gene (ctxA) was detected in 4 vs 18% of the samples using APW and EPW, respectively. Conversely, APW showed improved recovery for V. vulnificus relative to EPW with respective detection frequencies of 46 and 20%. Results showed similar patterns across different sample types (water and plankton). Conclusions: While enrichment in traditional APW was adequate for the recovery of Vibrio vulnificius, use of sterile estuarine water amended with peptone significantly improved the detection of V. cholerae and the virulence gene ctxA from estuarine sources.     

Transformation ofVibrio vulnificus by electroporation

Vibrio vulnificus is a pathogenic, estuarine bacterium associated with primary septicemia and severe wound infections. Previous studies have reported limited success in the introduction of plasmids intoV. vulnificus by conjugation, and there have been no reports of successful electroporation procedures. We report here on the introduction of recombinant plasmids into four strains ofV. vulnificus by electroporation. In contrast to the complex medium that others have used for the electroporation ofVibrio cholerae, the efficiency of transformation ofV. vulnificus was greatly improved by the use of a defined growth medium containing glucose. The addition of glycine betaine further enhanced transformant yield.     

A highly sensitive and specific multiplex PCR assay for simultaneous detection of Vibrio cholerae,Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus

Aims: To develop an effective multiplex PCR for simultaneous and rapid detection of Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, the three most important Vibrio species that can cause devastating health hazards among human. Methods and Results: Species‐specific PCR primers were designed based on toxR gene for V. cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus, and vvhA gene for V. vulnificus. The multiplex PCR was validated with 488 Vibrio strains including 322 V. cholerae, 12 V. vulnificus, and 82 V. parahaemolyticus, 20 other Vibrio species and 17 other bacterial species associated with human diseases. It could detect the three target bacteria without any ambiguity even among closely related species. It showed good efficiency in detection of co‐existing target species in the same sample. The detection limit of all the target species was ten cells per PCR tube. Conclusions: Specificity and sensitivity of the multiplex PCR is 100% each and sufficient for simultaneous detection of these potentially pathogenic Vibrio species in clinical and environmental samples. Significance and Impact of the Study: This simple, rapid and cost‐effective method can be applicable in a prediction system to prevent disease outbreak by these Vibrio species and can be considered as an effective tool for both epidemiologist and ecologist.     

Increased production of the outer membrane receptors for colicins B, D and M by Escherichia coli under iron starvation.

Growth of $\text{E. coli}$ K-12 under severe iron stress results in increased production of the outer membrane receptors for colicins B, D, Ib and M. The increase in colicin receptor activity coincides with the appearance of large amounts of two high molecular weight proteins in the outer membrane of the cells. These proteins are identified as the outer membrane receptors for colicins B and D and for colicin M. Mutants lacking a functional outer membrane receptor for colicins B and D are defective in the uptake of iron complexed with the siderochrome enterochelin, and are thus comparable with $\text{tonA}$ mutants which lack a functional receptor for colicin M and are defective in the uptake of iron complexed with ferrichrome (6). The colicin B and D receptor may therefore function in the uptake of ferri-enterochelin.     

Identification of the vibriobactin receptor of Vibrio cholerae.

Vibrio cholerae produces the novel phenolate siderophore vibriobactin and several outer membrane proteins in response to iron starvation. To determine whether any of these iron-regulated outer membrane proteins serves as the receptor for vibriobactin, the classical V. cholerae strain 0395 was mutagenized by using TnphoA, and iron-regulated fusions were analyzed for vibriobactin transport. One mutant, MBG14, was unable to bind or utilize exogenous vibriobactin and did not grow in low-iron medium. However, synthesis of the siderophore and transport of other iron complexes, including ferrichrome, hemin, and ferric citrate, were unaffected in MBG14. Analysis of membrane proteins by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis demonstrated the loss from the mutant of a 74-kDa iron-regulated outer membrane protein present in the parental strain when grown in iron-limiting conditions. This protein partitioned into the detergent phase during Triton X-114 extraction, suggesting that it is a hydrophobic membrane protein. DNA sequences encoding the gene into which TnphoA had inserted, designated viuA (vibriobactin uptake), restored the wild-type phenotype to the mutant; the complemented mutant expressed the 74-kDa outer membrane protein under iron-limiting conditions and possessed normal vibriobactin binding and uptake. These data indicate that the 74-kDa outer membrane protein of V. cholerae serves as the vibriobactin receptor.