KEYS TO UNLOCKING THE BIOFILM PHENOTYPE
OF A VIRULENT ENVIRONMENTAL ISOLATE
OF SALMONELLA
by
Stewart James Clark
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
Microbiology
MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY Bozeman, Montana
August 2008
©COPYRIGHT
by
Stewart James Clark
2008
All Rights Reserved ii
APPROVAL
of a dissertation submitted by
Stewart James Clark
This dissertation has been read by each member of the dissertation committee and has been found to be satisfactory regarding content, English usage, format, citation, bibliographic style, and consistency, and is ready for submission to the Division of Graduate Education.
Dr. Anne K. Camper
Approved for the Department of Microbiology
Dr. Mike Franklin
Approved for the Division of Graduate Education
Dr. Carl A. Fox
iii
STATEMENT OF PERMISSION TO USE
In presenting this dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a doctoral degree at Montana State University, I agree that the Library shall make it available to borrowers under rules of the Library. I further agree that copying of this dissertation is allowable only for scholarly purposes, consistent with “fair use” as prescribed in the U.S. Copyright Law. Requests for extensive copying or reproduction of this dissertation should be referred to ProQuest Information and Learning, 300 North
Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, to whom I have granted “the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute my dissertation in and from microform along with the non- exclusive right to reproduce and distribute my abstract in any format in whole or in part.”
Stewart James Clark
August 2008
iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author of this dissertation would like to acknowledge those friends and family both in Bozeman and in South Africa who have played a particularly important support role over the tenure of this degree.The microarrays used in this research were obtained through NIAID’s Pathogen Functional Genomics Resource Center, managed and funded by Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, DHHS and operated by the J. Craig Venter Institute. This research has been supported by a grant (DAAD 19-
03-1-0198) from the Army Research Office. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Army Research Office. And finally, this work is for you, my King.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 3
Salmonella Background ...... 3 Nomenclature ...... 3 History of Salmonella Missouri – an Epidemiology...... 6 Other Examples of Occurrence and Abundance in Water ...... 8 Survival in Water and Preferred Environments ...... 10 Susceptibility to Disinfection ...... 13 The Three C’s of Salmonella Biofilms: Curli, Cellulose and Cyclic-di-GMP...... 16 The Hfq Regulon...... 22 Iron Utilization Genes ...... 24 1,2-Propanediol Utilization ...... 26 Pathogenicity ...... 32 Type III Secretion Systems ...... 34 Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 1 ...... 35 Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 2 ...... 38
3. A TRANSCRIPTIONAL STUDY OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL SALMONELLA ENTERICA ISOLATE BIOFILM ...... 41
Introduction ...... 41 Materials and Methods ...... 44 Strains and Growth ...... 44 Biomass Harvesting ...... 46 RNA Purification ...... 47 DNA Microarray Transcriptional Profiling ...... 48 Data Analysis ...... 52 Results and Discussion ...... 55 Bacterial Characterization ...... 55 RNA Purification ...... 59 Data Analysis ...... 60 Conclusions ...... 71
4. A TRANSCRIPTIONAL COMPARISON OF SALMONELLA TYPHIMURIUM LT2 AND AN ENVIRONMENTAL ISOLATE OF SALMONELLA ENTERICA ...... 80
Introduction ...... 80 Materials and Methods ...... 81 Strains and Growth ...... 81 vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS - CONTINUED
Biomass Harvesting ...... 83 RNA Purification ...... 84 DNA Microarray Transcriptional Profiling ...... 85 Data Analysis ...... 89 Results and Discussion ...... 92 Conclusions ...... 99
5. CONCLUSIONS ...... 104
Future Work ...... 106
REFERENCES ...... 109
APPENDICES ...... 126
APPENDIX A: Significant Genes Data Set for Chapter 3 ...... 127 APPENDIX B: Dataset for Figure 12 ...... 136 APPENDIX C: Dataset for Figure 13 ...... 138 APPENDIX D: Dataset for Figure 15 ...... 140 APPENDIX E: Significant MO Genes Data for Chapter 4 ...... 142 APPENDIX F: Significant LT2 Genes Data for Chapter 4 ...... 150
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Salmonella enterica subspecies and numerical designations ...... 4
2. Space flight stimulon genes in Salmonella belonging to the Hfq regulon or involved with iron utilization or biofilm formation ...... 23
3. Regions of 10 or more genes recently acquired by Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium LT2 ...... 34
4. Top six sequences producing significant alignments (NCBI-BLAST) to a 702 bp sequence obtained by PCR amplifying a portion of the 16S rDNA gene of Salmonella Missouri ...... 57
5. The Institute for Genomic Research functional categories for the entire annotated genome and uniquely expressed genes of the observed transcriptomes for the planktonic and biofilm phenotypes ...... 96
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1. Schematic overview of the role of CsgD in biofilm formation ...... 18
2. Scheme illustrating the role of different genes in the pathways leading to the synthesis of polysaccharides involved in the biofilm phenotype ...... 19
3. Regulatory concept of cyclic-di-GMP metabolism and signaling on the population level ...... 21
4. The struggle for iron: bacteria vs. host ...... 25
5. Anaerobic rhamnose catabolism in Salmonella ...... 27
6. Model of cobalamin-dependent utilization of rhamnose by intracellularly replicating Salmonella to recruit additional carbon, nitrogen and energy sources ...... 29
7. Invasion of Salmonella into the host epithelium as the initial stage of establishing infection (BioCarta, CA)...... 36
8. NCBI-BLAST phylogenetic tree using the neighbor-joining algorithm indicating relatedness of Salmonella Missouri (indicated by query ID lcl|13935) to other prokaryotic organisms based on a 702 bp sequence obtained by PCR amplifying a portion of the 16S rDNA gene ...... 56
9. Growth curve of Salmonella Missouri ...... 58
10. Electropherogram of Salmonella RNA ...... 59
11. Distribution of significantly expressed genes assigned to functional categories of the observed Salmonella Missouri transcriptome ...... 62
12. Expression patterns of genes involved in polysaccharide and curli fimbriae synthesis ...... 66
13. Changes in levels of gene expression in four Salmonella Pathogenicity Islands (SPI) and the spv operon on the Salmonella Pathogenicity Plasmid (PSLT) ...... 67
14. Distribution of gene expression on the Salmonella Pathogenicity Plasmid (PSLT) ...... 68 ix
LIST OF FIGURES – CONTINUED
Figure Page
15. Gene expression patterns in the 1,2-propanediol utilization operon (pdu), cobalamin synthesis operon (cbi-cob) and tetrathionate reductase operon (ttr) ...... 70
16. Photographs of overnight planktonic cultures of Salmonella Missouri and Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 ...... 92
17. Growth curves of Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 and Salmonella Missouri ...... 93
18. Venn diagram showing significantly up-regulated genes in Salmonella Missouri during planktonic growth and biofilm growth and in Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 during planktonic growth and biofilm growth ...... 95
x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ATCC American Type Culture Collection
BLAST Basic Local Alignment Search Tool
CDC Centers for Disease Control and Preventtion cDNA Complementary DNA
CDSC Communicable Disease Surveillance Center
CFU Colony Forming Units
CMR Comprehensive Microbial Database
CT99 Contact x Time to reduce the microbial population by 99%
DNR Missouri Department of Natural Resources
DOH Missouri Department of Health
EASE Expression Analysis Systematic Explorer
ECA Enterobacterial Common Antigen
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
EPS Exopolysaccharide
F99 Fluence required to reduce the microbial population by 99%
FDR False Discovery Rate
FHL Fumarate hydrogenlyase
IVET In vivo Expression Technology
IVS Intervening Sequences
JCVI J. Craig Venter Institute
LPS Lipopolysaccahride
MIDAS TIGR Microarray Data Analysis System
MO Missouri xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS - CONTINUED
MPN Most Probable Number
NCBI National Center for Biotechnology Information
NIAID National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases
OLE Operon-Linked Expression
ORF Open Reading Frame
PFGRC Pathogen Functional Genomics Research Center
PGFE Pulse Field Gel Electrophoresis
PLG Phase Lock Gel
PSLT Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 Pathogenicity Plasmid
RIN RNA Integrity Number
SAM Significance Analysis of Microarrays
SCV Salmonella-Containing Vacuole
SOP Standard Operating Protocol
SPI Salmonella Pathogenicity Island
T90 Time taken to reduce the microbial population by 90%
TIGR The Institute for Genomic Research
TMEV TIGR Multiexperiment Viewer
TTSS Type III Secretion System
UASB Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket
VBNC Viable But Non Culturable
WHO World Health Organization
WWTP Wastewater Treatment Plant
xii
ABSTRACT
The aim of this research was to elucidate the phenotypic adaptation of an environmental isolate of Salmonella enterica grown in a single species biofilm using transcriptomic analysis. This environmental isolate was obtained from an outbreak in Gideon, MO, and was classified as Salmonella enterica serotype Missouri. Gene expression profiles obtained from this environmental isolate were compared with profiles of the ATCC type strain Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium LT2 grown under the same conditions. It was shown that there were distinct transcriptional differences in both of the strains between the biofilm and planktonic phenotypes. Both strains exhibited the strong up-regulation of several gene pathways that were unique to the biofilm phenotype. These included genes responsible for the cobalamin-dependent anaerobic utilization of 1,2-propanediol (cob-cbi-pdu), type III secretion system apparatus and effector proteins located on Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 2 (SPI-2) and the well characterized csg operon largely responsible for biofilm formation in Salmonella. A significant proportion of the genes present on the virulence plasmid PSLT were shown to be exclusively up-regulated in the biofilm phenotype of Salmonella Typhimurium LT2, illustrating the tendency of this pathogen to exhibit a promiscuous lifestyle whilst in the non-host environment. It was further demonstrated that the environmental isolate exhibited a more tenacious biofilm-forming tendency and overall greater survivability than the type strain in a low nutrient, non-host environment. It appeared from the transcriptional profile of Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 during planktonic growth that the organism struggled to adapt and survive under low nutrient conditions as evidenced by the increased expression of ribosomal subunit operons rps and rpl and several stress- related genes including dnaK and htp. The conclusion may be drawn that Salmonella Missouri has developed several key systems differentiating the biofilm and planktonic phenotypes and affording it a competitive advantage. While some of these traits have previously been studied exclusively in the context of host pathogenicity, this research indicates that perhaps these so-called virulence strategies may afford the pathogen enhanced survival in non-host environments as well. Therefore, these findings suggest that the use of excessively sub-cultured laboratory strains may be inappropriate surrogates for studying the behavior of real-world pathogens. 1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Salmonella has been recognized as a global threat to human health and in the
United States alone is the cause of an estimated USD 3 billion in hospital costs and loss of revenue (World Health Organization, 2005). Several hundreds of serotypes of
Salmonella may be circulating within the human population at any given time and these display varying degrees of virulence from causing mild gastric irritation (salmonellosis) through to full-blown typhoid fever (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007).
