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Journal of Bacteriology, October 1999, p. 6552-6555, Vol. 181, No. 20
Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly and
Company, Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, Indiana 46285
Received 14 June 1999/Accepted 3 August 1999
The effects of inactivation of the genes encoding
penicillin-binding protein 1a (PBP1a), PBP1b, and PBP2a in
Streptococcus pneumoniae were examined. Insertional mutants
did not exhibit detectable changes in growth rate or morphology,
although a pbp1a pbp1b double-disruption mutant grew more
slowly than its parent did. Attempts to generate a pbp1a
pbp2a double-disruption mutant failed. The pbp2a
mutants, but not the other mutants, were more sensitive to moenomycin,
a transglycosylase inhibitor. These observations suggest that
individually the pbp1a, pbp1b, and
pbp2a genes are dispensable but that either
pbp1a or pbp2a is required for growth in vitro.
These results also suggest that PBP2a is a functional transglycosylase
in S. pneumoniae.
High-molecular-mass
penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) are membrane-bound enzymes that
possess essential transpeptidase and transglycosylase activities
responsible for bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan cross-linking and
elongation, respectively (10). The transpeptidase activity
of PBPs is inhibited by The high-molecular-mass PBPs have been subdivided into class A and
class B, which differ in part by the sequences of the N-terminal regions (9). In S. pneumoniae, class A PBPs are
represented by PBP1a, PBP1b, and PBP2a and class B PBPs are represented
by PBP2x and PBP2b. The C-terminal domains of both classes appear to
possess transpeptidase activity (10, 11). The functions of
the N-terminal domains are less established, but for the class A
high-molecular-mass PBPs evidence suggests that they possess transglycosylase activity. The N-terminal domains of the class A PBPs
contain four conserved motifs that are also present in monofunctional
transglycosylases (2, 9, 32), and several of the class A
proteins have been shown to catalyze the polymerization of the
polysaccharide backbone of peptidoglycan in vitro (16, 25, 28, 33,
34, 38).
To examine the essential nature of the class A PBPs of S. pneumoniae, we generated insertion mutations in the
pbp1a, pbp1b, and pbp2a genes.
Identification and sequence analysis of the pbp1b and
pbp2a genes.
Searches of our collection of random
sequences of the S. pneumoniae (hex) R6 genome
(1) for genes that encode the conserved motifs in the
N-terminal domains of class A PBPs uncovered the genes that encode
PBP1b and PBP2a (13). A comparison of the sequences with
recently published sequences for these genes (13) revealed
that the pbp1b genes were identical, while the
pbp2a genes differed by three nucleotides (C1887T, A2110G,
and A2192G), resulting in two amino acid changes (N704D and H731R).
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Gene Disruption Studies of Penicillin-Binding
Proteins 1a, 1b, and 2a in Streptococcus
pneumoniae
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-lactam antibiotics (10). In
Streptococcus pneumoniae, five high-molecular-mass PBPs have
been detected by penicillin-binding assays (12), and the
genes encoding them have been identified and sequenced (7, 13, 20,
23, 24). The role of these proteins in resistance to
-lactam
antibiotics has been studied extensively (6, 13, 21, 24).

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FIG. 1.
Genomic organizations of the S. pneumoniae
pbp1b (A) and pbp2a (B) genes. The arrows show the
direction of transcription and relative sizes of the genes that
surround the pbp1b and pbp2a genes on the 6- and
5.4-kb regions of the chromosome, respectively. atkA, gene
encoding cation-transporting ATPase; syy1, gene encoding
tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase; gapA, gene encoding
glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; nusG, gene
encoding a transcription antitermination protein; ydeD and
yhcT, genes encoding hypothetical proteins in Bacillus
subtilis (19).
Construction of insertion mutations in the pbp1a, pbp1b, and pbp2a genes of S. pneumoniae. Gene disruptions of nanA, pbp1a, pbp1b, and pbp2a in S. pneumoniae were generated by conjugation from Escherichia coli S17-1 to insert an Eryr plasmid between the regions of the gene of interest encoding the third and fourth conserved motifs (9). The nanA gene, which encodes a surface-expressed neuraminadase (4), was used as a control. We have previously shown that nanA disruption in R6 affords no apparent phenotypic change other than loss of the enzymatic function it encodes (30). For single-crossover integrations, a fragment of approximately 500 bp from near the 5' end of each gene was amplified by PCR and cloned into Eryr plasmid pCZA342 (26, 27), which can replicate in E. coli but not in S. pneumoniae and which can be transferred from an appropriate E. coli host into S. pneumoniae by conjugation. The specific fragments used for each gene included bp 50 to 615 of the coding region for nanA (4), bp 18 to 519 of the coding region for pbp1a (23), bp 217 to 721 of the coding region for pbp1b (13), and bp 27 to 526 of the coding region for pbp2a (13).
