An Unprecedented Tolerance to Deletion of the Periplasmic Chaperones SurA, Skp, and DegP in the Nosocomial Pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii
| Autor: | Karolin Birkle, Fabian Renschler, Angel Angelov, Gottfried Wilharm, Mirita Franz-Wachtel, Boris Maček, Erwin Bohn, Elena Weber, Jennifer Müller, Lea Friedrich, Monika Schütz |
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| Rok vydání: | 2022 |
| Předmět: |
Acinetobacter baumannii
Cross Infection Protein Folding Virulence Factors Microbiology Hospitals Anti-Bacterial Agents DNA-Binding Proteins Drug Resistance Multiple Bacterial Periplasm Pseudomonas aeruginosa Escherichia coli Humans Molecular Biology SEC Translocation Channels Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins Disinfectants Molecular Chaperones Yersinia enterocolitica |
| Zdroj: | Journal of bacteriology. 204(10) |
| ISSN: | 1098-5530 |
| Popis: | The outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria efficiently protects from harmful environmental stresses such as antibiotics, disinfectants, or dryness. The main constituents of the OM are integral OM β-barrel proteins (OMPs). In Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Yersinia enterocolitica, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the insertion of OMPs depends on a sophisticated biogenesis pathway. This comprises the SecYEG translocon, which enables inner membrane (IM) passage; the chaperones SurA, Skp, and DegP, which facilitate the passage of β-barrel OMPs through the periplasm; and the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM), which facilitates insertion into the OM. In E. coli, Y. enterocolitica, and P. aeruginosa, the deletion of SurA is particularly detrimental and leads to a loss of OM integrity, sensitization to antibiotic treatment, and reduced virulence. In search of targets that could be exploited to develop compounds that interfere with OM integrity in Acinetobacter baumannii, we employed the multidrug-resistant strain AB5075 to generate single gene knockout strains lacking individual periplasmic chaperones. In contrast to E. coli, Y. enterocolitica, and P. aeruginosa, AB5075 tolerates the lack of SurA, Skp, or DegP with only weak mutant phenotypes. While the double knockout strains ΔisurA/iΔiskp/iand ΔisurA/iΔidegP/iare conditionally lethal in E. coli, all double deletions were well tolerated by AB5075. Strikingly, even a triple-knockout strain of AB5075, lackingisurA/i,iskp/i, andidegP/i, was viable.bIMPORTANCE/bAcinetobacter baumannii is a major threat to human health due to its ability to persist in the hospital environment, resistance to antibiotic treatment, and ability to deploy multiple and redundant virulence factors. In a rising number of cases, infections with multidrug-resistant A. baumannii end up fatally, because all antibiotic treatment options fail. Thus, novel targets have to be identified and alternative therapeutics have to be developed. The knockout of periplasmic chaperones has previously proven to significantly reduce virulence and even break antibiotic resistance in other Gram-negative pathogens. Our study in A. baumannii demonstrates how variable the importance of the periplasmic chaperones SurA, Skp, and DegP can be and suggests the existence of mechanisms allowing A. baumannii to cope with the lack of the three periplasmic chaperones. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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