Functional definition of LuxS, an autoinducer-2 (AI-2) synthase and its role in full virulence of Streptococcus suis serotype 2.
Quorum sensing is a widespread chemical communication in response to fluctuation of bacterial population density, and has been implicated into bacterial biofilm formation and regulation of expression of virulence factors. The luxS gene product, S-ribosylhomocysteinase, catalizes the last committed step in biosynthetic pathway of autoinducer 2 (AI-2), a signaling molecule for inter-species quorum sensing. We found a luxS homologue in 05ZYH33, an epidemic strain of Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (SS2) in China. A luxS null mutant (ΔluxS) of 05ZYH33 strain was obtained using an approach of homologous recombination. LuxS was determined to be required for AI-2 production in 05ZYH33 strain of S. suis 2. Inactivation of luxS gene led to a wide range of phenotypic changes including thinner capsular walls, increased tolerance to H(2)O(2), reduced adherence capacity to epithelial cells, etc. In particular, loss of LuxS impaired dramatically its full virulence of SS2 in experimental model of piglets, and functional complementation restored it nearly to the level of parent strain. Genome-wide transcriptome analyses suggested that some known virulence factors such as CPS are down-regulated in the ΔluxS mutant, which might in part explain virulence attenuation by luxS deletion. Similarly, 29 of 71 genes with different expression level were proposed to be targets candidate regulated by LuxS/AI-2-dependent quorum sensing.
Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, P. R. China.
Min
M
Cao
Youjun
Y
Feng
Changjun
C
Wang
Feng
F
Zheng
Ming
M
Li
Hui
H
Liao
Yinghua
Y
Mao
Xiuzhen
X
Pan
Jing
J
Wang
Dan
D
Hu
Fuquan
F
Hu
Jiaqi
J
Tang
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013437:Carbon-Sulfur Lyases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D017011:Streptococcus suis / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D013552:Swine; D014774:Virulence
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D013437:Carbon-Sulfur Lyases; C117753:LuxS protein, Bacteria