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Journal of Bacteriology, June 1999, p. 3845-3848, Vol. 181, No. 12
Department of Diagnostic
Medicine/Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State
University, Manhattan, Kansas 665061;
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University
of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, Wisconsin
537062; and Department of Microbiology
and Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 739013
Received 19 October 1998/Accepted 12 April 1999
A Pasteurella haemolytica A1 gene was identified from a
recombinant library clone that expressed hemolysis in host
Escherichia coli cells. The gene, designated
fnrP, had sequence identity to E. coli fnr, a
global transcriptional regulator of genes required for conversion to
anaerobic growth. FnrP complemented anaerobic deficiencies of a
fnr-null mutant strain of E. coli and increased expression of the Fnr-dependent, anaerobic terminal reductase gene,
frdA. FnrP was purified, identified by immunoblotting, and shown to be nonhemolytic. When FnrP was expressed in E. coli
The most significant bacterial agent
associated with the bovine respiratory disease complex of feedlot
cattle is Pasteurella haemolytica A1 (29).
Infection frequently results in severe fibrinopurulent bronchopneumonia
characterized by abundant edema and fibrinocellular exudate
(2). A variety of virulence factors have been described for
P. haemolytica. Leukotoxin, the only described exotoxin, and
lipopolysaccharide are considered to be the most important
(5).
Leukotoxin is encoded on an operon composed of four genes,
lktC, lktA, lktB, and lktD
(12). The structural gene is lktA and requires
the product of lktC for activation; the remaining genes,
lktB and lktD, encode proteins that are involved
in toxin secretion. Leukotoxin is hemolytic and cytotoxic to ruminant
leukocytes and platelets (4, 22). A mutant strain of
P. haemolytica, missing the 3' half of lktC and
all but the last 54 bp of lktA, was nonhemolytic, in
contrast to the wild-type strain, which lysed bovine, ovine, and rabbit
erythrocytes (17). Other strains of P. haemolytica that were unable to produce functional leukotoxin due
to either insertional or deletional mutations generated within the
lktC or lktA genes were also nonhemolytic
(9, 26). These findings suggest that leukotoxin is
responsible for the hemolytic property of P. haemolytica.
Although leukotoxin appears to be the sole hemolysin of P. haemolytica, we discovered a gene, independent of the leukotoxin
operon, that induces hemolysis when expressed in Escherichia
coli.
Bacterial strains, growth conditions, recombinant DNA techniques,
and PCR.
Strains used in this study are described in Table
1. P. haemolytica cells were
grown in brain heart infusion broth (BHI; Difco Laboratories, Detroit,
Mich.) or on BHI agar plates supplemented with 5% defibrinated ovine
blood (Remel, Lenexa, Kans.). E. coli cells were routinely
cultured in Luria-Bertani (LB) broth or on LB agar plates. Antibiotics
were added as required at the following concentrations: tetracycline,
12.5 µg/ml; ampicillin, 100 µg/ml; chloramphenicol, 20 µg/ml; and
kanamycin, 25 µg/ml.
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Cloning and Characterization of the Gene Encoding
Pasteurella haemolytica FnrP, a Regulator of the
Escherichia coli Silent Hemolysin SheA

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ABSTRACT
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sheA, a null mutant of the cryptic hemolysin SheA, the
transformants were nonhemolytic, indicating that FnrP activates this
silent hemolysin.
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TABLE 1.
Bacterial strains and plasmids
Identification of a hemolytic library clone and sequencing of
fnrP.
A recombinant DNA library of P. haemolytica
A1 chromosomal DNA was constructed by ligating partially digested,
Sau3A fragments into the unique BamHI site of
plasmid pBluescript II KS(+). The E. coli strain DH5
was
transformed to ampicillin resistance with ligated DNA, and the
resulting colonies were screened for hemolysis on LB agar supplemented
with 5% blood. The phenotype of erythrolytic colonies was confirmed by
incubating 20-µl samples of cell-free supernatants in 3-mm-diameter
wells cut into LB agar containing 2.5% ovine blood. Clear zones
surrounding the wells were evident after 16 h at 37°C. The
plasmid pH2, containing a 15-kb insert, was isolated from a hemolytic
colony. Plasmid pGT3 was constructed from pH2 by removing a 13.2-kb
fragment by using XhoI sites within the vector and insert.
