Biological Role of Pigment Production for the Bacterial Phytopathogen Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii

Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii, the causal agent of Stewart's wilt of sweet corn, produces a yellow carotenoid pigment. A nonpigmented mutant was selected from a bank of mutants generated by random transposon mutagenesis. The transposon insertion site was mapped to the crtB gene, encoding a putative phytoene synthase, an enzyme involved in the early steps of carotenoid biosynthesis. We demonstrate here that the carotenoid pigment imparts protection against UV radiation and also contributes to the complete antioxidant pathway of P. stewartii. Moreover, production of this pigment is regulated by the EsaI/EsaR quorum-sensing system and significantly contributes to the virulence of the pathogen in planta.     

玉米细菌性枯萎病及其病原菌的检测技术

玉米细菌性枯萎病是影响玉米生产的重要病害 ,该病害通过带菌的种子进行远距离传播 ,对该病菌的检测成为防止和控制该病害的重要手段。介绍现有的检测该病菌的各种方法 ,即黑色素选择培养法、double sandwichELISA以及RAPD PCR ,LCR PCR ,Nested PCR ,multiplePCR和荧光实时PCR等分子生物学检测方法 ,并对这些方法的特性进行比较和探讨。     

Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii: lessons learned from a xylem-dwelling pathogen of sweet corn

Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii is a Gram-negative enteric bacterium that primarily infects sweet corn. Studies of this bacterium have provided useful insight into how xylem-dwelling bacteria establish themselves and incite disease in their hosts. Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii is a remarkable bacterial system for laboratory studies because of its relative ease of propagation and genetic manipulation, and the fact that it appears to employ a minimal number of pathogenicity mechanisms. In addition, P. stewartii subsp. stewartii produces copious amounts of its quorum sensing (QS) signal, acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL), making it an excellent organism for studying QS-controlled gene regulation in a plant-pathogenic bacterium. In fact, P. stewartii subsp. stewartii has become the microbial paradigm for QS control of gene expression by both repression and activation via a QS regulator that binds DNA in the absence and dissociates in the presence of the signal ligand. Moreover, P. stewartii subsp. stewartii is a member of the Enterobacteriaceae, and lessons learned from its interaction with plants may be extrapolated to other plant-associated enterics, such as Erwinia, Dickeya and Pectobacterium spp., or enteric human pathogens associated with plants, such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. TAXONOMY: Bacteria; Gammaproteobacteria; family Enterobacteriaceae; genus Pantoea; species stewartii (Mergaert et al., 1993). MICROBIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES: Gram-negative, motile, yellow pigmented, mucoid, facultative anaerobe. HOST RANGE: Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii (Smith, 1898) Dye causes Stewart's wilt of corn (Zea mays). Early-maturing sweet corn varieties and some elite inbred maize lines are particularly susceptible. DISEASE SYMPTOMS: There are two major phases of Stewart's wilt disease: (i) wilt and (ii) leaf blight. The wilt phase occurs when young seedlings are infected with P. stewartii subsp. stewartii (Fig. 1A). Water-soaked lesions first appear on the young expanding leaves and, later, seedlings may become severely wilted (Fig. 1B). The plants usually die when infected at the seedling stage. The leaf blight phase occurs when mature plants are infected (Fig. 1C). The bacteria enter the xylem and cause long linear yellow-grey lesions with a wavy margin that run parallel to the leaf veins. These lesions later turn necrotic and dark in colour. The leaf blight phase is most apparent after tasselling and does not generally cause death of the plant. In addition, the bacteria can sometimes break out of the xylem and cause pith rot in mature sweet corn plants. In resistant varieties, lesions are usually limited to only a few centimetres depending on the level of resistance of the particular hybrid (Claflin, 2000; Pataky, 2003). USEFUL WEBSITES: http://www.apsnet.org/publications/apsnetfeatures/Pages/StewartsWilt.aspx.     

玉米细菌性枯萎病菌改良Dot-ELISA检测研究

通过激光切割技术加工出硝酸纤维素膜小圆片并粘贴在已打孔的塑料胶条上,制成包含8个圆片的NCM条(NCM test strip),进一步在NCM条上建立了玉米细菌性枯萎病菌的Dot-ELISA检测方法.研究发现,在NCM圆片上的Dot-ELISA检测灵敏度与点样量密切相关,采用10 μL/点的加样量比通常的1 μL/点可提高检测灵敏度10-100倍;间接Dot-ELISA的检测灵敏度是双抗夹心dot-ELISA的10倍,该结果进一步在微孔板ELISA的检测中得到证实.玉米细菌性枯萎病菌的改良Dot-ELISA检测是一种较为灵敏、快速、稳定、规范的实验方法,为进一步研究该病菌的微流控芯片斑点免疫检测方法奠定了前期工作基础.     

Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii produces an endoglucanase that is required for full virulence in sweet corn

Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii, a xylem-dwelling bacterium, is the causal agent of Stewart's wilt and blight of sweet corn. The goal of this study was to characterize the only gene in the P. stewartii subsp. stewartii genome predicted to encode an endoglucanase (EGase); this gene was designated engY. Culture supernatants from P. stewartii subsp. stewartii and Escherichia coli expressing recombinant EngY protein possessed both EGase and xylanase activities. Deletion of engY abolished EGase and xylanase activity, demonstrating that EngY appears to be the major EGase or xylanase produced by P. stewartii subsp. stewartii. Most importantly, our results show that EngY contributes to movement in the xylem and disease severity during the wilting phase of Stewart's wilt but is not required for water-soaked lesion formation.     

Probing the impact of ligand binding on the acyl-homoserine lactone-hindered transcription factor EsaR of Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii

The quorum-sensing regulator EsaR from Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii is a LuxR homologue that is inactivated by acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL). In the corn pathogen P. stewartii, production of exopolysaccharide (EPS) is repressed by EsaR at low cell densities. However, at high cell densities when high concentrations of its cognate AHL signal are present, EsaR is inactivated and derepression of EPS production occurs. Thus, EsaR responds to AHL in a manner opposite to that of most LuxR family members. Depending on the position of its binding site within target promoters, EsaR serves as either a repressor or activator in the absence rather than in the presence of its AHL ligand. The effect of AHL on LuxR homologues has been difficult to study in vitro because AHL is required for purification and stability. EsaR, however, can be purified without AHL enabling an in vitro analysis of the response of the protein to ligand. Western immunoblots and pulse-chase experiments demonstrated that EsaR is stable in vivo in the absence or presence of AHL. Limited in vitro proteolytic digestions of a biologically active His-MBP tagged version of EsaR highlighted intradomain and interdomain conformational changes that occur in the protein in response to AHL. Gel filtration chromatography of the full-length fusion protein and cross-linking of the N-terminal domain both suggest that this conformational change does not impact the multimeric state of the protein. These findings provide greater insight into the diverse mechanisms for AHL responsiveness found within the LuxR family.     

Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii exhibits surface motility, which is a critical aspect of Stewart's wilt disease development on maize

Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii is a plant-pathogenic bacterium that causes Stewart's vascular wilt in maize. The organism is taxonomically described as aflagellated and nonmotile. We recently showed that P. stewartii colonizes the xylem of maize as sessile, cell-wall-adherent biofilms. Biofilm formation is a developmental process that generally involves some form of surface motility. For that reason, we reexamined the motility properties of P. stewartii DC283 based on the assumption that the organism requires some form of surface motility for biofilm development. Here, we show that the organism is highly motile on agar surfaces. This motility is flagella dependent, shown by the fact that a fliC mutant, impaired in flagellin subunit synthesis, is nonmotile. Motility also requires the production of stewartan exopolysaccharide. Moreover, surface motility plays a significant role in the colonization of the plant host.     

Miniprimer PCR assay targeting multiple genes: a new rapid and reliable tool for genotyping Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii

Aim: Development of a ‘miniprimer’ PCR assay for genotyping Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii, the causal agent of the Stewart’s bacterial wilt on maize. Methods and Results: Four 10‐nucleotide (10‐nt) ‘miniprimer’ sets were designed and evaluated in the presence of Titanium Taq DNA polymerase. Under optimal reaction conditions, the miniprimer pair Uni‐BacF‐10/Uni‐BacR‐10 reproducibly generated identical banding patterns among 10 strains of P. stewartii subsp. stewartii, different patterns from strains of P. stewartii subsp. indologenes, other Panteoa species, Clavibacter michiganensis, Pectobacterium spp., Pseudomonas spp. and other bacterial species. The amplicons of Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii were cloned and sequenced to identify genes or DNA fragments that are targeted by the miniprimer PCR assay. Of the 14 ‘clone types’ identified, sequences of a 1·23‐kb fragment had a 99·8% similarity to part of the Pantoea stewartii zeaxanthin diglucoside biosynthetic operon ( AY166713 ). Other dominant cloned fragments included a 411‐bp amplicon that exhibited 99·8% similarity to the psaU gene (syn:ysaU; GQ249669 ), a type III protein‐secretion system complex of P. stewartii subsp. stewartii strain DC283, and a 548‐bp fragment showed 63% homology to the Asp/Glu racemase encoding gene in Erwinia tasmaniensis strain ET1/99. Conclusion: The miniprimer PCR assay reported here is highly discriminatory and reproducible in genotyping Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii. Significance and Impact of the study: This miniprimer PCR assay could be a new reliable and rapid tool for fingerprinting the Stewart’s wilt pathogen of maize.     

