The Haemophilus Ducreyi Sap Transporter Contributes
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THE HAEMOPHILUS DUCREYI SAP TRANSPORTER CONTRIBUTES TO ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDE RESISTANCE KristyLee BeaversMount SubmittedtothefacultyoftheUniversityGraduateSchool inpartialfulfillmentoftherequirements forthedegreeof DoctorofPhilosophy intheDepartmentofMicrobiologyandImmunology, IndianaUniversity August2009 AcceptedbytheFacultyofIndianaUniversity,inpartial fulfillmentoftherequirementsforthedegreeof DoctorofPhilosophy. ________________________________ MargaretE.Bauer,PhD(Chair) ________________________________ StanleyM.Spinola,MD ________________________________ DoctoralCommittee XiaofengF.Yang,PhD ________________________________ May26th,2009MaryC.Dinauer,MD/PhD ________________________________ MaureenA.Harrington,PhD ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wouldlike tothankmy friends andmyfamilyfor supportingme throughthis endeavor. It would not have been possible for me to have made it as far as I have without their unwaveringsupportandencouragement. Inparticular,I wouldlike tothankmyparents for providingme witha strongfoundation upon which to build and for their utter confidence that I would succeed, even in the darkestoftimes. I wouldlike tothankJosie HoulihanandJeff Altenburgfor their friendship throughout graduateschool.Iwillrememberthemalways. Most of all I wouldlike tothankmyhusbandfor his love andsupport. He has beenthe rockuponwhichI have dependedandI would not have beenable toachieve mygoals withouthim bymyside.MyPhD belongstohimasmuchas itdoes tome. Finally, I would like to thank my son for continuously reminding me what is most important inlife. Myworst days inthe lab were erasedbyhis simple smile. I am a better personforknowinghimanditistohimthatIdedicateallofmyfuturesuccess. iii ABSTRACT KristyLee BeaversMount THE HAEMOPHILUS DUCREYI SAPTRANSPORTERCONTRIBUTESTO ANTIMICROBIALPEPTIDERESISTANCE Haemophilus ducreyi is the causative agent of the genital ulcer disease chancroid,which has been shown to facilitate the transmission of HIV. H. ducreyi is likely exposed to multiple sources of antimicrobial peptides in vivo. APs are small, cationic molecules withbothbactericidal andimmunomodulatoryfunctions. Because H. ducreyi is able to establishandmaintainaninfection inanenvironment rich withantimicrobial peptides, we hypothesized that the bacterium was resistant to the bactericidal effects of these peptides. Usinga 96well AP bactericidal assay,we examinedH. ducreyi susceptibility to eight human APs likely to be encountered at the site of infection, including the α- defensins human neutrophil peptide-1, human neutrophil peptide-2, human neutrophil peptide-3, and human defensin 5, the β-defensins human β defensin2, human beta defensin3,andhumanbeta defensin4,andthe humancathelicidin,LL-37. H. ducreyi survival was comparedtothe survival of Escherichia coli ML35,a strainknowntobe susceptible toseveral antimicrobial peptides. H. ducreyi was significantlymore resistant than E. coli ML35 to the bactericidal effects of all peptides tested. Furthermore, we foundthat representative class I andclass II strains of H. ducreyi were eachresistant to APs of eachfunctional category,indicatingthat resistance toantimicrobial peptides could iv representaconservedmethodof pathogenesisfor H. ducreyi asaspecies.The H. ducreyi genome contains a homologfor the Sap influx transporter. Tostudy the role of the H. ducreyi Sap transporter inAP resistance,we generatedanisogenic sapA mutant andused the 96well AP bactericidal assayto compare the AP susceptibilityprofiles of wildtype H. ducreyi, the sapA mutant andthe sapA trans-complement toα-defensins,β-defensins, andLL-37. We observeda 25% decrease inthe survival of the sapA mutant whenit was exposedtoLL-37. These findings suggest that the H. ducreyi Sap transporter plays a role in H. ducreyi resistance to LL-37, but it is likely that other AP resistance mechanismscoexistwithinthe bacterium. MargaretE.Bauer,PhD v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ……………………………………………………………………....ix LIST OF FIGURES ……..………………………………………………………..…..….x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……………………...………………………………...…xi LITERATURE REVIEW SECTION I: HAEMOPHILUS DUCREI HistoryofChancroid…………………………………….……..………....1 TaxonomyandGenetics of H. ducreyi ……………………………………1 ClinicalFeaturesofChancroid……………………………………………2 DiagnosisandTreatmentofChancroid…….…………..…………………2 EpidemiologyofChancroid………………………………….………...