Conjugation into S. pneumoniae (hex) R6 and selection for erythromycin resistance (0.3 mg/ml) gave strains (with genotypes nanA::Eryr, pbp1a::Eryr, pbp1b::Eryr, and pbp2a::Eryr) in which the plasmid became integrated into the chromosome by a single homologous crossover event. In some cases, two or more plasmids became integrated in tandem. Insertion of the plasmid into the pbp1a gene was confirmed by Southern blotting analyses and by a penicillin-binding assay, which demonstrated that the PBP1a protein was missing in the pbp1a::Eryr mutants (data not shown). PCR analyses confirmed that the pbp1b::Eryr and pbp2a::Eryr mutants contained the 5.4-kb plasmid insertion because amplification of the wild-type pbp1b and pbp2a genes gave predicted fragments with sizes of 0.57 and 0.60 kb, respectively, but amplification of these genes in the insertion mutants gave predicted sizes of 5.97 and 6.0 kb, respectively. Western blotting analysis also confirmed the absence of the PBP2a protein in the pbp2a::Eryr mutant (37). These results established that insertion mutations in the pbp1a, pbp1b, and pbp2a genes could be obtained and that none of the three genes individually was essential for the growth of S. pneumoniae in vitro. These results confirm a previous report that the pbp1a gene is dispensable for S. pneumoniae (18).Construction of double-disruption insertion mutations. Studies of class A high-molecular-mass PBPs of E. coli demonstrated that neither pbp1a nor pbp1b alone was essential for growth in vitro, but disruption of both genes could not be achieved in the same strain (17, 36). These observations indicated that the pbp1a and pbp1b genes encode proteins that can perform similar essential functions. To determine whether either the pbp1a or pbp1b gene of S. pneumoniae is also required for viability, we attempted to generate a mutant strain in which both genes were inactivated. Our approach was to disrupt the pbp1a gene by insertion of the Spcr gene, then to transform the resulting mutant with chromosomal DNA from mutants in which the second gene was disrupted by insertion of DNA containing the Eryr gene.
The protocol used for transformation was as follows. S. pneumoniae (hex) R6 was grown overnight in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth at 37°C. The culture was diluted 1:10,000 in BHI with 10 mM glucose and 10% heat-inactivated horse serum (22), competence-stimulating peptide I (14) was added at a final concentration of 25 ng/ml, and the mixture was incubated at 37°C for 30 min before the transforming DNA was added. The mixture was incubated for 4 to 6 h at 37°C, and dilutions were plated on chocolate II agar containing the appropriate antibiotic. Plates were incubated at 37°C, and transformants were scored after 24 h. For disruption of the pbp1a gene by integration of the Spcr gene via a double-crossover event, we constructed a plasmid, pJT011, in which the Spcr gene in pGEM7Zf(
)Spcr (3) was flanked by internal
fragments of the pbp1a gene (bp 264 to 1068 and bp 1151 to
2055) (23). This Spcr vector did not contain any
regions homologous to the Eryr plasmid that had been used
to disrupt pbp1a, pbp1b, and pbp2a. The bla gene in pGEM7Zf(
)Spcr was inactivated
by deleting an internal AvaII fragment. We transformed S. pneumoniae (hex) R6 with the plasmid pJT011 to
generate a strain in which the pbp1a gene was disrupted by
the Spcr gene. Selection for spectinomycin resistance (250 µg/ml) produced a strain in which the Spcr gene replaced
the region of the pbp1a gene between nucleotides 1068 and
1151 by a double-crossover homologous recombination event that was
confirmed by PCR analysis (data not shown).
We then introduced the pbp1b::Eryr
mutation into the pbp1a::Spcr strain
by transformation with genomic DNA and selection for resistance to
erythromycin and spectinomycin. Control experiments were done with the
S. pneumoniae (hex) R6 parent as a recipient and
with the nanA::Eryr strain as a donor.