Siderophore-Mediated Iron Acquisition Influences Motility and Is Required for Full Virulence of the Xylem-Dwelling Bacterial Phytopathogen Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii

Iron is a key micronutrient for microbial growth but is often present in low concentrations or in biologically unavailable forms. Many microorganisms overcome this challenge by producing siderophores, which are ferric-iron chelating compounds that enable the solubilization and acquisition of iron in a bioactive form. Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii, the causal agent of Stewart''s wilt of sweet corn, produces a siderophore under iron-limiting conditions. The proteins involved in the biosynthesis and export of this siderophore are encoded by the iucABCD-iutA operon, which is homologous to the aerobactin biosynthetic gene cluster found in a number of enteric pathogens. Mutations in iucA and iutA resulted in a decrease in surface-based motility that P. stewartii utilizes during the early stages of biofilm formation, indicating that active iron acquisition impacts surface motility for P. stewartii. Furthermore, bacterial movement in planta is also dependent on a functional siderophore biosynthesis and uptake pathway. Most notably, siderophore-mediated iron acquisition is required for full virulence in the sweet corn host, indicating that active iron acquisition is essential for pathogenic fitness for this important xylem-dwelling bacterial pathogen.     

WtsE, an AvrE-family type III effector protein of Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii, causes cell death in non-host plants

Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii ( Pnss ) causes Stewart's bacterial wilt of sweet corn and leaf blight of maize. The pathogenicity of Pnss depends on synthesis of extracellular polysaccharide and an Hrp type III secretion system. WtsE, a type III secreted effector protein, is essential for the virulence of Pnss on corn. It belongs to the AvrE family of effectors, which includes DspA/E from Erwinia amylovora and AvrE1 from Pseudomonas syringae . Previously, WtsE was shown to cause disease-associated cell death in its host plant, sweet corn. Here, we examine the biological activity of WtsE in several non-host plants. WtsE induced cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana , tobacco, beet and Arabidopsis thaliana when it was transiently produced in plant cells following agroinfiltration or translocated into plant cells from Pnss , Escherichia coli or Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola ( Pph ). WtsE-induced cell death in N. benthamiana , tobacco and beet resembled a hypersensitive response and in N. benthamiana it was delayed by cycloheximide. Interestingly, WtsE strongly promoted the growth of Pnss in N. benthamiana prior to the onset of cell death. Deletion derivatives of WtsE that failed to induce cell death in N. benthamiana and tobacco also did not complement wtsE mutants of Pnss for virulence in sweet corn, indicating a correlation between the two activities. WtsE also induced cell death in A. thaliana , where it suppressed basal defences induced by Pph . Thus, WtsE has growth-promoting, defence-suppressing and cell death-inducing activities in non-host plants. Expression of WtsE also prevented the growth of yeast, possibly due to an innate toxicity to eukaryotic cells.     

WtsE, an AvrE-family effector protein from Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii, causes disease-associated cell death in corn and requires a chaperone protein for stability

The pathogenicity of Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii to sweet corn and maize requires a Hrp type III secretion system. In this study, we genetically and functionally characterized a disease-specific (Dsp) effector locus, composed of wtsE and wtsF, that is adjacent to the hrp gene cluster. WtsE, a member of the AvrE family of effector proteins, was essential for pathogenesis on corn and was complemented by DspA/E from Erwinia amylovora. An intact C-terminus of WtsE, which contained a putative endoplasmic reticulum membrane retention signal, was important for function of WtsE. Delivery of WtsE into sweet corn leaves by an Escherichia coli strain carrying the hrp cluster of Erwinia chrysanthemi caused water-soaking and necrosis. WtsE-induced cell death was not inhibited by cycloheximide treatment, unlike the hypersensitive response caused by a known Avr protein, AvrRxol. WtsF, the putative chaperone of WtsE, was not required for secretion of WtsE from P. stewartii, and the virulence of wtsF mutants was reduced only at low inoculum concentrations. However, WtsF was required for full accumulation of WtsE within the bacteria at low temperatures. In contrast, WtsF was needed for efficient delivery of WtsE from E. coli via the Erwinia chrysanthemi Hrp system.     

