Role of overexpressed CFA/I fimbriae in bacterial swimming

Phys Biol. 2012 Jun;9(3):036005. doi: 10.1088/1478-3975/9/3/036005. Epub 2012 May 4.

Abstract

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli CFA/I is a protective antigen and has been overexpressed in bacterial vectors, such as Salmonella Typhimurium H683, to generate vaccines. Effects that overexpressed CFA/I may engender on the bacterial host remain largely unexplored. To investigate, we constructed a high CFA/I expression strain, H683-pC2, and compared it to a low CFA/I expression strain, H683-pC, and to a non-CFA/I expression strain, H683-pY. The results showed that H683-pC2 was less able to migrate into semisolid agar (0.35%) than either H683-pC or H683-pY. Bacteria that migrated showed motility halo sizes of H683-pC2 < H683-pC < H683-pY. In the liquid culture media, H683-pC2 cells precipitated to the bottom of the tube, while those of H683-pY did not. In situ imaging revealed that H683-pC2 bacilli tended to auto-agglutinate within the semisolid agar, while H683-pY bacilli did not. When the cfaBE fimbrial fiber encoding genes were deleted from pC2, the new plasmid, pC2(-), significantly recovered bacterial swimming capability. Our study highlights the negative impact of overexpressed CFA/I fimbriae on bacterial swimming motility.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Antigens, Bacterial / genetics*
  • Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
  • Escherichia coli / genetics
  • Fimbriae Proteins / genetics*
  • Fimbriae, Bacterial / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial*
  • Salmonella typhimurium / cytology
  • Salmonella typhimurium / genetics*
  • Up-Regulation

Substances

  • Antigens, Bacterial
  • colonization factor antigens
  • Fimbriae Proteins