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J Bacteriol, July 1998, p. 3715-3718, Vol. 180, No. 14
Department of Microbiology, New York
University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016
Received 24 February 1998/Accepted 11 May 1998
Protein and mRNA levels of heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) of
Escherichia coli are highest at 37°C, and they
decrease gradually as temperature is decreased. This temperature
effect is eliminated in an Hns A major proportion of
infectious diarrhea in humans in third-world countries and in domestic
animals worldwide is caused by enterotoxigenic strains of
Escherichia coli (ETEC strains). ETEC strains carry
transmissible plasmids, called Ent plasmids, that encode heat-stable
enterotoxin (ST) or heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) or both.
LT is very similar antigenically and pharmacologically to cholera toxin
(CT) produced by Vibrio cholerae. However, based on the
considerable amount of information known about the regulation of CT
(23) and from what has been learned about LT regulation, there is no evidence that LT, like CT, is regulated by a two-component regulatory system (26).
LT mRNA and protein levels are significantly affected by temperature
but are only slightly affected by some of the other environmental conditions known to strongly influence CT expression (23).
When LT is in a native plasmid (8) or when LT is subcloned
into vectors, it is optimally expressed at 37°C and its expression decreases as temperature is decreased to 18°C (26).
Recently, much has been reported about the global regulator H-NS with
respect to its ability to mediate the response of many operons to
environmental changes (2, 28). HN-S mediates the temperature
regulation of several virulence factor operons, including the CFA/I
fimbriae, CS1 pili, and pap pili of E. coli and
the virF and virB genes of enteroinvasive
E. coli and Shigella species (10, 12,
18-20, 29). H-NS also mediates osmoregulation of the
proU operon in E. coli and Salmonella
species (9). Interestingly, it has been shown through
extensive genetic analysis that H-NS influences proU
expression by binding to a downstream regulatory element (the DRE) in
the proU structural gene (11, 14, 15, 27).
We shall present results obtained with an H-NS mutant that produces a
truncated H-NS protein with altered DNA binding capacities (5). Hns+ (GM37) and Hns Plasmid construction.
Standard DNA manipulations were carried
out as described by Sambrook et al. (21). The plasmid pLT
was derived from plasmid pJT2, which contains the entire LT operon on
an HpaI-BamHI fragment from pEWD030
(24) subcloned into the EcoRV and
BamHI sites of pBR322. Previously, we sequenced
approximately 725 bp upstream of the LT promoter subcloned from pEWD030
(GenBank accession no. M61015). Bal31 mutagenesis and primer
extension were performed to characterize the region upstream of the
promoter elements and to confirm the precise locations of the
promoter elements (26).
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Temperature Regulation of Heat-Labile Enterotoxin (LT) Synthesis
in Escherichia coli Is Mediated by an Interaction
of H-NS Protein with the LT A-Subunit DNA
and
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ABSTRACT
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Abstract
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mutant.
Deletion of portions of DNA coding for the LT A subunit also
results in an increase in LT expression at low temperatures, suggesting
that the H-NS protein causes inhibition of transcription at low
temperatures by interacting with the LT A-subunit DNA. The region
that interacts with H-NS is referred to as the downstream regulatory
element (DRE). Plasmids in an hns strain from which the DRE
has been deleted still produce elevated levels of LT at 18°C, suggesting that intact DRE is not required for transcription from the LT promoter.
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TEXT
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Abstract
Text
References
mutant
(GM230) strains (9) carrying LT plasmids with various deletions located in the structural gene coding for the LT A subunit or
upstream of the
35 and
10 promoter elements were grown at either 37 or 18°C to analyze the role that H-NS plays in mediating temperature
control of LT expression.
-galactosidase translational fusion construct. Likewise, a
second fragment containing only 34 bp upstream of the LT mRNA
start site was used to construct pLT
UCR (26).
NC was constructed by excision of a 686-bp
XbaI-EcoRI fragment from pLT, pLT
N was
constructed by excision of a 422-bp XbaI-AgeI
fragment from pLT, and pLT
C was constructed by excision of a 264-bp
AgeI-EcoRI fragment from pLT.
pLT
UCR
NC was constructed by excision of a 686-bp
XbaI-EcoRI fragment from pLT
UCR. The XbaI, AgeI, and EcoRI sites are
located 184, 550, and 814 bp downstream of the LT mRNA start site,
respectively.