Genetic organization of the Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii hrp gene cluster and sequence analysis of the hrpA, hrpC, hrpN, and wtsE operons

The hrp/wts gene cluster of Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii is required for pathogenicity on sweet corn and the ability to elicit a hypersensitive response (HR) in tobacco. Site-directed transposon mutagenesis and nucleotide sequencing were used to identify hrp/wts genes within the left 20 kb of this cluster. Seventeen open reading frames (ORFs) comprise seven genetic complementation groups. These ORFs share homology with hrp and dsp genes from Erwinia amylovora, Erwinia chrysanthemi, and Pseudomonas syringae pathovars and have been designated, in map order, wtsF, wtsE, hrpN, hrpV, hrpT, hrcC, hrpG, hrpF, hrpE, hrpD, hrcJ, hrpB, hrpA, hrpS, hrpY, hrpX, and hrpL. Putative hrp consensus promoter sequences were identified upstream of hrpA, hrpF, hrpN, and wtsE. Expression of the hrpA, hrpC, and wtsE operons was regulated by HrpS. Transposon mutations in all of the hrp operons abolished pathogenicity and HR elicitation, except for the hrpN and hrpV mutants, which were still pathogenic. hrpS, hrpXY, and hrpL regulatory mutations abolished HrpN synthesis, whereas secretory mutations in the hrpC, hrpA, and hrpJ operons permitted intracellular HrpN synthesis. wtsEF mutants were not pathogenic but still produced HrpN and elicited the HR. wtsE encodes a 201-kDa protein that is similar to DspE in E. amylovora and AvrE in P. syringae pv. tomato, suggesting that this protein is a major virulence factor involved in the elicitation of water-soaked lesions.     

Stabilization of pSW100 from Pantoea stewartii by the F conjugation system

Plasmid pSW100 is 1 of the 13 plasmids from Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii SW2 which has a replicon that resembles that of ColE1. This work uses a pSW100 derivative, pSW140K, to study how the pSW100 replicon is stably maintained in its hosts. Our results indicate that although pSW140K is stable in Escherichia coli HB101, the plasmid is rapidly lost in another E. coli strain, DH5alpha, indicating that the genetic background of an E. coli strain affects the stability of pSW140K. Mutagenesis of E. coli HB101 with EZ::TN revealed that mutations in traC, traF, traG, traN, and traV, which encode the components of the sex pilus assembly, reduce plasmid stability. Furthermore, this work identified that a 38-bp region located immediately upstream of the RNAII promoter is critical to the maintenance of plasmid stability in E. coli HB101. TraC binds to the region, and in addition, deleting the region destabilizes the plasmid. Furthermore, inserting this 38-bp fragment into a plasmid that contains the minimal replicon from pSW200 stabilizes the plasmid in E. coli HB101. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence staining also revealed that derivatives of pSW100, pSW128A, and TraC are colocalized in cells, suggesting that pSW100 may use the sex pilus assembly as a partition apparatus to ensure the even distribution of the plasmid during cell division, which may thus maintain the plasmid's stability.     

Biological activity of an antibiotic produced by Myxococcus coralloides.

A strain of Myxococcus coralloides was isolated which produced an antibiotic active against Gram-positive bacteria and also against Neisseria sp at high levels of antibiotic. The antibiotic was bactericidal on sensitive growing bacteria. It was inactive on non-growing cells and also on cells whose growth has been stopped by addition of chloramphenicol. Strains of S. aureus resistant to several antibiotics, including penicillin and ampicillin, were also sensitive to this antibiotic.     

The autoregulatory role of EsaR,a quorum-sensing regulator in Pantoea stewartii ssp. stewartii: evidence for a repressor function

Capsular polysaccharide synthesis and virulence in the plant pathogenic bacterium Pantoea stewartii ssp. stewartii requires the quorum-sensing regulatory proteins, EsaR and EsaI, and the diffusible inducer N-(3-oxo-hexanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone. Prior mutational studies suggested that EsaR might function as a repressor of quorum sensing in the control of capsular polysaccharide synthesis. Further, a lux box-like palindromic sequence coinciding with the putative -10 element of the esaR promoter suggested a possible negative autoregulatory role for EsaR. This report presents genetic evidence that EsaR represses the esaR gene under inducer-limiting conditions, and that addition of inducer promotes rapid, dose-dependent derepression. DNA mobility-shift assays and analyses by surface plasmon resonance refractometry show that EsaR binds target DNAs in a ligand-free state, and that inducer alters the binding characteristics of EsaR. Physical measurements indicate that the EsaR protein binds N-(3-oxo-hexanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone, in a 1:1 protein:ligand ratio, and that inducer binding enhances the thermal stability of the EsaR protein. These combined genetic and biochemical data establish that EsaR regulates its own expression by signal-independent repression and signal-dependent derepression. Additionally, we provide evidence that EsaR does not govern the expression of the linked esaI gene, thus EsaR has no role in controlling coinducer synthesis.