Regulating Alternative Lifestyles in Entomopathogenic Bacteria

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Current Biology 20, 69–74, January 12, 2010 ª2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.059 Report Regulating Alternative Lifestyles in Entomopathogenic Bacteria Jason M. Crawford,1,2 Renee Kontnik,1,2 and Jon Clardy1,* important suite of antibacterial and antifungal small molecules 1Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular that have so far eluded characterization (Figure 1) [4]. Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Photorhabdus luminescens TT01, the best studied of these Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA bacterial symbionts, has a sequenced genome containing a wide array of antibiotic synthesizing genes with at least 33 genes in 20 loci similar to those used to make nonribosomal Summary peptides and polyketides—two large families of biologically active small molecules [5]. The genome of Xenorhabdus nem- Bacteria belonging to the genera Photorhabdus and Xeno- atophila ATCC19061 has recently been sequenced, and it rhabdus participate in a trilateral symbiosis in which they appears to have a similar size and comparable number of enable their nematode hosts to parasitize insect larvae [1]. small-molecule biosynthetic genes (www.genoscope.cns.fr/ The bacteria switch from persisting peacefully in a nema- agc/mage/). The majority of these encoded molecules are tode’s digestive tract to a lifestyle in which pathways to cryptic, meaning that their existence can be inferred from the produce insecticidal toxins, degrading enzymes to digest genome but not yet confirmed in the laboratory, and analyses the insect for consumption, and antibiotics to ward off of sequenced bacterial genomes indicate that cryptic metabo- bacterial and fungal competitors are activated. This study lites greatly outnumber known metabolites—arguably by as addresses three questions: (1) What molecular signal trig- much as a factor of ten [6]. Most cryptic metabolite biosyn- gers antibiotic production in the bacteria? (2) What small theses are tightly regulated, and discovering the regulatory molecules are regulated by the signal? And (3), how do the key for a given metabolite has proved challenging. The Photo- bacteria recognize the signal? Differential metabolomic rhabdus/Xenorhabdus system provides an opportunity to profiling in Photorhabdus luminescens TT01 and Xenorhab- discover the regulatory signal for wholesale production of an dus nematophila revealed that L-proline in the insect’s entire suite of bioactive small molecules that control a broad hemolymph initiates a metabolic shift. Small molecules swath of microbial competitors. known to be crucial for virulence and antibiosis in addition to previously unknown metabolites are dramatically upregu- Insect Hemolymph Regulates Bacterial Secondary lated by L-proline, linking the recognition of host environ- Metabolism ment to bacterial metabolic regulation. To identify the Crude small-molecule extracts of Photorhabdus- and Xenor- L-proline-induced signaling pathway, we deleted the proline habdus-infected insect larvae have enhanced titers of anti- transporters putP and proU in P. luminescens TT01. Studies bacterial, antifungal, and insecticidal activities versus the of these strains support a model in which acquisition of levels extracted when the bacteria are grown on standard L-proline both regulates the metabolic shift and maintains microbiological media [7, 8]. The host factor (or factors) the bacterial proton motive force that ultimately regulates responsible for turning on production of these activities is the downstream bacterial pathways affecting virulence and likely a shared feature of insect larvae, and we used small- antibiotic production. molecule production, as judged by chromatographic analysis, to identify it. Results and Discussion Aqueous and organic extracts from a common insect host, Galleria mellonella (greater wax moth) larvae, were assessed During their infective juvenile stage, insect-killing (entomopa- for their ability to stimulate metabolite production by both thogenic) nematodes sequester symbiotic bacteria in their P. luminescens TT01 and X. nematophila ATCC19061. Addi- digestive tracts and hunt insect larvae in the soil [2, 3]. When tion of aqueous insect extracts or hemolymph dramatically a nematode successfully invades a larva’s circulatory system, induced metabolite production in both bacterial strains as it releases the bacteria. In this new food-rich environment, the judged by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) of bacteria switch from quiescent nematode residents to highly culture extracts (Figure 2, top panels). Individual metabolites effective insect pathogens while the infective juvenile nema- were upregulated by as much as an order