Furthermore, this pathogen tends to cycle between the host and non-host environment and has been shown to be quite capable of adapting to stressful conditions within both these settings. In the non-host environment, Salmonella may survive for lengthy periods of time as part of a microbial consortia termed a biofilm (Armon et al., 1997; Costerton et al., 1999; Latasa et al., 2005; Leriche and Carpentier, 1995; September et al., 2007).
Chapter 2 of this dissertation summarizes the current state of the literature available in this field and describes the important advances in Salmonella biofilm and physiology research and identifies some open questions which were addressed in this present work.
The goals of this study were to investigate some of the key transcriptional pathways involved in the switch from the planktonic to the biofilm phenotype using
Salmonella whole-genome microarrays. This method of analysis was first applied to one serotype of Salmonella enterica, an environmental isolate from a water-related outbreak in Gideon, MO, and the results of this study are presented in Chapter 3. Subsequently to 2
this, further experiments included an ATCC type strain of Salmonella enterica serotype
Typhimurium LT2 in order to demonstrate the differences between a virulent isolate and a lesser virulent, frequently passaged strain. The results of this study are presented in
Chapter 4. Each of these two studies will be submitted for publication individually in
order to contribute to the current state of the field. The work demonstrated in Chapter 3
will be published the first submission (to the Society for Applied Microbiology journal
“Environmental Microbiology”) and will form the basis for the second publication (to
“FEMS Microbiology Letters”) covering the work presented in Chapter 4.
The final chapter of this thesis (Chapter 5) communicates the conclusions of this
study and suggests possible directions for future study.
3
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Salmonella Background
Salmonella is a gram negative, rod shaped enteric bacterium bearing remarkable similarity to the well-characterized Escherichia coli. This organism is usually motile by peritrichous flagella. It is facultatively anaerobic and chemoorganotrophic, exhibiting both a respiratory and fermentative type of metabolism, depending on environmental cues and conditions. As such, Salmonella have been isolated from diverse environments spanning soil, water, invertebrates, reptiles, fish and mammals.
Nomenclature
Salmonella nomenclature has been the source of much contention in the literature over the years and until January 2003, there were still differing opinions between the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the widely accepted Kauffmann-White scheme maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for
Reference and Research on Salmonella at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, France (WHO
Collaborating Center). Brenner et al. (2000) published a guest commentary in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology entitled “Salmonella Nomenclature” in which they discussed the many issues and points of contention surrounding the naming of this pathogen. At that time, 2463 serotypes or serovars of Salmonella were defined by the WHO
Collaborating Center. According to the latest published report (Grimont and Weill, 2007), there are 2579 serovars of Salmonella. Furthermore, it was only in 2005 (Truper, 2005) 4
that the Judicial Commission of the International Committee of Systematic Bacteriology
officially applied the status of Type Strain to Salmonella enterica, replacing the previous
Type Strain Salmonella choleraesius.
Molecular methods have shown that the genus Salmonella consists of only two
species, Salmonella enterica and Salmonella bongori. Of these two species, S. bongori
only contributes 22 serovars to the overall number mentioned previously. According to
the official Kauffmann-White Scheme (Grimont and Weill, 2007), Salmonella enterica is further divided into six subspecies (Table 1) that can be differentiated by biochemical and genetic tests. These subspecies are designated by names or Roman numerals, the latter being simpler and more commonly used.
Table 1. Salmonella enterica subspecies and numerical designations.
Salmonella enterica subspecies
I enterica
II salamae
IIIa arizonae
IIIb diarizonae
IV houtenae
VI indica Serotyping of Salmonella is based on the immunoreactivity of two surface structures, the O and H antigens. The O antigen is a carbohydrate that is the outermost component of lipopolysaccharide. It is a polymer of O subunits, each O subunit usually composed of four to six sugars, depending on the O antigen. Variations in the O antigen result from variation in the sugar components, the covalent bonds between the subunits 5
and the nature of the linkages between O subunits. O antigens are designated by Arabic
numerals and are divided into O serogroups (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
2007).
The H antigen is the filamentous portion of the bacterial flagella, an organelle
being made up of a complex basal body, a curved hook and a helical filament functioning
as a rotary motor, universal joint and propeller respectively. The filament is a self-
assembling polymer made up of thousands of molecules of a single protein termed
flagellin. The ends of flagellin are conserved and give the filament its characteristic
structure. The antigenic variability occurs in the middle region of the flagellin protein
which is surface-exposed. Salmonella is unique among the enteric bacteria in that it can
express two different H antigens which are specified by two genes, fliC and fljB. These two distinct flagellar antigens are referred to as Phase 1 and Phase 2 antigens respectively, and the expression of the two genes is coordinated such that only one flagellar antigen is expressed at a time in a single bacterial cell. Monophasic isolates are those that express only a single flagellin type. If antigens are composed of multiple factors, they are designated so and separated by commas (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007).
In this study, the serotyping convention of the Kauffmann-White Scheme described above is adopted. Although Salmonella serotypes can be designated more precisely by a formula they can also be designated by a name. The typical format for a serotype formula is: 6
Genus [space] Subspecies Roman numeral [space] O antigen [colon] Phase 1 H antigen
[colon] Phase 2 H antigen.
The two serotypes used over the course of this study can therefore be designated:
Salmonella I 4,5,12:i:1,2 or Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium or Salmonella
Typhimurium; and Salmonella I 11:g, s, t or Salmonella enterica serotype Missouri or
Salmonella Missouri.
History of Salmonella Missouri – an Epidemiology
In early December of 1993, a waterborne disease outbreak was identified in the town of Gideon, Missouri, USA. The initial report originated with seven culture- confirmed cases of Salmonella, all patients exhibiting severe diarrhea (Clark et al., 1996).
The patients included three high school students, one child from a day care, two nursing home residents and one visitor to the nursing home. The Missouri Department of Health
(DOH) conducted preliminary interviews and determined that there were no food exposures common to the majority of patients and suggested a link with municipal water.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was subsequently informed and initiated a sampling of the water supply. Water samples collected by the DNR were positive for fecal coliforms and on December 18, 1993, the city of Gideon, as required by the DNR, issued a boil water order. The CDC joined the surveillance on December 22,
1993.
Prior to the outbreak, the Gideon municipal water system, which obtained water from two adjacent 396 m deep wells, had no form of disinfection in place. The distribution system consisted primarily of small diameter (5, 10 and 15 cm) unlined steel 7
and cast iron pipe. Tuberculation and corrosion were major problems. Raw water
temperatures were unusually high for a ground water supply (14°C) because the system
was overlying a geologically active fault. There were also regular pressure drops under
high flow or flushing conditions. The municipal system also had two elevated tanks (189
m3 and 378 m3) (Angulo et al., 1997).
On December 23, 1993, a chlorinator was placed on-line at the city well by the
DNR. Prior to switching on the chlorinator, none of the water samples collected
contained chlorine and one sample was positive for the same strain of dulcitol-negative
Salmonella as had been isolated from the initial patients.
A CDC survey indicated that ~44% of the 1104 residents, or almost 600 people, were affected with diarrhea between November 11 and December 27, 1993 in Gideon,
MO. Through January 8, 1994, the DOH had identified 31 cases with laboratory- confirmed salmonellosis associated with the Gideon outbreak. Fifteen of the 31 culture- confirmed patients were hospitalized and two of these 15 patients had positive blood cultures. Seven nursing home residents died, four of whom were culture-confirmed (the other three were not cultured) (Clark et al., 1996).
A tank inspector observed birds roosting on the largest city-owned water storage tank which had a broad, flat roof. Subsequent laboratory study of the persistence of this
Salmonella strain isolated from the Gideon water supply demonstrated that the pathogenic agent was only reduced in density by 30% during a 4 day period at 15°C
(Clark et al., 1996). The suggestion has therefore been made that, with repeated new input of Salmonella from infected pigeons, there could have been a continuing high level 8
of this pathogen present in the water storage tank and distribution lines. Since the infective dose varies from 101 to more than 105 cells of Salmonella depending on strain,
as well as the human condition (age, overall health, lifestyle), an Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) study concluded that the Salmonella outbreak was largely due
to inadequate disinfection and aged equipment (Clark et al., 1996).
Other Examples of Occurrence and Abundance in Water
In the natural environment the concentration of Salmonella can be as low as 5
CFU/100 mL (Lemarchand et al., 2004) and as high 103 - 105 organisms/liter such as is
found in raw wastewater in the US (Bitton, 2005) and even higher in developing nations
(September et al., 2007). Removal of Salmonella throughout a typical sewage treatment
system in the US has been measured. Typically there may exist 5 x 103 – 8 x 104 CFU/L
in raw sewage, 102 – 3 x 103 CFU/L after primary treatment only (primary sedimentation
and disinfection), 3 – 103 CFU/L after secondary treatment (including trickling filter or
activated sludge) and 10-6 CFU/L after advanced secondary treatment (including
coagulation, filtration and disinfection) (Maier et al., 2000). These figures however are
merely representative and removal rates can vary greatly. In a study from Spain, raw
water samples showed a high content of Salmonella, with a mean MPN of 266.7/100 mL
while treated water (after decanting and activated sludge) contained a Salmonella MPN
of 45/100 mL, representing a reduction of only 83% (Howard et al., 2004).
