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Journal of Bacteriology, March 2003, p. 1851-1856, Vol. 185, No. 6
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.6.1851-1856.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Cell Membrane Biology, Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Ibaraki,1 CREST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, Osaka 567-0047,3 Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan2
Received 16 September 2002/ Accepted 18 December 2002
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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Two-component systems are signal transduction pathways in prokaryotic organisms that respond to environmental conditions (11). A typical two-component system consists of two types of signal transducers, a sensor kinase and its cognate response regulator. The sensor kinase monitors some environmental conditions and accordingly modulates the phosphorylation state of the response regulator. The response regulator controls gene expression and/or cell behavior (7, 19).
In E. coli, 32 response regulators and 30 sensor kinases have been assumed to exist on the basis of the results of genome sequence analysis (10). As yet only a few two-component systems have been characterized (7). Recently, we found that the overexpression of evgA up-regulates the drug transporter genes emrKY and yhiUV. In addition, baeR up-regulates mdtABC, resulting in multidrug resistance (2, 13, 17, 18). Such response regulator-mediated drug resistance is a novel mechanism for acquiring multidrug resistance.
In this study, we surveyed whether it is a general phenomenon for bacteria that overexpression of response regulators confers drug resistance. We cloned all of the ORFs of the putative response regulators in E. coli into an expression vector and then investigated whether or not they confer drug resistance.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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(Takara Shuzo Co., Kyoto, Japan) were used as cloning hosts. E. coli KAM3 (12), a derivative of K-12 that lacks a restriction system and acrB, was used for the drug susceptibility testing. E. coli cells were grown in 2x YT medium (20), supplemented with ampicillin (100 µg/ml) when necessary, under aerobic conditions at 37°C. Competent cells were prepared by the method of Hanahan (6). The pTrc99A vector was purchased from Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. pTrc6His was derived from the pTrc99A vector for the production of a C-terminal His6 tag (16). The pQE70 vector was purchased from Qiagen. Drug susceptibility test. The MICs of drugs were determined on YT (20) agar containing various drugs (chloramphenicol, tetracycline, minocycline, erythromycin, nalidixic acid, norfloxacin, enoxacin, kanamycin, fosfomycin, doxorubicin, novobiocin, rifampin, polymyxin B, acriflavine, crystal violet, ethidium bromide, rhodamine 6G, methyl viologen, tetraphenylphosphonium bromide [TPP], carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone, benzalkonium, sodium dodecyl sulfate [SDS], and deoxycholate) at various concentrations. These agar plates were made by the twofold agar dilution method (16). Isopropyl-ß-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) was added to the agar plates at 1, 0.1, or 0.01 mM as an inducer when we examined the susceptibility of E. coli cells. Ten thousand cells were inoculated on a test agar plate and incubated at 37°C for 16 h. Growth was then evaluated.
Construction of an expression plasmid library of the response regulator ORFs. ORFs assumed to be regulatory genes of two-component systems were cloned as follows. Chromosomal DNA from E. coli W3104 was isolated as described previously (20). ORFs were amplified by PCR with forward primers containing an NcoI site that included the initiation codons of the response regulator genes (except for uvrY) and reverse primers containing the translation termination codons of these genes. A forward primer containing an EcoRI site was used for uvrY. The amplified fragments were inserted into the pTrc99A vector and cut with NcoI (EcoRI for uvrY) and BamHI (PstI for kdpE and yjdG). The Shine-Dalgarno sequence supplied by the vector was placed at a correct distance from the ATG codon. The overexpressed proteins were expected to have exactly the same sequence as native proteins except that the nonconserved second amino acids from the N terminus have been changed. Competent KAM3 cells were transformed with at least three of the constructed plasmids that had been extracted from independent colonies, and then the susceptibilities of all transformants to various drugs were measured after induction by IPTG.
Transcriptional analysis of putative drug transporter genes.