Effect of temperature and H-NS on LT mRNA levels.
The promoter
activity of the LT gene was measured in primer extension experiments.
The segment of LT mRNA chosen for the primer extension experiments is
shown in Fig. 1A. It is located between the promoter and the 5' end of the LT A gene. This location avoids complications that we have previously found to arise in assessing promoter activity by using reporter genes in translational fusion plasmids that encode
-galactosidase or alkaline phosphatase
(26).
|
-32P]dATP by using T4 polynucleotide
kinase, and none of the added nucleotides was radioactive. Reaction
products were analyzed on a 6% acrylamide-urea gel. The
same primer was used for dideoxy chain termination sequencing reactions
(with an AmpliCycle Sequencing kit from Perkin-Elmer Corp. and
[
-33P]dATP) to serve as a size marker for the extended
fragments (data not shown).
Promoter activities of the LT gene were determined at 37 and 18°C in
an H-NS mutant and the corresponding wild-type strain. As shown in Fig.
1B, the wild type produces much less mRNA at the lower temperature
(lane 2), whereas in the H-NS mutant, mRNA production is not inhibited
at the lower temperature (lane 4). We also showed that the mRNA start
sites were the same in the wild type and in the Hns
mutant (Fig. 1B).
To test if the difference seen between the wild type and the mutant was
due to differences in plasmid levels, we measured the respective
plasmid yields. Plasmid DNA was isolated from 4.5 ml of cultures grown
to an OD580 of 0.3, linearized, and electrophoresed on a
1% agarose gel which was stained with ethidium bromide. We found
plasmid levels to be essentially the same regardless of the growth
conditions and host strains (data not shown). We have found this method
to be sensitive enough to detect a twofold difference.
Effect of DRE deletions on mRNA levels.
To test for the
presence of a site that interacts with H-NS in the structural part of
the LT gene, we generated the three deletions shown in Fig. 1A. The
effect of these deletions on promoter activity at 18°C was tested. As
shown in Fig. 1C, the deletions alleviate the inhibition seen in the
undeleted plasmid. Two of the plasmids, pLT
N and pLT
NC, eliminate
the inhibition almost completely. pLT
C has a weaker effect. We
conclude from these experiments that H-NS protein interacts with the
region of LT A DNA encoding the N terminus to cause the inhibition,
presumably by binding to this region.
N has about
the same activity as the undeleted plasmid (lanes 2 and 4), whereas
activities are stronger in LT
NC and LT
C. So far, we have not
found the cause for these differences. One possible explanation is that
they are due to the H-NS homolog StpA. It has been shown that StpA
production is increased in H-NS
strains (25,
30). Our results indicate that StpA binds to the C-terminal part
of LT A and that this leads to inhibition of LT synthesis. However, in
contrast to the inhibition by H-NS, this inhibition is not dependent on
temperature. If anything, it is stronger at 37 than at 18°C (Fig.
1B).
A similar deletion analysis of the region upstream of the
35 element
of the promoter (the upstream control region [UCR]) was performed.
Deletion of 300 bp or more immediately upstream of the
35 element of
the promoter and not including the promoter elements results in a
considerable decrease in LT production at the protein and mRNA levels
(only mRNA data shown [Fig. 1E, lane 2]). This effect is also H-NS
dependent (data not shown) but is not affected by temperature.
Hns+ E. coli cells carrying an LT plasmid with
deletion of the UCR still manifest an observable decrease in LT protein
and mRNA production at low temperatures (only mRNA data shown [Fig.
1E, lane 3]). Furthermore, Hns+ E. coli
cells carrying a plasmid containing deletions in both the
DRE and the UCR do not result in LT levels fully restored to
wild-type levels at high temperatures (Fig. 1E, lane 4),
suggesting that there is an additional H-NS-sensitive but
temperature-independent control region in the UCR. Since the present
paper is concerned with temperature control and since the UCR effect is
independent of temperature and the interaction of H-NS with the DRE, it
will not be considered further.
