Tat-exported peptidoglycan amidase-dependent cell division contributes to Salmonella Typhimurium fitness in the inflamed gut

PLoS Pathog. 2018 Oct 31;14(10):e1007391. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007391. eCollection 2018 Oct.

Abstract

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Tm) is a cause of food poisoning accompanied with gut inflammation. Although mucosal inflammation is generally thought to be protective against bacterial infection, S. Tm exploits the inflammation to compete with commensal microbiota, thereby growing up to high densities in the gut lumen and colonizing the gut continuously at high levels. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial effect of gut inflammation on S. Tm competitive growth are poorly understood. Notably, the twin-arginine translocation (Tat) system, which enables the transport of folded proteins outside bacterial cytoplasm, is well conserved among many bacterial pathogens, with Tat substrates including virulence factors and virulence-associated proteins. Here, we show that Tat and Tat-exported peptidoglycan amidase, AmiA- and AmiC-dependent cell division contributes to S. Tm competitive fitness advantage in the inflamed gut. S. Tm tatC or amiA amiC mutants feature a gut colonization defect, wherein they display a chain form of cells. The chains are attributable to a cell division defect of these mutants and occur in inflamed but not in normal gut. We demonstrate that attenuated resistance to bile acids confers the colonization defect on the S. Tm amiA amiC mutant. In particular, S. Tm cell chains are highly sensitive to bile acids as compared to single or paired cells. Furthermore, we show that growth media containing high concentrations of NaCl and sublethal concentrations of antimicrobial peptides induce the S. Tm amiA amiC mutant chain form, suggesting that gut luminal conditions such as high osmolarity and the presence of antimicrobial peptides impose AmiA- and AmiC-dependent cell division on S. Tm. Together, our data indicate that Tat and the Tat-exported amidases, AmiA and AmiC, are required for S. Tm luminal fitness in the inflamed gut, suggesting that these proteins might comprise effective targets for novel antibacterial agents against infectious diarrhea.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amidohydrolases / metabolism*
  • Animals
  • Cell Division
  • Gastrointestinal Tract / metabolism
  • Gastrointestinal Tract / microbiology*
  • Gastrointestinal Tract / pathology
  • Inflammation / metabolism
  • Inflammation / microbiology*
  • Inflammation / pathology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Peptidoglycan / metabolism*
  • Salmonella Infections, Animal / metabolism
  • Salmonella Infections, Animal / microbiology*
  • Salmonella Infections, Animal / pathology
  • Salmonella typhimurium / physiology*
  • Twin-Arginine-Translocation System / metabolism*

Substances

  • Peptidoglycan
  • Twin-Arginine-Translocation System
  • Amidohydrolases
  • amidase

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by Japan society for the promotion of science (JSPS) KAKENHI https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/index.html), Grant number JP16K08783. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. There was no additional external funding received for this study.