of magnitude, and todes develop into adults and begin reproducing. Whereas some previously cryptic metabolites became evident in the nematode and bacteria have a specific association—Photo- differential profiles. Larval G. mellonella hemolymph was rhabdus spp. bacteria with Heterorhabditis spp. nematodes subjected to HPLC-based bioassay-guided fractionation to and Xenorhabdus spp. bacteria with Steinernema spp. nema- identify fractions capable of stimulating secondary metabolite todes—a given nematode-bacteria pair can parasitize a wide production in either strain, and over successive chromato- variety of insect larvae. Identifying the signal (or signals) graphic steps, identical fractions were shown to induce driving the switch from one bacterial phenotype to another activity in both. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectros- would provide a more complete description of this trilateral copy and mass spectrometry (MS) of the purified induction symbiosis and of bacterial virulence regulation. In addition, factor led to its identification as proline (see Figure S1 available the signal (or signals) could provide access to a potentially online). Supplementing bacterial cultures with L-proline, but not D-proline, increased secondary metabolite production in both strains (Figure S1). The differential profiles induced by *Correspondence: [email protected] L-proline were very similar to the hemolymph-induced chro- 2These authors contributed equally to this work matograms in both Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus species Current Biology Vol 20 No 1 70 and inorganic salt concentrations [9]. Complete amino acid analysis conducted on hemolymph samples from four repre- sentative host insect larvae revealed individual L-proline concentrations of 73, 3, 31, and 59 mM (Table S1). Although hemolymph L-proline concentrations have a substantial range (w20-fold), these findings show that the low-mM L-proline concentrations needed to regulate metabolite production are physiologically relevant. The previously described molecules exhibit a range of biological activities, and their regulation by L-proline underscores the connection between recognition of a specific host environment and subsequent bacterial metabolic adjustment. Stil- bene 3, for example, possesses antibiotic activity [10],is critical for maintaining symbiosis with nematodes [14], and is a potent inhibitor of phenoloxidase, a component of the insect innate immune system [15]. Nematophin (structure 5) also exhibits antibacterial activity, whereas other X. nematophila compounds (structures 6 and 9) have shown little to no activity in various biological assays to date [12, 13], but their regulation by L-proline implies important biological functions. Differential metabolomic profiling with biologically relevant triggers provides a system-wide approach to coupling small-molecule metabolites to the bacteria’s physiological state. L-Proline Upregulates Cryptic Metabolite Production In order to evaluate the ability of L-proline addition to reveal previously cryptic metabolites, we characterized several compounds from X. nematophila that became evident with L-proline addition. After purification of the metabolites, high- resolution MS (Table S2) and a combination of one- and two- dimensional NMR experiments (1H, COSY, HSQC, HMBC, and ROESY) were performed (Tables S3–S5), identifying two of them as the indole-containing metabolites 7 and 8 (Figure 1). Compound 7 is a new natural product, but it has been pre- Figure 1. Selected P. luminescens and X. nematophila Metabolites pared by synthesis and shown to be a potent antibiotic against Structures 1–4 are P. luminescens metabolites; structures 1 and 5–9 are multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [12]. Compound 8 X. nematophila metabolites. See also Figure S2 and Tables S2–S5. is its previously unreported reduction product. The third selected metabolite from X. nematophila, which was upregu- (Figure 2, bottom panels). Because a variety of insect larvae lated by over an order of magnitude in L-proline-induced contain high levels of L-proline [9], it could be a generic activa- cultures, was also characterized. NMR analyses revealed tion signal. a new isocyanide- and aminoglycosyl-functionalized tyrosine derivative, which we have named rhabduscin (structure 1) L-Proline Regulates Known Virulence Factors (Table S3). Structural characterization by NMR and MS established that The biosynthetic genes isnA and isnB were recently discov- known virulence factors and antibiotics were regulated in ered from environmental DNA cosmid libraries and found to both bacteria by exogenously supplied L-proline. In P. lumi- introduce isocyanide functional groups into their encoded nescens, L-proline substantially

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