In a study conducted in California, effluents from 11 of 12 sewage treatment
plants tested positive for Salmonella when samples were analyzed downstream of a
chlorination/dechlorination site, before effluents merged with the receiving stream 9
(outside the plant). Six hundred and eighty three Salmonella isolations were made from
26 of the 32 sampling sites. Multiple serotypes of Salmonella were represented in the
isolations. During the sampling period, people were observed swimming and fishing in
the sewage treatment plant effluent within 30.5 m (100 ft) of the outfall. Subsequent to
this study, an interesting theoretical exercise was carried out. The daily production of
waste water per capita is estimated to be 400 liters. A person with acute salmonellosis
excretes Salmonella in quantities of 108 - 1011 organisms per gram of feces. In a
community with a population of 100,000 the Salmonella concentration will be: 1011 / 105 x 400 liters = 2.5 x 103 Salmonella per liter of sewage (Kinde et al., 1997).
In 2004, an outbreak of gastroenteritis was investigated on South Bass Island,
OH, an island of 900 residents that is visited by > 500,000 persons each year. Between
May and September 2004, 1450 persons reported illness. Out of 70 stool specimens
tested for bacterial pathogens, Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium was identified
in only 1 person. The remaining cases were shown to be due to Campylobacter jejuni,
norovirus and Giardia intestinalis. The environmental assessment demonstrated that
contamination of the karst aquifer beneath the island had occurred from multiple land
uses such as onsite septic systems, land application of septage, infiltration of land run-off,
and, possibly, a direct hydraulic connection with Lake Erie (O'Reilly et al., 2007). While
this study did not show the dominance of Salmonella in the outbreak, it did serve to
illustrate two important points about the pathogen’s modus operandi: first, it is seldom
the only pathogen in a waterborne outbreak and second it is a pathogen capable of
maintaining itself as a virulent agent even at low numbers in the environment. 10
In a study out of Japan, higher incidence of Salmonella in river water than sea
water suggested that salinity is a crucial factor in governing its distribution, but the
occurrence of Salmonella in Fukuyama port marine samples may have arisen from an increased discharge of polluted waters from an adjacent land or coastal area
(Venkateswaran et al., 1989). In addition to simply the presence of the pathogen in water systems, regrowth and survival of attached Salmonella has been shown in rural communities’ storage containers (polyethylene and galvanized steel) at low levels (< 1-15
CFU/cm2) (Momba and Kaleni, 2002), in domestic toilet bowls for up to four weeks after
diarrhea had stopped (Barker and Bloomfield, 2000) and in upflow anaerobic sludge
blanket (UASB) reactors in a wastewater treatment plant (Keller et al., 2003).
Survival in Water and Preferred Environments
Salmonella discharged in the effluents from municipal wastewater treatment
plants (WWTPs) may be able to survive for an extended time. In an experiment using
non-sterile river water, Salmonella was shown to actually increase 3 logs in the first 21
days and decreased 2 logs in the subsequent 21 days (Armon et al., 1997). Domingo et al. (2000) showed that Salmonella was able to survive in filtered river water for 31 days, although the culturable counts only represented about 0.001% of the total counts obtained by microscopy. Further investigation using direct viable counts and resuscitation studies showed that this value may have been at least a 4 log underestimate of actual survival, suggesting the presence of a not immediately culturable state of Salmonella. Several
mechanisms of survival have been suggested, including the adoption of a viable-but-non
culturable (VBNC) state, the integration of the pathogen into an existing biofilm (Barker 11
and Bloomfield, 2000; Esteves et al., 2005; Jones and Bradshaw, 1996; Solano et al.,
2002; Stepanovic et al., 2003) and internalization of the pathogen into a variety of
protozoan hosts (Labrousse et al., 2000; Tezcan-Merdol et al., 2004; Winfield and
Groisman, 2003). Although survival depends on a variety of factors, Salmonella survival
in water and its susceptibility to disinfection have been shown to be similar to those of
coliform bacteria (Health Canada, 2006; McFeters et al., 1974; Mitchell and Starzyk,
1975). As both are of fecal origin, the absence of E .coli should thus adequately indicate
the absence of Salmonella although exceptions are known (Health Canada, 2006) and the reverse may not necessarily be true.
Several species of Salmonella, including Salmonella Typhimurium, have been
shown to enter the VBNC state after lengthy exposure to oligotrophic fresh and seawater under ambient temperature (Cho and Kim, 1999; Jimenez et al., 1989; Roszak and
Colwell, 1987). These and many other microbial pathogens for which the VBNC state has been reported have also been suggested to retain the capacity to cause disease and therefore still be considered a threat (McDougald et al., 1998). Evidence for a VBNC state of Salmonella can be found in the following cases:
• In a study on the survival of pathogens under various storage conditions in bottled
mineral water, Salmonella Typhimurium exhibited greatest survival rates in both
sterile and non-sterile mineral water and persisted up to 60 days in bottled mineral
water stored under dark conditions (Ramalho et al., 2001) Most notable in this
study however was the fact that Salmonella, as well as the other pathogens tested,
exhibited significantly better recovery on non-selective media than on their 12
respective selective media. This observation confirms the notion that injured
pathogens may become susceptible to selective agents and that the dogmatic use
of selective media in microbiological testing laboratories may overlook these
microbes. This is a disconcerting notion considering that some researchers have
shown the ability of injured pathogens to retain their ability to cause disease
(McFeters and LeChevallier, 2000).
• Santo Domingo et al. (2000) showed that, in 3 of 4 serotypes of Salmonella
enterica inoculated into river water, several resuscitation techniques could be
used to detect viable pathogens over lengthy periods of time. Although the
culturable counts of two bacterial strains in filtered water after 31 days
represented approximately only 0.001% of the total Salmonella counts, direct
viable counts (using a modification of the Kogure-CTC method (Kogure et al.,
1979)) and resuscitation studies (using dilution and enrichment) suggested that the
number of viable bacteria was at least four orders of magnitude higher.
Survival of Salmonella in protozoa has been demonstrated in the following cases:
• Salmonella Typhimurium in water and sediments was tested using artificially
contaminated aquaria. Water samples remained culture positive for Salmonella for
up to 54 days. Sediment samples were culture positive up to 119 days (Moore et
al., 2003). Larval chironomids (midges) raised in contaminated sediments became
culture positive and the bacteria were carried over to adults after emergence.
Uptake of Salmonella by chironomid larvae and adults suggests that they are
possible vectors in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. 13
• The ability of Salmonella to become internalized and to survive and replicate in
amoebae was evaluated by using three separate serotypes of Salmonella enterica
and five different isolates of axenic Acanthamoeba species (Tezcan-Merdol et al.,
2004). The survival of Salmonella Typhimurium within Acanthamoeba castellanii
during chlorination was also reported, suggesting a protective intracellular habitat
for the bacteria (King et al., 1988). Results showed that A. rhysodes was able to
ingest Salmonella and that subsequent events included intracellular bacterial
replication. The study also detected a bacterium-mediated cytotoxicity that
appeared to be dependent on documented virulence genes, implying that genetic
determinants of Salmonella used for invasion and intracellular proliferation in
mammals could also be operative in the environment.
Susceptibility to Disinfection
To learn whether cellulose, an important component of Salmonella biofilm exopolysaccharide (discussed later), might be responsible for chlorine resistance and therefore the survival of Salmonella within biofilms in water supplies and food- processing plants, Solano et al. (2002) carried out survival experiments of wild-type strains and cellulose-deficient mutants. They used a concentration of NaOCl (30 ppm) that is 100- to 200-fold higher than the free chlorine concentrations typically obtained in municipal water supplies, reaching into the concentration range used as a sanitizer for food processing plants. After a 20 minute exposure period, 75% of the wild-type cells survived NaOCl exposure. In contrast, only 0.3% of cellulose-deficient mutant cells survived under the same experimental conditions. 14
Oliver et al. (2005) showed that when asodium hypochlorite (free chlorine) solution was added to provide a final concentration of 1 mg/L of free chlorine in
wastewater, culturability of control Salmonella Typhimurium cells in the stationary phase remained at about 106 CFU/mL while log phase cells exposed to this chlorination
protocol typically declined to < 10 CFU/mL after 20 seconds exposure time. Total cell
counts revealed the continued presence of > 106 total cells in all cases. On average,
regardless of the physiological state of the cells, 0.39% of the treated cells responded to
the Kogure-CTC (Kogure et al., 1979) viability assay (as opposed to culturability) after
60 minutes of chlorination, indicating a small portion of the cells were able to resist this
treatment. While such a percentage appeared low, it equated to roughly 103–104 cells/mL.
An often overlooked aspect of the susceptibility of pathogens to disinfection is
their evolutionary ability to survive within the gut of various protozoan species. To show
this, King et al. (1988) performed disinfection experiments on some common waterborne
pathogens including Salmonella Typhimurium which were ingested by a variety of
protozoans. As a baseline, they showed that the CT99 values (i.e. the concentration x
contact time required to inactivate 99% of a population) required to inactivate Salmonella when free-living are 0.4, 0.5 and 0.5 minutes with free chlorine residuals of 1.0, 0.5 and
0.25 mg/L respectively. However, when ingested by the protozoan Tetrahymena pyriformis, Salmonella Typhimurium exhibited more than 50-fold greater resistance to free chlorine. The CT99 values required for inactivation under these protected conditions
were around 90, 90, 80 and 50 minutes at free chlorine residuals of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0
mg/L respectively. 15
Berney et al. (2006) examined the efficacy of sunlight irradiation on the
inactivation of some common waterborne pathogens including Salmonella Typhimurium.
Resistance to sunlight at 37°C based on F99 values (i.e. the strength of radiation or fluence required to inactivate 99% of a population) was in the following order:
Salmonella Typhimurium > Escherichia coli > Shigella flexneri > Vibrio cholerae. While
F90 values of Salmonella Typhimurium and E. coli were similar, F99 values differed by
60% due to different inactivation curve shapes. These authors also pointed out that T90 values (i.e. the time required to inactivate 90% of a population) are not appropriate for the determination of irradiation efficacy because they do not take into account different irradiation intensities. They bemoan the fact that the display of T90 values has become
very common in solar disinfection publications, making comparisons among different
studies very difficult. Keller et al. (2003) showed that viable Salmonella in treated
wastewater effluents could be considerably reduced after UV exposure, although the
degree of inactivation depended on the turbidity of the effluent, with more turbid samples
requiring greater doses. They demonstrated that 2 log reductions in non-filtered effluent
could be achieved at doses of about 30 mWsec/cm2 whereas only 20 mWsec/cm2 doses
were required to achieve the same levels of inactivation in filtered effluent. These
findings were corroborated in a study by Rodriguez-Romo and Yousef (2005) who
demonstrated a 2 log reduction in viable Salmonella on the surfaces of egg shells at doses
of about 24 mWsec/cm2.