Transfer of the 2.25-kb PvuII fragment of pGT3 to plasmid
pACYC184 resulted in plasmid pGT3L. Subclones derived from plasmid pH2
all retained the ability to confer hemolysis to E. coli.
Plasmid pGT3 was the smallest clone directly derived from pH2 that
conferred hemolysis to E. coli.
Determination of functional similarities between FnrP and Fnr. The fnr-deficient E. coli strain JRG1728 was transformed with plasmid pG4X4, pGU24, or pBluescript II KS(+) for complementation studies (14). Plasmid pG4X4 is an exonuclease-generated sequencing clone that retains a hemolytic phenotype in JRG1728 but lacks the downstream ORF present in plasmid pGT3. Plasmid pGU24 consists of pBluescript II KS(+) with a 1.65-kb HindIII-BamHI fragment from plasmid pGS24 that encodes E. coli Fnr. Plasmid pBluescript II KS(+) was an Fnr-negative control. Bacterial growth was monitored by measuring optical density at 600 nm (OD600) and is reported as the average from three independent trials with three replicate samples per trial. Anaerobic growth of JRG1728 carrying E. coli fnr (OD600 = 0.444, standard deviation [SD] = 0.046) was significantly greater than that of the control (OD600 = 0.041, SD = 0.004) (P < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in growth between JRG1728 containing P. haemolytica fnrP (OD600 = 0.446, SD = 0.086) and JRG1728 containing E. coli fnr. Therefore, in E. coli, FnrP complemented the fnr mutation equally as well as the native gene.
The regulatory effect of FnrP on E. coli frdA was tested by using JRG1787 transformed with either plasmid pGT3L (fnrP) or plasmid pACYC184 (control). The fnr-deficient E. coli strain JRG1787 contains a lacZ chromosomal fusion with frdA, an Fnr-dependent, anaerobic terminal reductase gene. Bacteria were grown in M9 minimal media supplemented with 0.2% glycerol, 40 mM sodium fumarate, 0.1% Casamino Acids, and 0.00005% thiamine to an absorbance of 0.3 to 0.6, permeabilized with chloroform and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and tested for
-galactosidase
activity (1, 13, 15). The frdA expression was
measured as
-galactosidase specific activity (SA) and is reported as
the average from three independent trials with three replicates per
trial (15). Anaerobically grown JRG1787, carrying the
recombinant fnrP, had significantly more
-galactosidase activity (SA = 332,561.1, SD = 51,390.0) than the
fnr-negative control (SA = 39,678.0, SD = 5,858.4)
(P < 0.0001). When cells were grown aerobically, there
was no significant difference in frdA expression between
JRG1787 carrying fnrP (SA = 19,139.5, SD = 3,144.6) and the JRG1787 control (SA = 16,479.8, SD = 3,455.9). These results indicate that like the Fnr protein, FnrP
induces the expression of an anaerobic terminal reductase and can
function as a regulatory protein that is activated during anaerobic growth.
FnrP is nonhemolytic. Some members of the fnr-like family of genes, such as A. pleuropneumoniae hlyX, induce hemolysis when cloned into E. coli (14). Recently, HlyX was shown to activate the cryptic E. coli hemolysin HlyE (SheA) (GenBank accession no. U57430) (7, 10). To define the hemolytic properties of the pGT3 fragment, FnrP was expressed and purified by metal chelate affinity chromatography (QIAexpress System; Qiagen, Santa Clarita, Calif.). The structural gene for FnrP was amplified from plasmid pGT3 by PCR by using primers with BamHI sites on the 5' ends (5'-GGATCCATGAAAATTGTATCAGAACCTAAAACAAGC and 5'-GGATCCGGCAAATGGAGTTAGCGGCTCATCG). The amplified products were cloned into the T-tailed site of pT7Blue (Novagen, Madison, Wis.) and transferred into the BamHI site of plasmid pQE-30 (Qiagen), thus adding six histidine residues to the amino terminus of FnrP.