Transformants were readily obtained when the pbp1a::Spcr mutant or the S. pneumoniae (hex) R6 parent strain was used as a
recipient and either the nanA::Eryr or
the pbp1b::Eryr strain was used as a
donor, yielding 400 to 1,200 colonies per transformation. PCR analyses
confirmed that these pbp1a pbp1b mutants contained
insertions in both genes (data not shown). These results demonstrated
that the pbp1a and pbp1b genes could be
inactivated in the same strain and therefore that they are not
essential for the viability of S. pneumoniae in vitro.
We also attempted to generate a pbp1a pbp2a
double-disruption mutant by using the
pbp1a::Spcr strain as a recipient and
the pbp2a::Eryr strain as a donor.
However, only five transformants were obtained. A similar number of
transformants were obtained in several repeats of this experiment. PCR
analyses demonstrated that none of the five putative mutants contained
an insertion in the pbp2a gene, although they still
contained an insertion in the pbp1a gene. These results
demonstrated that either the pbp1a or the pbp2a gene is required for the viability of S. pneumoniae in
vitro. Thus, both E. coli and S. pneumoniae
appear to require the presence of at least one class A PBP for
viability, suggesting that perhaps the class A PBPs are functionally
redundant. Furthermore, the results suggest that the PBP1a and PBP2a
proteins of S. pneumoniae may be the functional homologues
of the E. coli PBP1a and PBP1b enzymes.
Each of the PBP mutations described here resulted from insertion of a
plasmid into the N-terminal domain, which would inactivate the
C-terminal domain as well. Thus, it is not clear whether the apparent
essential nature of the pbp1a or the pbp2a gene
is related to the putative N-terminal transglycosylase domain, the
C-terminal transpeptidase domain, or perhaps both.
The plasmid used for the insertions in pbp1a and
pbp2a has been found to have polar effects on downstream
genes when inserted into a multigene transcription unit (data not
shown). However, we do not know whether either pbp1a or
pbp2a is part of a multigene transcription unit, and
therefore whether the insertions have a polar effect on downstream
genes. The ability to isolate insertions in both genes suggest that the
insertions are not polar on any absolutely essential genes. However, we
cannot rule out the formal possibility that the essential genes implied
by our observation are actually downstream genes rather than
pbp1a or pbp2a.
Characterization of the pbp1a, pbp1b,
pbp2a, and pbp1a pbp1b insertion mutants of
S. pneumoniae.
The pbp1a, pbp1b, and
pbp2a mutants obtained were characterized with respect to
their growth, morphology, and sensitivity to antibiotics. Morphology
was evaluated by light microscopy with cells grown in Todd-Hewitt broth
and BHI blood agar. The mutants did not exhibit any detectable changes
in their growth rates (Table 1) or
morphology compared with their parent strain, except that the
pbp1a pbp1b double mutant grew slightly more slowly than the parent strain (Table 1). We also found that the pbp2a
mutants were 8- to 16-fold more sensitive to moenomycin, a
transglycosylase inhibitor, although susceptibilities to other agents
tested remained unchanged (for example, MICs of vancomycin and
penicillin for all strains were 0.25 and 0.016 µg/ml, respectively).
In contrast to the pbp2a mutants, the pbp1a,
pbp1b, and pbp1a pbp1b mutants had the same
sensitivity to moenomycin as the parent.
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Nucleotide sequence accession numbers. The nucleotide sequences of pbp1b and pbp2a have been submitted to GenBank under the accession no. AF10178 and AF101780, respectively.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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We thank D. Morrison (University of Illinois, Chicago) for the gift of CSP-1, A. Tomasz (Rockefeller University, New York, N.Y.) for providing the S. pneumoniae (hex) R6 strain, P. Rockey and P. Rosteck for DNA sequencing, and F. H. Norris for database searches. We also thank H. L. Watson and J. I. Glass for critical review of the manuscript.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Lilly Corporate Center, Eli Lilly and Company, Infectious Diseases Research, Drop Code 0438, Indianapolis, IN 46285. Phone: (317) 277-1934. Fax: (317) 277-0778. E-mail: Hoskins_JoAnn{at}Lilly.com.
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