The inactivation of Salmonella by ozone has been shown to be an effective means
of controlling surface contamination on food surfaces such as egg shells, fruits and 16
berries (Rodriguez-Romo and Yousef, 2005) and in liquids such as apple cider, orange
juice and water (Lezcano et al., 1999; Restaino et al., 1995; Williams et al., 2004).
According to Restaino et al. (1995) more than 5 log units of Salmonella Typhimurium cells per mL were killed instantaneously after exposure to ozonated water at a concentration of around 0.19 ppm. These authors pointed out however that the efficacy of ozonation was more dependent on the type of organic material present in the water rather than the amount of the organics as was previously thought. They also indicated that the
currently held hypothesis of determining ozone concentrations for an all-or-none
inactivation may be faulty, showing that death caused by ozone followed a biphasic
pattern. The result of this finding suggested that the high dose-short time, or low dose-
long time approach may need to be revisited. Lezcano et al. (1999) showed that an
environmental isolate of Salmonella was more resistant in water to ozone than both
ATCC strains and environmental isolates of E. coli and Shigella sonnei. They demonstrated T90 of 3.44, 3.59, 1.69 and 0.62 minutes and T100 (complete inactivation) of
13, 10, 5 and 3 minutes at 0.48, 0.58, 1.04 and 1.75 mg/L ozone respectively.
The Three C’s of Salmonella Biofilms: Curli, Cellulose and Cyclic-di-GMP
The natural behavior of bacteria is often multicellular (biofilm state) and yet a
highly regulated transition to the single cell (planktonic state) for spread and distribution
is a prerequisite for survival. The genetic requirements of Salmonella in biofilm
establishment are being currently determined in several laboratories. It would appear
from the current state of the literature available on the genetic analysis of Salmonella 17
biofilms that several pathways and cellular responses are crucial in making the switch
from planktonic to biofilm.
It has been shown that Salmonella harbors genetic information for multicellular
behavior characterized by the expression of cellulose and curli fimbriae (formerly
designated thin aggregative fimbriae (Tafi)). Cellulose and curli fimbriae form the self-
produced extracellular matrix which embeds the cells in a honeycomb-like structure that
enables biofilm formation through cell–cell interactions and adhesion to biotic and
abiotic surfaces. The matrix components also protect against disinfectants and play a role
in bacterial–host interactions (Gerstel and Romling, 2003; Solano et al., 2002; White et
al., 2006; Zogaj et al., 2001).
The csgD gene (curli subunit gene D, previously called agfD in Salmonella
Typhimurium) encodes for a transcriptional regulator of the LuxR superfamily and has been shown to positively control the extracellular matrix compounds cellulose and curli
(Fig. 1) (Gerstel and Romling, 2003). 18
Figure 1. Schematic overview of the role of CsgD in biofilm formation (Gerstel and Romling, 2003).
Curli fimbriae are proteinaceous, filamentous appendages with highly adhesive properties. CsgD enables the production of curli fimbriae by transcriptional activation of the divergent csgDEFG-csgBAC (formerly agfDEFG-agfBAC) operon that encodes the structural genes of curli fimbriae (Gerstel and Romling, 2003; Solano et al., 2002).
Cellulose biosynthesis is also positively regulated by CsgD whereby CsgD stimulates the transcription of AdrA (agfD-dependent regulator), a putative inner membrane protein that harbors a cytoplasmic GGDEF domain. AdrA activates cellulose production on the post-transcriptional level either by direct interaction with one or more 19
of the gene products of the bacterial cellulose synthesis operons bcsABZC and bcsEFG
(also sometimes designated yhjOMNL and yhjSTU respectively) (Zogaj et al., 2001) or by production of a cyclic nucleotide, cyclic-di-GMP, which acts as an activator of cellulose biosynthesis (Garcia et al., 2004; Romling and Amikam, 2006).
Although cellulose has been identified as the major component of a Salmonella biofilm exopolysaccharides (EPS) matrix under nutrient deficient conditions, several other polysaccharides including colanic acid, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and the enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) (Solano et al., 2002) have been identified (Fig.
2).
Figure 2. Scheme illustrating the role of different genes in the pathways leading to the synthesis of polysaccharides involved in the biofilm phenotype. Gene symbols are shown in boldface italics (Solano et al., 2002). 20
The environment in which a bacterium finds itself undoubtedly influences many
aspects of physiological responses including the formation, maturation and detachment of biofilms. The majority of these responses occur at the gene level, with signal transduction systems linking the specific environmental cues to appropriate alterations in bacterial gene expression. In some of these signal transduction mechanisms, perception of a primary signal may alter the level of a secondary intracellular signal called a secondary messenger (Dow et al., 2007). Bis-(3’,5’)-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate
(cyclic-di-GMP) is one such secondary messenger now shown to be involved in the regulation of a range of functions including developmental transitions, aggregation behavior, adhesion, biofilm formation and virulence in diverse bacteria. An emerging trend in current literature is that high cellular levels of cyclic-di-GMP promote biofilm formation and aggregative behavior while low cellular levels promote motility and virulence (Fig. 3) (Garcia et al., 2004; Romling and Amikam, 2006).
Research has shown that the expression of genes encoding proteins exhibiting a
GGDEF domain potentially increase the cellular levels of c-di-GMP in several bacteria.
Synthesis of cyclic-di-GMP from two molecules of GTP is catalyzed by the GGDEF domain and is predicted to occur in two steps, while the degradation of the molecule to
GMP also occurs via a two step reaction. Proteins with an EAL domain have been shown to catalyze only the first step whereas proteins with an HD-GYP domain have been shown to catalyze both steps (Dow et al., 2007). 21
Figure 3. Regulatory concept of cyclic-di-GMP metabolism and signaling on the population level. GGDEF domains with consensus residues synthesize c-di-GMP from two molecules of GTP. EAL domains with consensus residues cleave the c-di-GMP molecule into pGpG (while HD-GYP domains cleave this to two molecules of GMP). High c-di-GMP levels promote sessility aided by the production of adhesive extracellular matrix components such as polysaccharides (cellulose) and fimbriae (curli fimbriae). Environmental and host persistence is also predicted to be promoted by high c-di-GMP levels. Conversely, low c-di-GMP levels promote motility behavior (swimming, swarming and twitching motility) and virulence (Romling and Amikam, 2006).
In Salmonella, research has shown that CsgD expression is affected by the production of cyclic-di-GMP through several GGDEF and EAL proteins. STM2123 and
STM3388 are both di-guanylate cyclases involved in producing c-di-GMP and have both been shown to be involved in CsgD expression. CsgD subsequently regulates the expression of agfD-dependent regulator, AdrA. Transcription of this GGDEF domain protein promotes cellulose production during Salmonella biofilm formation (Gerstel and
Romling, 2003) and was also shown to be responsible for over 60% of the cellular c-di-
GMP production in a study by Kader et al. (2006). In a study by Garcia et al. (2004), researchers identified seven novel proteins all of which contained the consensus GGDEF motif and were designated Gcp (GGDEF domain containing proteins). Several of these 22
proteins were also identified as carrying an EAL domain. One of these, GcpE, a putative
phosphodiesterase, appeared to totally abolish biofilm formation and cellulose synthesis
by degrading cyclic-di-GMP. In another study by Hisert et al. (2005), an in vivo screen
for genes required for Salmonella Typhimurium to resist oxidative killing by phagocytes
recovered STM1344 (from ydiV), an EAL-domain protein, as the sole output. The
participation of STM1344 in resistance to phagocytic oxidase was confirmed by in vitro
susceptibility of a ydiV mutant to hydrogen peroxide. However, the ydiV mutant was
concomitantly shown to kill macrophages earlier and was more cytotoxic than the wild
type. It is clear that although there may be a trend indicating that the high cyclic-di-GMP
levels induce biofilm formation and persistence while low levels of cyclic-di-GMP
promote motility and virulence, there are exceptions to every rule and more study is
needed to further the understanding of the role of this molecule in the lifecycle of
Salmonella.
The Hfq Regulon
The bacterial protein, Hfq, has been increasingly recognized as a post-
transcriptional regulator of global gene expression in a variety of bacteria, primarily in
response to envelop stress (in conjunction with the specialized σ factor RpoE),
environmental stress (by means of alteration of RpoE) and changes in metabolite
concentrations such as iron levels (via the Fur pathway) (Sittka et al., 2007; Wilson et al.,
2007). Several studies have also revealed that Hfq may be involved in the pathogenic
response of some bacteria including Salmonella (Sittka et al., 2007). Wilson et al. (2007)
have recently demonstrated that Hfq has a role in determining the responses observed in 23
Salmonella during space flight. Furthermore, there are several studies showing that virulence and biofilm formation are altered under microgravity conditions (Leys et al.,
2004; Mclean et al., 2001) and that these changes may be connected with Hfq activity.
During their study, Wilson et al. (2007) identified a list of space flight-stimulated genes in Salmonella belonging to the Hfq regulon or involved with iron utilization or biofilm formation. Because this present study is involved in biofilm formation and persistence of Salmonella, this list proved helpful in interpreting some of the results of this study, and the pertinent gene expression patterns from their study are summarized below in Table 2.
Table 2. Space flight stimulon genes in Salmonella belonging to the Hfq regulon or involved with iron utilization or biofilm formation (modified from Wilson et al. (2007)).