Histidine-labeled FnrP was expressed in E. coli M15 carrying plasmid pQE-30::fnrP (Qiagen). This strain was hemolytic when grown on blood agar plates, indicating that additional histidine residues on the amino terminus of FnrP did not alter its hemolysin-inducing properties. Histidine-tagged FnrP was purified under both native and denaturing conditions by using Ni2+ charged Ni-nitrilotriacetic acid resin (QIAexpress kit; Qiagen). Denatured FnrP was isolated by eluting column-bound proteins with 15-ml aliquots of denaturing wash buffer (8 M urea, 0.1 M Na2HPO4, 0.01 M Tris-HCl) in a six-step gradient ranging from pH 6.5 to 4.0 (Qiagen). Denatured, purified FnrP eluted from the Ni-nitrilotriacetic acid column with a wash (pH 4.5). SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) analysis of this fraction revealed a solitary, 31-kDa protein. Native FnrP was isolated by the protocol for purification of native cytoplasmic proteins with the following modification: proteins were eluted in two fractions of wash buffer (50 mM Na2HPO4, 300 mM NaCl, 10% glycerol) at pH 6.0 and pH 4.0 (Qiagen). Native FnrP coeluted with contaminating proteins. Therefore, FnrP was detected immunologically by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting. Native FnrP was separated by SDS-PAGE and transferred onto nitrocellulose membranes (16). Membranes were sequentially reacted with a 1:2,400 dilution of FnrP polyclonal antiserum and a 1:2,000 dilution of affinity-purified horseradish peroxidase-labeled goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G (Kirkegaard and Perry Laboratories, Inc., Gaithersburg, Md.). 4-Chloro-1-naphthol (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, Calif.) and hydrogen peroxide (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo.) were added for color development. FnrP polyclonal antibodies used on the immunoblot were produced in New Zealand White rabbits by four injections, given at 10-day intervals, each containing 0.5 ml of a 1-mg/ml solution of filtered denatured protein with 0.5 ml of Freund's incomplete adjuvant (Difco Laboratories). On the immunoblots, anti-FnrP antibody reacted strongly with a 31-kDa protein that eluted at pH 4.0 (Fig. 1). No hemolysis was induced by the wash at pH 4.0 with solution containing FnrP when tested on blood agar plates. Proteins that eluted at pH 6.0 did not react with FnrP antibody, although eluent containing these proteins did produce a zone of hemolysis. These results show that during purification of recombinant FnrP, the fraction with hemolytic activity did not contain immunologically detectable amounts of FnrP whereas the fraction containing FnrP was not hemolytic. This finding suggests that the FnrP protein does not possess hemolytic activity but instead activates a cryptic hemolysin present in E. coli.
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A sheA null mutant transformed with fnrP is nonhemolytic. E. coli CFP201 contains a Tn5-2.1 insertion into sheA (hlyE), a gene that encodes a cryptic hemolysin in E. coli K-12 strains (7). When CFP201 was transformed with the hemolysis-inducing plasmid, pGT3 (FnrP), the resulting bacteria maintained a nonhemolytic phenotype on blood agar plates. This demonstrates activation of the silent hemolysin SheA by FnrP. In Southern hybridizations performed by using high-stringency washes at 65°C, the hlyE ORF failed to hybridize with DNA from P. haemolytica serotype 1, indicating that a SheA-like hemolysin may not be present in P. haemolytica.
FnrP appears to be a homolog of E. coli Fnr and may perform similar functions during anaerobic growth in P. haemolytica. However, like A. pleuropneumoniae hlyX, it also has the ability to induce a hemolytic phenotype in E. coli. This work indicates that E. coli SheA is the hemolytic protein activated by FnrP and suggests a possible role for FnrP in regulation of other virulence-associated genes.| |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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We thank J. R. Guest (University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom) for providing plasmid pGS24 and the E. coli strains JRG1728 and JRG1787. We also thank Francisco J. del Castillo (Unidad de Genetica Molecular, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain) for providing the E. coli strain CFP201. We thank Joan Rosch for assistance with manuscript preparation.
This work was supported in part by the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station (KAES) Animal Health (Section 1433) Funds.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506. Phone: (785) 532-4410. Fax: (785) 532-4039. E-mail: mosier_d{at}vet.ksu.edu.
Contribution 99-409-J of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Present address: Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research
Center, ARS, USDA, P.O. Box 166, Clay Center, NE 68933.
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