title: A transferable plasticity region in Campylobacter coli allows isolates of an otherwise non-glycolytic food-borne pathogen to catabolize glucose.
abstract: Thermophilic Campylobacter species colonize the intestine of agricultural and domestic animals commensally but cause severe gastroenteritis in humans. In contrast to other enteropathogenic bacteria, Campylobacter has been considered to be non-glycolytic, a metabolic property originally used for their taxonomic classification. Contrary to this dogma, we demonstrate that several Campylobacter coli strains are able to utilize glucose as a growth substrate. Isotopologue profiling experiments with (13) C-labeled glucose suggested that these strains catabolize glucose via the pentose phosphate and Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathways and use glucose efficiently for de novo synthesis of amino acids and cell surface carbohydrates. Whole genome sequencing of glycolytic C. coli isolates identified a genomic island located within a ribosomal RNA gene cluster that encodes for all ED pathway enzymes and a glucose permease. We could show in vitro that a non-glycolytic C. coli strain could acquire glycolytic activity through natural transformation with chromosomal DNA of C. coli and C. jejuni subsp. doylei strains possessing the ED pathway encoding plasticity region. These results reveal for the first time the ability of a Campylobacter species to catabolize glucose and provide new insights into how genetic macrodiversity through intra- and interspecies gene transfer expand the metabolic capacity of this food-borne pathogen.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Hanne
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vorwerk
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Biochemie, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Juliane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mohr
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany.|German Centre of Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Hannover-Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Boyke
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bunk
authors.affiliation: Department of Genome Analytics, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhuju
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Wensel
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany.|German Centre of Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Hannover-Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Cathrin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Spröer
authors.affiliation: Division of Enteropathogenic Bacteria and Legionella (FG11), German National Reference Centre for Salmonella and other Bacterial Enteric Pathogens, Robert Koch-Institute, Wernigerode, Germany.
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fruth
authors.affiliation: Division of Enteropathogenic Bacteria and Legionella (FG11), German National Reference Centre for Salmonella and other Bacterial Enteric Pathogens, Robert Koch-Institute, Wernigerode, Germany.
authors.forename: Antje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Flieger
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schmidt-Hohagen
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Dietmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schomburg
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Biochemie, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Eisenreich
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hofreuter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D017000:Campylobacter coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D002645:Chickens; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D044404:Genomic Islands; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D006019:Glycolysis / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D010427:Pentose Phosphate Pathway / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005947:Glucose