Fold Fold Gene change Function Gene change Function direction direction Hfq regulon genes (up‐regulated) Iron utilization/storage genes Outer membrane proteins adhE ↑ Fe‐dependent dehydrogenase ompA ↑ Outer membrane porin entE ↑ 2,3‐dihydroxybenzoate‐AMP ligase ompC ↑ Outer membrane porin hydN ↑ Electron transport (FeS center) ompD ↑ Outer membrane porin dmsC ↓ Anaerobic DMSO reductase nifU ↓ Fe‐S cluster formation protein Plasmid transfer apparatus fnr ↓ Transcriptional regulator, Fe‐binding traB ↑ Conjugative transfer fdnH ↓ Fe‐S formate dehydrogenase‐N traN ↑ Conjugative transfer frdC ↓ Fumarate reductase, anaerobic trbA ↑ Conjugative transfer bfr ↓ Bacterioferrin, iron storage traK ↑ Conjugative transfer ompW ↓ Outer membrane proteinW traD ↑ Conjugative transfer dps ↓ Stress response protein and ferritin trbC ↑ Conjugative transfer traH ↑ Conjugative transfer Genes implicated in/associated with biofilm formation traX ↑ Conjugative transfer wza ↑ Polysaccharide export protein traT ↑ Conjugative transfer wcaI ↑ Putative glycosyl transferase trbB ↑ Conjugative transfer ompA ↑ Outer membrane protein traG ↑ Conjugative transfer wcaD ↑ Putative colanic acid polymerase traF ↑ Conjugative transfer wcaH ↑ GDP‐mannose mannosyl hydrolase traR ↑ Conjugative transfer manC ↑ Mannose guanylyltransferase wcaG ↑ Bifunctional GDP fucose synthetase Hfq regulon genes (down‐regulated) wcaB ↑ Putative acyl transferase Ribosomal proteins fimH ↑ Fimbrial subunit rpsL ↓ 30S ribosomal subunit protein S12 fliS ↓ Flagellar biosynthesis rpsS ↓ 30S ribosomal subunit protein S19 flgM ↓ Flagellar biosynthesis rplD ↓ 50S ribosomal subunit protein L4 flhD ↓ Flagellar biosynthesis rpsF ↓ 30S ribosomal subunit protein S6 fliE ↓ Flagellar biosynthesis rplP ↓ 50S ribosomal subunit protein L16 fliT ↓ Flagellar biosynthesis rplA ↓ 50S ribosomal subunit protein L1 cheY ↓ Chemotaxic response rpme2 ↓ 50S ribosomal protein L31 cheZ ↓ Chemotaxic response rplY ↓ 50S ribosomal subunit protein L25
Various cellular functions hfq ↓ Host factor for phage replication rpoE ↓ σE (σ24) factor 24
Iron Utilization Genes
Iron is essential for the multiplication of enterobacteria, since it is a component of enzymes (e.g., ribonucleotide reductase) which are required for the biosynthesis of macromolecules (e.g., DNA) and energy-generating electron transport processes.
However, enterobacteria such as Salmonella frequently encounter iron-restricted conditions both in the host and non-host environments. In order to obtain iron from insoluble Fe (III) complexes present under aerobic growth conditions, Salmonella may release low-molecular-weight compounds, designated siderophores, which bind this metal ion with high affinity(Baumler et al., 1998). The Fe (III)-siderophore complexes are then internalized by iron-regulated outer membrane receptor proteins which display substrate specificity. The primary siderophore produced by Salmonella is enterobactin
(enterochelin), a cyclic trimer of N-(2,3-dihydroxybenzoyl)- L-serine (DBS). These siderophores are usually sequestered back to the bacteria and are transported across the outer membrane, a process mediated by outer membrane receptor proteins (Fig. 4). 25
Figure 4. The struggle for iron: bacteria vs. host. Within the host environment, most of the available iron is bound to host proteins such as transferrin and lactoferrin. Bacterial pathogens acquire iron either by producing iron chelating agents such as siderophores (e.g. enterochelin) or by utilizing heme-binding proteins. Modified from Klemm et al. (2007).
In Salmonella, several such receptor proteins have been identified, including
FepA and IroN (Rabsch et al., 1999). However, Salmonella also possesses several other outer membrane receptors, FhuA, FhuE and FoxA, which are involved in utilization of siderophores that are not produced by this pathogen itself, but rather represent a type of piracy mechanism allowing Salmonella to acquire Fe (III)-siderophore complexes from other microbes (Cornelissen and Sparling, 1994). 26
Another type of system identified in Salmonella is encoded by the feoAB locus and mediates the transport of iron (II) through the inner membrane. This system does not require siderophores, as iron (II) is soluble and therefore readily enters the periplasmic space by diffusion through the porins. Salmonella strains carrying mutations in known iron uptake systems are either minimally affected in virulence or not affected at all (Hall and Foster, 1996). This is surprising, as Salmonella are predicted to encounter iron- restricted environments in the course of their pathogenic cycle. The lack of strong phenotypes associated with mutations in iron uptake systems is therefore most likely due to the existence of several redundant systems that can mediate the uptake of this critical nutrient. Evidence of such redundancy came when yet another putative iron transport system, sitBCD, was identified on the Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 1 (SPI-1). This system belongs to the ABC family of transporters, is able to restore growth ability to an enterobactin-deficient strain of E. coli under iron-limiting conditions and is repressed under iron-rich growth conditions in a fur-dependent manner (Zhou et al., 1999).
1,2-Propanediol Utilization
Salmonella can grow aerobically as well as anaerobically on L-rhamnose, a
common plant-associated sugar, as a sole carbon and energy source (Cocks et al., 1974).
The pathway is mediated by a permease, isomerase, kinase and aldolase, yielding
dihydroxyacetone phosphate and L-lactaldehyde. Aerobically, L-lactaldehyde is
converted to L-lactate by the NAD-dependent lactaldehyde dehydrogenase and pyruvate
via a second enzyme-catalyzed oxidation. Anaerobically, L-lactaldehyde is reduced to
1,2-propanediol by an oxidoreductase, thereby regenerating NAD and allowing the 27
fermentation of rhamnose to proceed. The 1,2-propanediol is then excreted from the
bacterial cell (Fig. 5).
Figure 5. Anaerobic rhamnose catabolism in Salmonella. Modified from Boronat et al. (1979).
Although the same rhamnose pathway exists in E. coli, the 1,2-propanediol is not
further metabolized under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions. Salmonella, however,
appears to have gained an ecological advantage in being further able to utilize the
excreted product under both conditions. Since it would probably encounter this product in
many of its environmental niches, this ability may be significant. The persistence of
Salmonella in a biofilm may further highlight the usefulness of this pathway. De Beer et 28
al. (1994) showed that within biofilms there exist microniches of aerobic and anaerobic
pockets. Other researchers have also commented on this concept of partitioning within
biofilms, suggesting that within a cluster of cells, several different microenvironments
may exist, each facilitating distinct physiological pathways (Costerton et al., 1994; De
Beer and Stoodley, 2006).
Aerobic metabolism of 1,2-propanediol appears to involve the oxidation to
lactaldehyde through the action of an oxidoreductase. Lactaldehyde is subsequently
metabolized to lactate and pyruvate (Baldoma et al., 1988; Cocks et al., 1974). In
contrast, anaerobic metabolism of 1,2-propanediol has been reported to be mediated by a coenzyme B12-dependent diol dehydratase (Fig. 6) that yields propionaldehyde which is
immediately metabolized by a dismutation to n-propanol and proprionate (Obradors et
al., 1988). This anaerobic respiration can be carried out by Salmonella using tetrathionate
as a terminal electron acceptor only, as opposed to the more common anaerobic electron
acceptors nitrate, fumarate, trimethylamine-N-oxide or dimethyl sulfoxide (Bobik et al.,
1999). The genes involved in using tetrathionate as a terminal respiratory electron
acceptor are encoded by the divergently described operons ttrSR and ttrBCA. It has been
demonstrated that during anaerobic growth on 1,2-propanediol, Salmonella reduces
tetrathionate to thiosulfate which is then subsequently reduced to hydrogen sulfide. 29
Figure 6. Model of cobalamin-dependent utilization of rhamnose by intracellularly replicating Salmonella to recruit additional carbon, nitrogen and energy sources modified from Klumpp and Fuchs (2007).
The pdu genes are contiguous and co-regulated with the cobalamin (cbi-cob)
(vitamin B12) biosynthetic genes, indicating that propanediol catabolism is the primary reason for de novo B12 synthesis in Salmonella (Ailion et al., 1993; Bobik et al., 1999).
Jeter (1990) showed that de novo synthesis of cobalamin occurs only under anaerobic conditions. If one includes the cob genes, Salmonella enterica maintains 40 to 50 genes primarily for the transformation of propanediol. In fact, more than 1% of the Salmonella enterica genome is devoted to the utilization of propanediol and cobalamin biosynthesis
(Walter et al., 1997). Moreover, nearly all natural isolates of Salmonella tested synthesized B12 de novo and degraded propanediol (Lawrence and Roth, 1996).
The genes required for 1,2-propanediol degradation cluster at the pdu locus on centisome 44 of the S. enterica chromosome (Jeter, 1990). This locus includes the 30
positive transcriptional regulator, pocR, and a diffusion facilitator of 1,2-propanediol,
pduF in addition to the genes of the adjacent and divergently transcribed pdu operon
(Bobik et al., 1999). The pdu operon is estimated to include 21 genes. Of these genes,
four have unknown functions (pduLMVX), eight are reported to encode a polyhedral body
(pduABJKNSTU), a distant relative of a carboxysome shell, five encode a diol dehydratase (pduCDEGH), 3 encode for dehydrogenases (pduOPQ) and one encodes for a propionate kinase (pduW).
The regulation of the pdu operon has also been investigated. It is co-induced with the adjacent cob operon in response to 1,2-propanediol and its induction is influenced by cyclic AMP levels, the redox state of the cell, iron, magnesium, pH, and perhaps the growth phase (Ailion et al., 1993; Bobik et al., 1999; Heithoff et al., 1999; Rondon and
Escalante-Semerena, 1997). It would appear that the Crp/cAMP complex is the primary global regulator of pocR (and thus the cob and pdu operons) under aerobic conditions, while maximal anaerobic induction requires the additive effects of both the Crp/cAMP complex and the ArcA/ArcB system.
The polyhedral bodies involved in 1,2-propanediol degradation are similar in structure to carboxysomes. It has been suggested that these structures may be involved in sequestering toxic aldehydes formed during 1,2-propanediol degradation and in channeling them to subsequent pathway enzymes (Sampson and Bobik, 2008). It has also been put forward that polyhedral bodies may protect diol dehydratase from oxygen to which it is sensitive (Bobik et al., 1999). Whatever the functional purpose of the polyhedral bodies, due to the number of genes and energy expended in their formation, it 31
is evident that they play an important role in Salmonella survival and niche establishment
among the competitive flora of natural and host environments.