Cells were grown at 37°C in Luria-Bertani broth containing ampicillin until the absorbance at 600 nm reached 0.8. Total RNA was then purified by using the RNAprotect bacterial reagent (Qiagen) and the SV total RNA isolation system (Promega), with a slightly revised protocol. cDNA samples were synthesized from the purified total RNA by using TaqMan reverse transcription reagents (PE Applied Biosystems) and random hexamers as primers. Specific primer pairs were designed with ABI PRISM Primer Express software (PE Applied Biosystems) for putative drug transporter genes. Real-time PCR was performed with each specific primer pair, using SYBR Green PCR master mix (PE Applied Biosystems). Equal amounts of cDNA, derived from RNA samples, were used as templates in the amplification reactions. E. coli rrsA was chosen as the control for the normalization of cDNA loading in each PCR. The reactions were performed with an ABI PRISM 7000 sequence detection system (PE Applied Biosystems), during which the fluorescence signal due to SYBR Green intercalation was monitored to quantify the double-stranded DNA product formed after each PCR cycle. The threshold cycle (Ct) is the first cycle for which a statistically significant increase in the amount of the PCR product is detected. Ct values are thus inversely proportional to the amounts of the RNA species in the original RNA samples. The Ct value was determined for each amplification reaction.
Ct between samples was calculated for each tested gene. Since the PCR products doubled with each amplification cycle, the fold difference in the initial concentration of each transcript equals 2
Ct.
Construction of acrD, mdtABC, acrAB, and tolC deletion mutants.
acrD and mdtABC deletion mutants of E. coli KAM3 were constructed by the gene replacement method as previously described, using plasmids pKO3
acrD and pKO3
mdtABC (9). acrAB and tolC deletion mutants of E. coli TG1 were constructed by the same method, using pKO3
acrAB and pKO3
tolC.
| RESULTS |
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As shown in Table 1, 15 response regulator genes conferred drug resistance to various degrees, indicating that response regulator-mediated drug resistance has great potential for bacterial drug resistance. Among them, the evgA gene conferred the most significant resistance to wide range of toxic compounds, such as erythromycin, doxorubicin, novobiocin, crystal violet, rhodamine 6G, TPP, benzalkonium, SDS, and deoxycholate. The baeR gene conferred significant novobiocin and deoxycholate resistance and low-level SDS resistance. It should be noted that eight different regulator genes (evgA, baeR, cpxR, dcuR, ompR, rcsB, narP, and yehT) conferred deoxycholate resistance.
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The ompR and rcsB genes conferred high deoxycholate resistance and low-level fosfomycin resistance. In addition, ompR also conferred low-level SDS resistance, and rcsB conferred low-level kanamycin and methyl viologen resistance. The ompR gene conferred the maximum resistance with a high IPTG concentration, while rcsB showed maximum resistance with a low IPTG concentration (Table 1).
The narP and yehT genes conferred moderate deoxycholate and crystal violet resistance. narP also conferred low-level methyl viologen and SDS resistance, and yehT conferred low-level fosfomycin resistance.
The eight regulator genes described above are all clearly related to deoxycholate resistance to various degrees; however, the case of fimZ is complicated. The growth of cells carrying the multicopy fimZ gene was inhibited with 1,250 µg of deoxycholate per ml (host level), whereas growth was again observed with more than 10,000 µg/ml. This phenomenon suggests the presence of some unknown fimZ-dependent deoxycholate adaptation mechanism. In addition, fimZ conferred moderate (fourfold) resistance to kanamycin.
The six other regulator genes conferred some drug resistance without deoxycholate resistance. The kdpE gene conferred resistance to kanamycin (fourfold) and methyl viologen (twofold). The narL gene conferred resistance to kanamycin (twofold), doxorubicin (twofold), novobiocin (twofold), and benzalkonium (twofold). Although the resistance spectrum of narL was broad, the individual levels were low. The yedW gene conferred kanamycin-specific low-level resistance (twofold). The resistance levels conferred by kdpE, narL, and yedW increased with increasing concentration of IPTG.
The citB and torR genes conferred fosfomycin-specific resistance with a low concentration of IPTG. The rstA genes conferred resistance to crystal violet (twofold) and fosfomycin (twofold) with high (1 mM) and intermediate (0.1 mM) concentrations of IPTG, respectively. It is not clear why rstA could not simultaneously confer crystal violet and fosfomycin resistance.
