Corynebacterium Diphtheriae Putative Tellurite
662 Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 110(5): 662-668, August 2015 Corynebacterium diphtheriae putative tellurite-resistance protein (CDCE8392_0813) contributes to the intracellular survival in human epithelial cells and lethality of Caenorhabditis elegans Louisy Sanches dos Santos1, Camila Azevedo Antunes2, Cintia Silva dos Santos1, José Augusto Adler Pereira1, Priscila Soares Sabbadini3, Maria das Graças de Luna1, Vasco Azevedo2, Raphael Hirata Júnior1, Andreas Burkovski4, Lídia Maria Buarque de Oliveira Asad5, Ana Luíza Mattos-Guaraldi1/+ 1Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Departamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia e Parasitologia, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil 2Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Biologia Geral, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil 3Centro Universitário do Maranhão, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Laboratório de Doenças Bacterianas, São Luís, MA, Brasil 4Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Lehrstuhl fuer Mikrobiologie, Erlangen, Germany 5Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcântara Gomes, Departamento de Biofísica e Biometria, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the aetiologic agent of diphtheria, also represents a global medical challenge be- 2- cause of the existence of invasive strains as causative agents of systemic infections. Although tellurite (TeO3 ) is toxic 2- 2- to most microorganisms, TeO3 -resistant bacteria, including C. diphtheriae, exist in nature. The presence of TeO3 - resistance (TeR) determinants in pathogenic bacteria might provide selective advantages in the natural environment. In the present study, we investigated the role of the putative TeR determinant (CDCE8392_813 gene) in the virulence at- tributes of diphtheria bacilli. The disruption of CDCE8392_0813 gene expression in the LDCIC-L1 mutant increased 2- susceptibility to TeO3 and reactive oxygen species (hydrogen peroxide), but not to other antimicrobial agents.
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