The transcriptome of the nosocomial pathogen Enterococcus faecalis V583 reveals adaptive responses to growth in blood.
BACKGROUND
Enterococcus faecalis plays a dual role in human ecology, predominantly existing as a commensal in the alimentary canal, but also as an opportunistic pathogen that frequently causes nosocomial infections like bacteremia. A number of virulence factors that contribute to the pathogenic potential of E. faecalis have been established. However, the process in which E. faecalis gains access to the bloodstream and establishes a persistent infection is not well understood.


RESULTS
To enhance our understanding of how this commensal bacterium adapts during a bloodstream infection and to examine the interplay between genes we designed an in vitro experiment using genome-wide microarrays to investigate what effects the presence of and growth in blood have on the transcriptome of E. faecalis strain V583. We showed that growth in both 2xYT supplemented with 10% blood and in 100% blood had a great impact on the transcription of many genes in the V583 genome. We identified several immediate changes signifying cellular processes that might contribute to adaptation and growth in blood. These include modulation of membrane fatty acid composition, oxidative and lytic stress protection, acquisition of new available substrates, transport functions including heme/iron transporters and genes associated with virulence in E. faecalis.


CONCLUSIONS
The results presented here reveal that cultivation of E. faecalis in blood in vitro has a profound impact on its transcriptome, which includes a number of virulence traits. Observed regulation of genes and pathways revealed new insight into physiological features and metabolic capacities which enable E. faecalis to adapt and grow in blood. A number of the regulated genes might potentially be useful candidates for development of new therapeutic approaches for treatment of E. faecalis infections.
Vebø
Heidi C
HC
Laboratory of Microbial Gene Technology and Food Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Science, The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, As, Norway. heidi.vebo@umb.no
Snipen
Lars
L
Nes
Ingolf F
IF
Brede
Dag A
DA
D000818:Animals; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000097:blood*; D013293:Enterococcus faecalis / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014774:Virulence; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000378:metabolism
D037521:Virulence Factors