In vivo expression technology (IVET) has indicated that 1,2-propanediol
utilization (pdu) genes may be important for growth in host tissues (Conner et al., 1998)
and competitive index studies with mice have shown that pdu mutations confer a
virulence defect (Heithoff et al., 1999). Bobik et al. (1992) demonstrated a ~10 fold
decrease of intracellular replication of a pocR mutant, affecting both the control of
vitamin B12 synthesis and propanediol degradation, indicating that the cob-cbi-pdu gene
cluster increases the intracellular fitness of Salmonella. More recently, Klumpp et al.
(2007) showed that deletions within this same cluster resulted in attenuated replication in macrophages. Furthermore, Adkins et al. (2006) found, in acidic minimal medium, a 5- fold abundance of Pdu proteins of an environmental isolate of Salmonella enterica in
comparison with the less virulent type strain Salmonella Typhimurium LT2.
Several biotechnologically relevant processes such as unsaturated polyester
resins, liquid laundry detergents, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and antifreeze and deicers
depend on the production of 1,2-propanediol via a synthetic process from propylene
oxide, a non-renewable petrochemical derivative(Altaras et al., 2001). Although 1,2-
propanediol is primarily the result of the breakdown of rhamnose, researchers have also
shown that organisms such as Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum HG-8
(ATCC 31960), a naturally occurring microorganism, is able to ferment common sugars
such as D-glucose and D-xylose to 1,2-propanediol (Cameron et al., 1998). Furthermore,
Salmonella enterica possesses a 1,2-propanediol oxidoreductase (Ros and Aguilar, 1985) 32
which may convert glucose to 1,2-propanediol, albeit at very low levels (Badia et al.,
1985) and which is extremely sensitive to the presence of oxygen.
Glucose may also be converted to acetate via the Embden-Meyerhoff-Parnas
(EMP) or glycolytic pathway in which fructose-l,6-bisphosphate aldolase, as a key enzyme, splits the glucose backbone symmetrically to ultimately produce two molecules of pyruvate which in turn may be broken down to acetate via followed methanogenic acetate cleavage. The EMP pathway is widely distributed among hexose-fermenting anaerobic bacteria including Salmonella. Once acetate is formed, Starai et al. (2005) have demonstrated that the eut operon is required for the cobalamin-dependant excretion of acetate from the cell. This operon has been demonstrated to also form a carboxysome-like structure thought to contain acetaldehyde for removal from the cell (Rondon and
Escalante-Semerena, 1997).
Pathogenicity
Well over 1000 of the 4330 annotated ORFs of the Salmonella Typhimurium LT2
genome, approximately 25% of all genes, have probably been gained via lateral gene
transfer after the divergence of the Salmonella from E. coli around 100 million years ago,
since close homologs cannot be found in the genomes of E. coli, Yersinia pestis or
Klebsiella pneumoniae (Porwollik and McClelland, 2003). Included in this group of
genes are the four Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 prophages and the Salmonella
Pathogenicity Islands 1–5. However, there are also an additional 24 regions (Table 3)
with 10 or more genes (as well as many smaller clusters) that are not shared with E. coli,
K. pneumoniae or Y. pestis (McClelland et al., 2001). It can be expected that some, if not 33
most, of these regions contain genes that play a role in environmental adaptation and survival, host infection and disease development.
The biggest cluster of these deviant genes is the cob-cbi-pdu locus, which encompasses 42 genes and as has been discussed, is involved in de novo biosynthesis of adenosyl–cobalamin under anaerobic conditions and propanediol utilization as a carbon
and energy source. This cluster is missing in S. bongori and S. enterica subspecies VII
and IV (Porwollik et al., 2002).
The four functional phage genomes present in the Salmonella Typhimurium LT2
chromosome are the P2–like Fels-2, and the lambda-like phages Fels-1, Gifsy-1 and
Gifsy-2 (Figueroa-Bossi et al., 2001). The Fels-1 phage is very restricted in its
distribution and has so far only been detected in Salmonella Typhimurium LT2. Phage
Fels-2 has an effect on the SOS response (an inducible DNA repair system that allows
bacteria to survive sudden increases in DNA damage) of the bacterium, since mutations
within its genome allowed for non-lethality of a lexA null mutation (Bunny et al., 2002).
The Gifsy-2 phage contributes profoundly to the ability of Salmonella Typhimurium to
cause systemic disease in mice. Curing strains of the Gifsy-2 phage has been shown to
render the bacteria over 100-fold attenuated in their ability to establish a systemic
infection in mice, whereas the effect of Gifsy-1 is less pronounced and can only be shown
in cells that lack Gifsy-2 but retain the sodCI gene (Figueroa-Bossi et al., 2001). Recently
it has been shown that the outer membrane porin OmpC is a necessary receptor for Gifsy
phage entry into the bacterial cell. The gene encoding this receptor is present in all salmonellae (Ho and Slauch, 2001). The lambdoid Gifsy-3 phage is present in Salmonella 34
Typhimurium 14028s and contains the gene sspH1, encoding a leucine-rich substrate of the type III secretion apparatus of the SPI-1 (Figueroa-Bossi et al., 2001). SspH1 is suspected to be involved in host adaptation in concert with two other gene products present in several S. enterica genomes: SlrP and SspH2 (Tsolis et al., 1999).
Table 3. Regions of 10 or more genes recently (ca. 100 million years) acquired by Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium LT2. Modified from Porwollik et al. (2003).
Region Number of Prominent genes/operons Function (Locus) start genes
STM0014 25a bcf Fimbriae STM0266 43 saf, sinR Fimbriae, transcriptional regulator, virulence proteins? STM0328 37a stb, mod, res Fimbriae, transport proteins? DNA restriction/modification, transcriptional regulators? STM0514 19b all, glx Allantoin metabolism, glycerate kinase STM0543 24a fim, rfbI Fimbriae, glucosyl transferases, transcriptional regulator? STM0715 13 Glucosyl transferases, cell wall biogenesis STM0893 40 sodCIII, nanH Prophage Fels-1: super oxide dismutase, neuraminidase STM1005 52 sodCI, grvA, gtgE Prophage Gifsy-2: superoxide dismutase, virulence genes STM1087 11a pip, sopB SPI-5: virulence genes, effector protein STM1239 30a pag, env, msgA Virulence genes, PhoP regulated genes, ABC transport system STM1350 13b ydi Energy metabolism STM1379 44a ttr, sse, ssa SPI-2: type III secretion system STM1528 35a pqa Hydrogenases, PhoPQ regulated gene, transporters, transcriptional regulator? STM1610 12 PTS system STM1629 10 ABC transport STM1664 11 Transcriptional regulators? STM1853 21 sopE2, pagK, mig-3, pagO Phage genes, effector proteins, PhoPQ regulated genes, virulence genes c STM2019 40 cbi-cob-pdu Vitamin B12 synthesis, 1,2-propanediol utilization STM2082 16 rfb LPS side chain biosynthesis STM2230 16 sspH2, oafA Phage genes, effector protein STM2584 54 gipA, gogB Prophage Gifsy-1 STM2689 100a iro, fljAB, hin, tct, virK, mig-14 Prophage Fels-2, PTS system, phase 2 flagellin, H inversion, virulence genes, transporters, siderophores? STM2865 43a hil, spa, inv, sip SPI-1: type III secretion system and effectors, transporter STM3025 12 std Fimbriae STM3117 18 Transcriptional regulators? STM3752 13a mgt, sugR SPI-3 (part): Mg transport STM3766 10 PTS system STM4195 25 Prophage STM4305 16 Phage genes, DMSO reductase complex STM4417 20 Sugar transport, kinases STM4440 11c PTS component? STM4488 23a DNA repair? a Polyphyletic origin likely. b Present in E. coli, absent in S. bongori and five S. enterica subspecies. c Present in K. pneumoniae.
Type III Secretion Systems
Type III secretion systems (TTSS) are specialized structures found in several
Gram-negative bacterial pathogens, including Salmonella, that deliver effector proteins to 35
host cell membranes and cytosol (Hueck, 1998). The TTSS apparatus is a needle-like
structure which spans the inner and outer membranes of the bacterial envelope and
secretes translocator and effector proteins. There are structural similarities between the
needle complex and flagellar basal body, and some of its proteins, including those which
form the core of the central channel. Translocon proteins allow access of effector proteins
to the eukaryotic cell, probably by forming pores in the host cell membrane. Since TTSS
are involved in direct cell-cell contact transfer and in some cases a connecting channel
between the bacterium and the eukaryotic membrane may even be formed (Frankel et al.,
1998). The effector proteins subvert different aspects of host cell physiology and immunity, thereby promoting bacterial virulence (Galan and Wolf-Watz, 2006).
Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 1
Salmonella encodes two distinct virulence-associated TTSS within SPI-1 and SPI-
2. Salmonella Pathogenicity Islands are characterized by their absence from the E. coli
genome, a G + C content which is different from the average of the Salmonella genome,
and the presence of distinct genes, the impact and effects of which have been shown in
different stages of the infection process (Porwollik and McClelland, 2003).
The former of these pathogenicity islands found in Salmonella spp. was first demonstrated to contain genes required for the invasion phenotype by Mills et al. (1995).
The ability of Salmonella to enter epithelial cells has been reported to depend on growth
phase, low oxygen tension, pH and high osmolarity (Bajaj et al., 1996). Thus these conditions may be important drivers in controlling gene expression of the SPI-1. 36
The SPI-1 TTSS of Salmonella Typhimurium delivers several effector proteins
(e.g. SipB, SptP and AvrA) through the host cell plasma membrane. Most of these
effector proteins are involved in actin cytoskeleton rearrangements, leading to membrane
ruffling and subsequent Salmonella invasion (Galan, 1999). SPI-1 effectors also induce
IL-8 and pathogen-elicited epithelial chemoattractant secretion in intestinal epithelial cells, resulting in transmigration of neutrophils (Lostroh and Lee, 2001). The invasion
mechanism displayed by Salmonella (Fig. 7) and a description of this SPI-1-mediated
invasion follows.