The other 17 regulator genes (arcA, atoC, b2381, basR, cheB, cheY, creB, glnG, hydG, phoB, phoP, rssB, uhpA, uvrY, yfhA, ygiX, and ylcA) conferred no drug resistance irrespective of the IPTG concentration.
In our previous study, we found that EvgA and BaeR up-regulate the expression of drug exporter genes such as emrKY, yhiUV, and mdtABC (13, 17, 18). Therefore, we next analyzed the relationship between overexpression of response regulators and up-regulation of expression of the drug exporter genes.
Determination of mRNA levels of drug exporters by quantitative real-time PCR. In our previous study, 37 putative drug exporter genes were found in the course of sequence annotation. We found that 20 intrinsic putative drug exporter genes actually conferred drug resistance when they were expressed from multicopy plasmids (16). In this study, we investigated the regulator gene-dependent changes in the amounts of the mRNAs of all of these drug exporter genes by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR. The IPTG concentration that gave the maximum MIC was chosen. The results are shown in Table 2. Out of the 32 response regulator genes, only five (evgA, baeR, cpxR, ompR, and rcsB) caused significant increases (more than fourfold in comparison with the basal levels) in the mRNA levels of some drug exporter genes. None of the other 27 regulator genes affected the mRNA levels of drug exporter genes.
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No other response regulators conferring drug resistance significantly affected the expression of drug exporter genes.
Contributions of AcrD and MdtABC to multidrug resistance mediated by overexpression of BaeR, CpxR, and OmpR. First, we investigated whether overexpression of acrD confers drug resistance in KAM3 cells (Table 3). Elkins and Nikaido reported that the AcrD system depends on the membrane fusion protein AcrA (4). KAM3 cells harboring plasmid pQE70BH carrying acrB showed the same drug resistance levels as TG1 cells (Table 3). When acrD was expressed from a multicopy plasmid in KAM3 cells, it conferred resistance to deoxycholate, SDS, and novobiocin. However an acrAB deletion mutant of TG1 showed no increase in resistance even when acrD was overexpressed (Table 3). In addition, a tolC deletion mutant also showed no resistance increase when acrD was overexpressed. Thus, it was confirmed that AcrD functions in cooperation with AcrA and TolC. It is clear that as a result of AcrB and AcrD overexpression, KAM3 cells retain intact AcrA protein.
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| DISCUSSION |
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We determined that the resistance mediated by baeR was due to two kinds of multidrug exporters, AcrD and MdtABC, although Baranova and Nikaido reported that baeR overexpression conferred no drug resistance in an mdtABC deletion strain, AG100A
yegMNOB::cat. In their study, AcrD might not function because the AG100A strain has lost the acrA gene (2).
With regard to ompR, the expression of many drug exporter genes was up-regulated. However, deletion of the acrD gene, which is the gene most highly controlled by OmpR among these exporter genes, did not affect the ompR-mediated drug resistance. Thus, the ompR-mediated drug resistance might be due to drug resistance determinants other than drug exporters.
In any case, the drug resistance mediated by evgA, baeR, and cpxR was due to the up-regulation of exporter gene expression. In contrast, rcsB-mediated deoxycholate resistance was not assigned to the macAB gene stimulated by rcsB. MacAB confers only macrolide-specific resistance (8).
None of the other 10 drug resistance-related regulator genes significantly affected exporter gene expression. These regulator genes, including rcsB, confer drug resistance via stimulation of drug resistance determinants other than exporters.
In this study, we revealed that expression of the acrD gene was controlled by numerous regulator genes, baeR, cpxR, and ompR, indicating that the AcrD system may be important for two-component system-mediated bacterial environmental adaptation. Our results indicate that response regulator overproduction is a possible mechanism for novel multidrug resistance of pathogenic bacteria.
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| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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K. Nishino is supported by a research fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists. This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
| FOOTNOTES |
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| REFERENCES |
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