….4 H. ducreyi andHIV………………………………………………………..5 ModelsofChancroidInfection……………………………………………6 HostPathogenInteractions………………………………………………..9 VirulenceDeterminants of H. ducreyi …………………………………...10 TwoClassesof H. ducreyi ……………………………………………….16 SECTION II: ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES HumanAntimicrobialPeptides……………………………………..........18 AntimicrobialPeptidesintheChancroidEnvironment………………….19 EvidenceofAPActivity In vivo ………………………………………....20 AntimicrobialPeptideBactericidal Activity……………………………..22 AntimicrobialPeptideImmunoregulatoryActivity……………………...24 BacterialResistancetoAntimicrobialPeptides………………………….25 SECTION III: SAP TRANSPORTER TheSapTransporter……………………………………………………..28 Salmonella typhimurium SapTransporter…………………………….....28 Proteus mirabilis SapTransporter……………………………………….31 vi Haemophilus influenzae SapTransporter………………………………..31 Erwinia chrysanthemi SapTransporter………………………………….32 Vibrio fisheri SapTransporter………………………………………...…33 Homologyof H. ducreyi SaptoOtherSapTransporters………………...34 OtherRoles oftheSapTransporter……………………………………...37 GeneticRegulationoftheSapTransporter……………………………....38 The H. ducreyi SapTransporterisExpressedduringHumanInfection…38 HYPOTHESIS ……………………………………………………………………….…40 METHODS BacterialStrainsandGrowthConditions………………………………………..41 SourcesofPeptides………………………………………………………………41 96wellAPBactericidal Assay………………………………………………..…42 RadialDiffusionAssay………………………………………………………..…43 PolymeraseChainReaction…………………………………………………...…43 ReverseTranscriptionPCR………………………………………………………44 QuantitativeRT-PCR………………………………………………………….…44 SouthernBlotAnalysis………………………………………………………..…45 DNA Sequencing………………………………………………………………...45 ComparativeGrowthCurves…………………………………………………….47 Constructionof35000HP sapA ………………………………………………..…47 Generationof35000HP sapA /p sapA …………………………………………..…48 RESULTS SECTION I: H. DUCREYI IS RESISTANT TO HUMAN APS Validationof96wellAPBactericidalAssay……………………………53 H. ducreyi Susceptibilityto Humanα-defensins………………………...53 H. ducreyi SusceptibilitytoHumanβ-defensins……………………...…54 H. ducreyi SusceptibilitytotheHumanCathelicidin,LL-37……………57 ClassIandClassII H. ducreyi StrainsareResistanttoAPs…………….57 vii MinimumInhibitoryConcentrationofAntimicrobialPeptides………….59 APResistanceisConservedwithintheSpecies………………………....62 SECTION II: THE H. DUCREYI SAP TRANSPORTER PLAYS A ROLE IN AP RESISTANCE Constructionofa sapA Mutant in H. ducreyi ……………………………63 The H. ducreyi SapTransporterConfersResistancetoLL-37…………..70 The H. ducreyi SapTransporterdoes notConfer resistancetoβ-defensins………..…………..………………………70 The H. ducreyi SapTransporterDoesnotConferResistanceto α-defensins……………..…...……………………………………….71 The sapA GeneisConservedAmongClassI/ClassII H. ducreyi .............71 DISCUSSION …………………………………………………………………………...75 FUTURE DIRECTIONS …………………………………………………………….....83 APPENDIX: MTR EFFLUX TRANSPORTER MUTATGENESIS ……………......89 REFERENCES …………..…………………………………………………………...…95 CURRICULUM VITAE viii LIST OF TABLES Table1. H. ducreyi virulencefactorsasdefinedbythehumanchallengemodel…….…11 Table2. H. ducreyi structures thatdidnotcontributetovirulenceinthe HCM……...…16 Table3.Antimicrobial peptide secretingcelltypesinchancroid………………………..20 Table4.Saptransporter mutantsandphenotypes………………………………….……35 Table5.Homologybetween H. ducreyi Sap proteins andotherSap proteins…………..36 Table6.Bacterialstrainsusedinthis study……………………………………………...42 Table7.PrimersusedinPCR,RT-PCR,qRT-PCR,southern,andsequencing………...46 Table8.Primersusedin sapA mutagenesis……………...……………………………....49 Table9.Plasmidsusedinstudy………………………………………………………....52 Table10.Survivalof E. coli ML35and H. ducreyi 35000HPexposedtoPG-1………..53 Table11.Minimumeffective concentrationofAPs…………………………………….62 Table12.APresistance isconservedwithinthespecies………………………………...62 Table13.Primersusedin mtrC mutagenesisandRT-PCR……………………………...94 Table14.Plasmidsusedin mtrC mutagenesis…………………………………………...94 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure1.ModelofSaptransporter………………………………………………………30 Figure2.Geneticmapof sap-containinglociin H. ducreyi 35000HP…………………..37 Figure3.Generationofthe sapA mutant…………….………………………………..…50 Figure4.Generationof sapA complement………………………………………………51 Figure5. H. ducreyi isresistanttoα-defensins…………………………………………..55 Figure6. H. ducreyi isresistanttoβ-defensins…………………………………………..56 Figure7. H. ducreyi isresistanttothehumancathelicidin,LL-37……………………...58 Figure8.Representative class IandclassII H. ducreyi strains areresistant toAPs…….59 Figure9.AP-mediatedinhibitionof bacterialgrowth…………………………………...61 Figure10.The sap-containinglocus of H. ducreyi istranscribedasanoperon………....65 Figure11.PCRconfirmationof35000HP sapA …............................................................66 Figure12.Southernanalysisof35000HP sapA ……………………………………….…67 Figure13.The35000HP sapA mutationdidnotaffect H. ducreyi growth in vitro ……...68 Figure14.RT-PCRconfirmationof putative35000HP sapA mutant……………………69 Figure15.The H. ducreyi Saptransporter confersresistancetoLL-37………….……...72 Figure16.The H. ducreyi Saptransporterdoes notconferresistance againstβ-defensins…….………………………………………………...73 Figure17.The H. ducreyi Saptransporterdoes notconferresistancetoα-defensins…..74 Figure18. mtr effluxpumpoperon………………………………………………………91 Figure19.mtrC mutagenicstrategy…………………………………………………...…92