Figure 7. Invasion of Salmonella into the host epithelium as the initial stage of establishing infection (BioCarta, 2008). 37
Pathogenic Salmonella enter cells such as those of the intestinal epithelium by altering cellular cytoskeletal structure and inducing membrane ruffling of the infected cell. Salmonella is able to alter the cytoskeleton and membrane through the action of SPI-
1 TTSS-mediated bacterial Sip proteins, SopE, SopB, and SptP that are inserted into the cytosol of the infected cell. Although not all of these effector proteins are encoded on the
SPI-1, their secretion is mediated by SPI-1 TTSS (Wang et al., 2004). Sip proteins encoded by Salmonella are required for the action of SopE and for the invasion of epithelial cells. SipA stabilizes actin filaments, inducing membrane ruffling and perhaps focusing membrane changes where bacteria are localized to allow their entry. The SPI-1 translocon protein SipB binds to and activates caspase-1, leading to the induction of apoptosis in macrophages (Hersh et al., 1999). SipC produces a similar effect on actin filaments and cytoskeletal structure. SopE acts as an exchange factor on Rac1 and Cdc42, two GTPases in the Rho family that regulate actin cytoskeleton. The activation of Rac2 and Cdc42 by Salmonella SopE induces changes in cytoskeleton structure that allow bacterial entry into the cell. SopB is another Salmonella protein that acts as an inositol polyphosphate phosphatase and also stimulates Cdc42 and Rac1. One of the cellular targets of both Cdc42 and Rac1 that affects actin structure is the Arp2/3 complex. Cdc42 and Rac1 activate Wasp, which activates Arp2/3. Activated Arp2/3 induces the formation of actin Y branches, which in combination with changes in actin caused by SipA and
SipC help to form lamellipodia, and causes membrane ruffling, leading to entry of
Salmonella into the affected cell (Galan and Zhou, 2000). 38
After the initial infection, cells quickly return to their normal morphology, a process that depends on the action of the bacterial protein SptP. While SopE acts as an exchange factor, SptP acts as a GTPase activating protein to inactivate Rac1 and Cdc42 once again. This inactivation of the original entry mechanism provides an example of the delicate balance between infectious organisms and their host (Galan and Zhou, 2000).
Mutations which prevent secretion through the SPI-1 TTSS lead to a 10- to 100- fold increase in attenuation in the mouse model of systemic infection when the bacterial inoculum was administered orally (Baumler et al., 1997; Galan and Curtiss, 1989; Jones et al., 1994). Evidently the lack of complete attenuation of SPI-1 null mutants reflects the ability of Salmonella to disseminate to the liver and spleen from the intestinal tract via an alternative route: carriage within transmigrating, CD-18 expressing phagocytic cells
(Vazquez-Torres et al., 1999). After the bacteria reach the spleen and liver, they replicate within membrane-bound compartments, called Salmonella-containing vacuoles (SCVs), inside macrophages (Richter-Dahlfors et al., 1997; Salcedo et al., 2001).
Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 2
One main function of the SPI-1 is to aid bacterial translocation from the intestinal lumen to the basolateral side of the intestinal mucosal membrane. This process also involves yet another drastic change in the surrounding environment of the infecting bacteria, requiring the pathogen to withstand the host antibacterial responses such as
professional phagocytic cells aimed at ingesting and killing the bacteria. The SPI-2 TTSS
is a multifunctional virulence system that is activated following entry of bacteria into
eukaryotic cells and facilitates bacterial multiplication in all cell types that have been 39
tested (Beuzon et al., 2002; Cirillo et al., 1998; Hensel, 2000). SPI-2 gene products are
thought to be induced by Mg2+ deprivation, phosphate starvation, low pH and oxidative stress (Hensel, 2000) and in bacterial growth experiments, genes are not induced until cells enter stationary phase (Monack et al., 2001).
Related in behavior to the SPI-2 is the expression of the spv operon located on a
96kb virulence plasmid in Salmonella Typhimurium (Eriksson et al., 2003; Gulig et al.,
1993; Rhen et al., 1993). Because intracellular growth and bacterial proliferation in
cultured cells is correlated with systemic growth in the host (Salcedo et al., 2001), this
explains the profound attenuation of SPI-2 or spv null mutants in vivo (Hensel, 2000;
Shea et al., 1996).
Although SPI-2 is almost 40 kb in length, genes encoding the type III secretion system are localized to a region of approximately 26 kb beginning at the centisome 30 end of the island. Here, 31 genes are organized in four operons termed (1) regulatory, (2)
structural I, (3) structural II and (4) effector/chaperone (Cirillo et al., 1998; Hensel et al.,
1998). In addition to several genes encoding evolutionarily conserved structural
components of the secreton machinery (Aizawa, 2001) and the translocon proteins SseB,
SseC and SseD, there are a few genes that appear to be unique to SPI-2, such as sseE,
whose functions are unknown. SseB is similar to EspA of enteropathogenic E. coli, and
might therefore link the secretion needle to the translocon pore (Beuzon et al., 1999).
SseB, SseC and SseD are not required for secretion of effectors, but are necessary for
their translocation across the vacuolar membrane (Waterman and Holden, 2003). Hence,
these proteins can be operationally defined as translocon components, although their 40
presence in the vacuolar membrane has not been demonstrated directly. In addition to the components of the secreton and translocon, SPI-2 also encodes at least three chaperones:
SscA, SscB and SseA. The partners of SscA and SscB have not been defined, but SseA is a chaperone for SseB and SseD (Ruiz-Albert et al., 2003; Zurawski and Stein, 2003). The
SPI-2 also encodes a two-component regulatory system which is required for expression
of all SPI-2 TTSS genes (Cirillo et al., 1998) as well as several genes located outside SPI-
2 which encode effector proteins (Beuzon et al., 2000; Knodler et al., 2002; Worley et al.,
2000). In other TTSS’s, some translocon proteins have been shown to function as
effectors, but there is no evidence yet to indicate whether this might be the case for SseB,
SseC or SseD. SpiC, SseF and SseG are proposed to be effector proteins encoded within
SPI-2 (Freeman et al., 2002; Kuhle and Hensel, 2002).
41
CHAPTER 3
A TRANSCRIPTIONAL STUDY OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL SALMONELLA
ENTERICA ISOLATE BIOFILM
Introduction
Salmonella enterica, like Escherichia coli, is an enteric pathogen belonging to the
family Enterobacteriaceae and has been identified as the second most common cause of
gastroenteritis in children under five years of age in the United Kingdom (Crowley et al.,
1997). This organism is responsible for salmonellosis, the second most common cause of bacterial food poisoning reported to the Communicable Disease Surveillance Center
(CDSC) (Evans et al., 1998) and accounts for 60% of all bacterial disease outbreaks in the US. It is estimated that over 4 million cases of Salmonella infection and 1000 related deaths occur in the United States annually (Feng, 1992). Individuals infected with
Salmonella shed the organisms in their feces, which can enter domestic sewage and consequently may contaminate drinking water sources.
Although the primary cause of salmonellosis is consumption of Salmonella- contaminated foods, there is increasing evidence that this pathogen may be associated with biofilms on materials of different nature and under different growth conditions
(Solano et al., 2002; Stepanovic et al., 2003) and may be important in drinking water distribution systems (Jones and Bradshaw, 1996). Salmonella discharged in the effluents from municipal wastewater treatment plants have been reported to survive for an extended time in nutrient-rich river water (Winfield and Groisman, 2003). Several 42
mechanisms of survival have been suggested, including the adoption of a viable-but-non
culturable (VBNC) state (Roszak et al., 1984), the integration of the pathogen into an
existing biofilm (Barker and Bloomfield, 2000; Jones and Bradshaw, 1996; Solano et al.,
2002; Stepanovic et al., 2003), internalization of the pathogen into a variety of protozoan
hosts (King et al., 1988; Moore et al., 2003; Tezcan-Merdol et al., 2004) and adaptation
via lateral gene transfer (Porwollik et al., 2002) whereby the pathogen gains a strategic
advantage over other microbes in the biofilm community to exploit a particular
microniche.
Disease is caused by the penetration of the Salmonella bacteria into the epithelium
of the small intestine and subsequent enterotoxin production resulting in electrolytic
imbalance. It has been suggested that biofilm formation which may aid in survival of
bacteria under various conditions might be related to increased virulence (Wilson et al.,
2007). Indeed, the formation of Salmonella biofilm on epithelial cells and its ability to
outcompete E. coli in heterologous infections supports the notion that biofilm growth
may be related to increased virulence (Esteves et al., 2005). Transcriptional profiling in related infectious models and biofilm communities may provide some clues to these methods of survival. However, due to the spatial and physiological heterogeneity within microbial biofilms (Costerton, 2000; De Beer and Stoodley, 2006), it is often technically challenging to isolate and purify mRNA from discrete populations within a biofilm community. Advances in laser dissection microscopy and mRNA stabilization may in the future offer the means with which to investigate physiological behavior of single cells 43
within discrete microniches of a biofilm, but for this present study, the entire
monoculture biofilm was regarded as a single unit.
It is traditionally thought that Salmonella has acquired various virulence-
associated genes through lateral gene transfer to allow it to evade host defense
mechanisms and increase its survival and persistence within the host. Such genes include
those operons located on Salmonella Pathogenicity Islands (SPIs) 1 and 2 which are
usually associated with enterocyte invasion (Ellermeier and Slauch, 2007) and
intracellular replication (Hensel, 2000) respectively. An additional pathway apparently
gained via lateral gene transfer is the cob-cbi-pdu operon which allows Salmonella to
utilize 1,2-propanediol as a sole carbon and energy source under anaerobic conditions
(Klumpp and Fuchs, 2007) in a cobalamin-dependent fashion (Sampson and Bobik,
2008). Induction is mediated by a positive regulatory protein (PocR) encoded by a gene
(pocR) that maps between the cob and pdu operons (Bobik et al., 1992). The proximity of these operons and their coordinate control probably reflect the fact that vitamin B12 is an essential cofactor for propanediol dehydratase, the first enzyme of propanediol degradation (Jeter, 1990). The coregulation also supports the idea that the major function of de novo vitamin B12 synthesis in Salmonella is in propanediol degradation (Ailion et
al., 1993). However, this regulon appears to be a paradox since PocR has been
demonstrated to induce expression of the divergent pathways both aerobically and
anaerobically, but de novo synthesis of vitamin B12 (a necessary co-factor in the utilization of 1,2-propanediol) only occurs under anaerobic conditions (Bobik et al.,
1992). It is suggested that this apparently paradoxical pathway may represent a 44
significant advantage for Salmonella within a biofilm community where it may encounter
both aerobic and anaerobic microniches (Costerton et al., 1994; De Beer et al., 1994;
Price-Carter et al., 2001).