Effect of temperature and H-NS on LT protein synthesis. In parallel with the above-described studies of mRNA synthesis, we measured LT protein synthesis. Cells were grown in modified K medium containing 171 mM NaCl, Casamino Acids (7), and ampicillin (30 µg/ml) or LB (17) and ampicillin (30 µg/ml) at 18°C and subcultured at either 37 or 18°C. After cultures had reached desired cell densities, polymyxin B (90 µg per ml of culture) (6) and MgSO4 (1.725 mg per ml of culture) were added directly to cell aliquots and were incubated at their respective temperatures until the cells appeared to be completely lysed. Determinations of amounts of protein in the extracts were made with the Bio-Rad system. Cell extracts were assayed by a GM1-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay under conditions similar to those described by Scotland et al. (22). Microtiter plates were analyzed with a Dynatech MR5000 Microplate Reader at OD410.
The results of experiments with intact LT genes are shown in Table 1. At 37°C, both the H-NS mutant and its wild-type parent produce approximately the same amounts of LT (rows 1 and 3). At 18°C, LT formation is considerably less in the wild type but not in the mutant. These results confirm our findings on mRNA synthesis. It should be noted that the inhibition is greater at the end of growth than during the exponential phase (Table 1, row 2).
|
Effect of DRE deletions on the inhibition of LT protein synthesis. We measured LT protein production in strains carrying plasmids with deletions at 18°C and compared them with the same strain carrying a complete plasmid. We found a restoration of LT formation in the strains with deleted plasmids similar to restoration of mRNA synthesis (Fig. 1C). However, the restoration was only approximately twofold, which is not as great as the restoration of mRNA levels. We believe that this may be due to technical factors, because it is likely that with the deleted LT A subunits, the incomplete toxin molecules gave values in the ELISA, which measures the amount of LT B subunit, that were lower than the values obtained with complete LT molecules (4, 16).
Mechanism of H-NS temperature regulation. It has been shown that H-NS is a member of the cold shock regulon and that its expression increases by three- to fourfold when the bacteria are shifted from 37 to 10°C (13). Here, we have shown that H-NS inhibits LT synthesis at the transcriptional level at low temperatures by interacting with a DNA sequence located at the part of the LT A gene encoding the N terminus, which is referred to as the DRE. The inhibition is exerted at the LT promoter upstream of the LT A gene.
Our results permit us to discriminate between two possible explanations for the inhibitory action of H-NS, with inhibition starting at the promoter or within the DRE. Since the inhibition of mRNA formation extends to the start site of transcription, the inhibition occurs at the promoter rather than in the DRE. Presumably, it prevents the action of RNA polymerase in initiating transcription. We can also distinguish between an action of H-NS as an antagonist in preventing stimulation of promoter activity by the DRE and a cooperative action with DRE in inhibiting promoter activity. For the first explanation to be correct, DRE must by itself activate the promoter. We have shown that in the H-NS mutant, deletion of the DRE does not diminish mRNA synthesis (Fig. 1D). Therefore, the DRE is not required for activation of transcription but is required for inhibition by H-NS. Just how the interaction between DRE and H-NS brings about inhibition of promoter activity is not known at present. Presumably, H-NS has to bind to DRE in a specific manner to exert its effect. In the similar case of the proU operon (11, 14, 15, 27), it has been shown that H-NS also has to bind specifically to a DRE in the first structural gene in order to inhibit promoter activity and that other H-NS binding DNA segments could not replace DRE.| |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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Much of the preliminary work for this publication was performed while J. D. Trachman was supported by NIH National Research Service award 5 T32 AI-07180 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This work was supported by Public Health Service grant GM-06048 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to W. K. Maas. The National Science Foundation is thanked for its support of computing grant BIR 9318128.
We acknowledge the valuable contributions of D. Lim, R. Maas, and H. Niersbach to our studies. We also thank R. Holmes for his generous supply of goat anti-LT serum and C. F. Higgins for sending us the congenic strains GM37 (hns+ strain) and GM230 (hns strain).
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Ave., New York, NY 10016. Phone: (212) 263-5322. Fax: (212) 263-8276. E-mail: maasw01{at}mcrcr6.med.nyu.edu.
Present address: Department of Biology, Long Island
University-Brooklyn Campus, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
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