Winfield and Groisman (2003) suggest that Salmonella, unlike E. coli, has actually evolved to actively cycle through host and non-host environments. These authors suggest that E. coli does not persist in non-host environments and that its presence in such locations results from recent excretion of waste by animal hosts. They report that this is essentially the logic behind the use of E. coli as the indicator organism for environmental fecal contamination, that is, as an indicator species, E. coli is assumed not to be a permanent resident of soil and water environments. It is suggested here that
several systems generally only associated with the host environment and/or virulence are
indeed activated in the non-host biofilm environment. These findings suggest that
Salmonella may have alternative uses for the so-called virulence genes and may be
adapted to persisting as a biofilm in the external environment.
Materials and Methods
Strains and Growth
The strain of Salmonella used in this study was an environmental pathogen
isolated from an outbreak in Gideon, MO, USA in 1993 (Clark et al., 1996). This highly
virulent strain of Salmonella was typed by pulsed gel field electrophoresis (PGFE) at the
CDC in Atlanta, GA, USA and is designated Salmonella Missouri in this paper. Sequence
analysis of the 16S rDNA gene was also performed (Research Technology Support
Facility, Michigan State University using a Perkin Elmer/Applied Biosystems 3100 45
capillary sequencer) to confirm the identity of this organism. Primers used to amplify a
highly conserved region of the 16S rDNA gene covered an area of approximately 1500 base pairs. These primers have been used regularly in this lab and are designated 8F and
1492R (Burr et al., 2006).
Planktonic growth rates were determined in M9 Minimal Media (Becton-
Dickinson, MD) with the addition of 0.4% glucose (Fisher Scientific, NJ) as the carbon
source (Ren et al., 2005). This was the defined medium used in all subsequent
experiments unless otherwise indicated. All cultures, both planktonic and biofilm, were
grown at an ambient temperature of 23°C. For each new experiment, Salmonella
Missouri was freshly prepared from a cryostock which had been maintained at -80°C
with minimal passaging. The ATCC type strain No. 700720, Salmonella enterica
serotype Typhimurium LT2, was cultured as a reference strain to provide a comparison of
growth rate.
In order to determine growth rates, a starter culture of the organism was prepared
by inoculating an overnight colony grown on XLD agar (EMD, NJ) into 100 mL volumes
of M9 + glucose in 250 mL baffled flasks (Pyrex, USA) with orbital shaking of 180 rpm.
These starter cultures were allowed to grow up for 24 hours at which point 100 µL was
inoculated into 100 mL fresh media in a 250 mL Nephelo flask (Wheaton, USA) and
these flasks were returned to the orbital shaking platform at 180 rpm. Optical density was
determined every 4 hours using a Spectronic 20D+ spectrophotometer (Thermo Electron
Corporation, MA) reading at a wavelength of 600 nm. 46
Planktonic cultures were grown under the same conditions as used in determining
experimental growth rates. For microarray experiments, cultures were harvested at 12
hours (empirically determined to be mid- to late-logarithmic phase for both strains of
Salmonella).
Biofilms were grown using the CDC biofilm reactor (www.biofilms.biz) with
glass coupons serving as surfaces for attachment. CDC reactors were preconditioned with
sterile M9 + glucose for 24 hours in batch mode to ensure sterility of the media and
equipment. An inoculum of 1mL Salmonella grown up as described previously for the
preparation of a growth curve experiment was aseptically introduced through a rubber
injection septum and an 18 hour batch mode was allowed in order to facilitate
establishment of the culture in the reactor. This period of batch growth was followed by
switching on the pump and allowing fresh media to flow into the reactor with a hydraulic
retention time of 7.6 hours to ensure that planktonic bacteria were washed out and the biofilm bacteria predominated.
Biomass Harvesting
For planktonic samples, 50 mL of a 12 hour culture was centrifuged at 4°C for 10
minutes at 10,000 x g. The supernatant was removed and the pellet was resuspended on
ice in a 1:1 mixture of 400 µL RNA Buffer A (50 mM sodium acetate, pH 5.5; 10 mM
EDTA, pH 8.0; 1% SDS) and 400 µL acidic phenol:chloroform (pH 4.5) (Ambion, TX).
For biofilm samples, biofilm material was scraped off three coupon surfaces using
a cell scraper (Fisher Scientific, NJ) into equal volumes of RNA Buffer A and acidic
phenol:chloroform. 47
RNA Purification
Several methods of RNA purification were attempted, including TRIzol
(Invitrogen, CA), RNA Power Kit for Soils (MoBio, CA) and RNeasy (QIAGEN, MD), before settling on the following optimized technique.
The phenol mixtures were transferred to Lysing Matrix Tube E (MPBio, OH) and
treated in a FastPrep Bead Beater FP120 (Bio101 Savant, NY) for 30 seconds at 5.5 rpm.
Samples were centrifuged at 4°C for 30 minutes at 14,000 x g.
Phenol was removed using successive chloroform extractions in 2 mL Phase Lock
Gel (PLG) Heavy tubes (Eppendorf, NY). All steps were subsequently performed quickly
and at room temperature. Briefly, the aqueous (top) phase of each sample was transferred
into a prespun (13,000 x g for 2 minutes) PLG Heavy tube to which 200 µL acidic
phenol:chloroform and 200 µL chloroform:isoamyl alcohol (Amresco, OH) were added.
The tubes were inverted gently to mix and incubated on ice for 10 minutes. Tubes were
then centrifuged at 13,000 x g for 5 minutes. A further 400 µL chloroform:isoamyl
alcohol was added, the tube was inverted to mix and centrifuged at 13,000 x g for 5
minutes.
The aqueous phase was then transferred to a new RNase-free tube and finally
treated with TURBO DNase (Ambion, TX). Briefly, a 0.1 volume of 10x TURBO DNase
Buffer was added to the sample followed by the addition of 5 µL TURBO DNase.
Samples were mixed gently by flicking the tubes and incubated at 37°C for 20 minutes.
Activity of the enzyme was inhibited by the addition of 0.1 volumes of resuspended
DNase Inactivation Reagent (Ambion, TX). The sample was incubated at room 48
temperature for 2 minutes with regular, gentle mixing and finally centrifuged at 10,000 x
g for 1 ½ minutes to pellet out the DNase Inactivation Reagent. The supernatant was transferred to a fresh RNase-free tube.
Finally the sample was cleaned up using a modified protocol of an RNeasy Clean- up Reaction (QIAGEN, MD). Briefly, aliquots of 200 µL RNA were mixed with 700 µL
RLT Buffer (QIAGEN, MD) followed by the addition of 500 µL absolute ethanol.
Volumes of 750 µL were loaded onto an RNeasy Column (QIAGEN, MD) and centrifuged at room temperature for 15 seconds at 10,000 x g. The eluate was discarded and subsequent volumes of RNA were loaded onto the same column until all the sample had been run through. The columns were then washed twice with Buffer RPE (QIAGEN,
MD) and RNA was eluted in two successive 50 µL volumes of RNase-free water. Yield was determined by spectrometry on a Nanodrop 1000 (Nanodrop Technologies, DE) and quality assayed with a 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent, CA).
DNA Microarray Transcriptional Profiling
RNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA and indirectly labeled according to
SOP#: M007 released by Pathogen Functional Group Research Center (PFGRC), J. Craig
Venter Institute (JCVI) (http://pfgrc.jcvi.org/index.php/microarray/protocols.html).
Briefly, 5 µg RNA was reverse transcribed using SuperScript III (Invitrogen, CA) with a
0.5 mM 5-(3-aminoallyl)-dUTP:dTTP (Sigma, MO) for 18 hours. The optimal ratio of aa-dUTP to dTTP varies depending on the GC content of the organism in question.
Organisms with high GC content, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 which has a
GC content of 66%, generally require a lower aa-dUTP to dTTP ratio. Organisms with 49
low GC content, such as Streptococcus pyogenes M1 GAS and Bacillus anthracis strain
Sterne which have GC contents of 38% and 35% respectively, usually require a higher
aa-dUTP to dTTP ratio. Since Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 has a GC content of 52%
(compared with the E. coli K12 GC content of 50%), a 2:1 ratio of aa-dUTP:dTTP was decided on. This first strand cDNA synthesis reaction was stopped and remaining RNA degraded by alkaline hydrolysis with sodium hydroxide and neutralization with TRIS.
Removal of unincorporated aa-dUTP and free amines was achieved using a modified protocol from the QIAGEN MinElute PCR purification kit (QIAGEN, MD).
These modifications included the substitution of a 5 mM phosphate wash buffer pH
8.5/80% ethanol for the kit wash buffer and nuclease-free water for the elution buffer.
These substitutions were made to avoid contamination with free amines which compete with the aa-dUTP in the subsequent Cy-dye coupling reaction.
The clean-up step was followed by drying for 35 minutes at 60°C in a CentriVap
DNA Vacuum Concentrator (Labconco, MO). Dried probes were then indirectly labeled with Cy3 or Cy5 (Amersham, NJ). Briefly, aminoallyl-labeled cDNA was resuspended in
4.5 µL 0.1 M sodium carbonate buffer, pH 9.3. This was followed by the addition of the appropriate DMSO-resuspended Cy dye and an incubation of between 1 and 2 hours at room temperature in the dark. After coupling was complete, 20 µL 4.5 M sodium acetate pH 5.2 (Ambion, TX) was added. Two important aspects of this step to note include the thorough resuspension of the dried probe before the addition of the Cy dye as well as adhering to the prescribed pH 9.3 of the sodium carbonate buffer to ensure optimum coupling of the aminoallyl-labeled cDNA to the Cy dye ester. 50
Labeled cDNA was purified using the MinElute PCR Purification kit (QIAGEN,
MD) according to manufacturer’s instructions. Analysis was performed to ensure
optimum yield and labeling efficiency using the “Microarray” function of a Nanodrop
1000 (Nanodrop, DE). For each sample, the total picomoles of cDNA synthesized was
determined using the following formula: