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Journal of Bacteriology, November 2004, p. 7450-7455, Vol. 186, No. 21
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.21.7450-7455.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Molecular Biology, School of Health Sciences, Kyorin University, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan
Received 22 June 2004/ Accepted 4 August 2004
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The steady-state level of mRNA in a cell is a function of its rate of synthesis and degradation. An increase in the stability of MDT mRNA may result in a higher level of mRNA. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that cells may acquire an MDR phenotype by stabilization of MDT mRNA. However, such an example has not been reported to date. In the present report, we describe the first example of increased stability of MDT mRNA (bmr3 mRNA) resulting in an MDR phenotype in B. subtilis.
Spontaneous mutants (PR mutants) isolated in the presence of high concentrations of puromycin showed an MDR phenotype. Spontaneous mutants isolated by growing B. subtilis 168 in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium containing high concentrations of puromycin (100 µg/ml) were found to be divided into two groups. One group of mutants showed high levels of resistance to lincomycin as well as puromycin (PLR mutants), whereas the other group (PR mutants) showed levels of lincomycin resistance similar to that of strain 168. Both groups of mutants expressed an MDR phenotype, although their drug specificities were somewhat different. It has previously been reported that PLR mutants have mutations in the lmrAB operon (16).
In the present study, a PR mutant was further characterized. Resistance to various drugs was assayed as described previously (20). As shown in Table 1, the PR mutant showed increased resistance to puromycin, norfloxacin, tosufloxacin, daunomycin, and ethidium bromide. Resistance levels to levofloxacin, lincomycin, tetraphenylphosphonium chloride, and rhodamine 6G were not significantly increased. The results indicated the possibility that expression of one of the MDTs was increased in the PR mutant.
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TABLE 1. MDR phenotypes of the PR mutant
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Southern hybridization analysis showed that a 5.0-kb HincII fragment of chromosomal DNA from the PR mutant with a cat insertion contained the cat gene and flanking regions. This fragment was cloned into pUC18, and the partial DNA sequence of the insert was determined. The sequences obtained matched those of the bmr3 gene which encodes a third MDT of B. subtilis belonging to the major facilitator superfamily (21). A 1.8-kb fragment containing the bmr3 locus was amplified with High Fidelity Platinum Taq (Invitrogen) with chromosomal DNA from the PR mutant used as a template and transformed into strain 168. The transformant selected by puromycin resistance showed the same MDR phenotype as the original PR mutant. These results indicate that the bmr3 gene was responsible for the MDR phenotype of the PR mutant.
Mutations found in the bmr3 gene. The nucleotide sequence of a 1.8-kb fragment of the PR mutant containing the bmr3 gene was determined and compared to that of strain 168, which has been previously reported (21). As members of a European-Japanese cooperative B. subtilis genome sequencing project, Yamane et al. determined the nucleotide sequence for this region (accession no. D50453). In a comparison of the sequences of the 1.8-kb region containing the bmr3 gene determined by us (accession no. D50098) and by Yamane et al., many discrepancies (at more than 20 sites) were found. For example, Yamane et al. reported that the bmr3 gene encodes a protein containing 315 amino acids (24), whereas based on our data, it encodes a protein containing 536 amino acids (21). We confirmed that our sequence is correct at each discrepant site, and consequently our sequence data were adopted for this study.
As shown in Fig. 1, two nucleotide changes were found in the 5' UTR. One change was C to T at the 18 position and the other was T to A at the +4 position, both relative to the initiation site of transcription (see below). Two amino acid changes, A274T and A285E, which are located in the 9th of 14 transmembrane segments of the Bmr3 protein, were also found. In order to determine whether these two amino acid changes affect the MDR phenotype of the PR mutant, a 0.9-kb fragment containing the 5' UTR and the coding region up to the 67th amino acid were amplified with High Fidelity Platinum Taq (Invitrogen), with chromosomal DNA from the PR mutant used as a template, and transformed into strain 168 cells. The transformants showed the same MDR phenotype as the original PR mutant (Table 1). No difference in drug specificity between the transformants and the original PR mutant was detected for the drugs listed in Table 1. From these results, it was concluded that the two base substitutions in the 5' UTR of the bmr3 gene resulted in the MDR phenotype and that the two amino acid changes had no effect on the drug specificity of the Bmr3 efflux protein.
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FIG. 1. Mutations detected in the PR mutant. Putative promoter 35 and 10 consensus sequences and Shine-Dalgarno sequences are shown as boxes in black. The transcription initiation site is marked +1. The horizontal arrows indicate inverted repeat sequences. (A) Mutations in the 5' UTR. Nucleotide changes detected in the PR mutant are indicated by filled arrows. (B) Amino acid changes in the bmr3 coding region. Both amino acids are located in the ninth transmembrane segment of Bmr3.
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FIG. 2. Northern hybridization analysis of RNA isolated from strain 168 and the PR mutant. Cells were grown in LB medium to early (optical density at 530 nm [OD530], 0.5) (lanes 1 and 4), middle (OD530, 1.2) (lanes 2 and 5), and late (OD530, 2.0) (lanes 3 and 6) log phases. Five micrograms of total RNA was loaded per lane. A 32P-labeled bmr3 probe was used. The same membrane was reprobed with a 32P-labeled 16S rRNA fragment, and the results are shown in the lower part of the figure. The radioactivity of each band was quantified with a BAS2000 imaging analyzer (Fuji). The relative amounts of bmr3 mRNA normalized to 16S rRNA are shown at the bottom of the figure. m, molecular size standard (Invitrogen RNA ladder, 0.24 to 9.5 kb and 0.16 to 1.77 kb).
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A-dependent 35 and 10 consensus sequences were found in the upstream region, as shown in Fig. 1.
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FIG. 3. Mapping of the 5'-end of bmr3 mRNA by primer extension analysis. Total RNA was isolated from an early-log-phase (OD530, 0.5) culture of strain 168 and the PR mutant grown in LB medium. Forty micrograms of total RNA was used for primer extension. The amount of sample loaded on lane 2 was 1/10 of that loaded on lane 1. The potential transcription start site is marked with arrows. Lanes: 1, strain 168; 2, PR mutant; A, C, G, and T, dideoxy sequencing ladder obtained with the same primer used for primer extension.
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T)-lacZ, 168 amyE::pbmr3(T
A)-lacZ, 168 amyE::pbmr3(PR mutant)-lacZ, and 168 amyE::pbmr3(wild type)-lacZ.
The ß-galactosidase activity of 168 amyE::pbmr3(PR mutant)-lacZ was about 200-fold higher than that of 168 amyE::pbmr3(wild type)-lacZ. The ß-galactosidase activity of 168 amyE::pbmr3(T
A)-lacZ was about 50-fold higher than that of 168 amyE::pbmr3(wild type)-lacZ, whereas the ß-galactosidase activity of 168 amyE::pbmr3(C
T)-lacZ was only twice that of the wild-type fusion strain (Table 2). These results indicate that the T-to-A(+4) nucleotide change in the PR mutant was mainly responsible for increased expression of the bmr3 gene at a transcriptional level, although the C-to-T(18) change together with T-to-A(+4) change resulted in about a fourfold increase in expression.
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TABLE 2. Expression of pbmr3-lacZ transcriptional fusion genes
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FIG. 4. mRNA secondary structure predicted for the 5' UTR of bmr3. A base change, T to A at position +4, is shown by an arrow. +1, transcriptional start site; M, initiation codon.
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FIG. 5. Increased stability of bmr3 mRNA in the PR mutant. Cells were grown in LB medium to early log phase (OD530, 0.5), and rifampin (500 µg/ml) was added to inhibit transcription. Portions of the culture were removed at the indicated times (in minutes) after the addition of rifampin (shown at the top of the each lane). m, molecular size standard (Invitrogen RNA ladder, 0.24 to 9.5 kb; Novagen Perfect RNA markers, 0.1 to 1 kb). (A) Hybridization was carried out with probes specific for bmr3 and 16S rRNA. (B) The relative amounts of mRNAs remaining after the addition of rifampin were calculated from the results shown in panel A and plotted against time. Open circles, strain 168; closed circles, PR mutant.
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T), and 168 amyE::pbmr3 (T
A)-lacZ, respectively. The relative values of ß-galactosidase activity in these strains, shown in Table 2, reflect the mRNA levels of the fusion genes.
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FIG. 6. The 5' UTR of the bmr3 transcript is a determinant of mRNA stability. Strain 168 clones containing various pbmr3-lacZ fusion genes at the amyE locus were grown in LB medium to early log phase (OD530, 0.5), and 500 µg of rifampin/ml was added to inhibit transcription. Portions of the culture were removed at the indicated times (in minutes) after the addition of rifampin (shown at the top of each lane). Five micrograms of total RNA was loaded per lane. m, molecular size standard (Invitrogen RNA ladder, 0.24 to 9.5 kb and 0.16 to 1.77 kb). A 32P-labeled lacZ probe was used for hybridization. An arrow indicates the mRNA of the pbmr3-lacZ fusion gene. (A) 168 amyE::pbmr3(wild type)-lacZ; (B) 168 amyE::pbmr3(C T)-lacZ; (C) 168 amyE::pbmr3(T A)-lacZ; (D) 168 amyE::pbmr3(PR)-lacZ. (E) The relative amounts of mRNA remaining after the addition of rifampin were calculated from the results shown in panels A through D and plotted against time. Open circles, 168 amyE::pbmr3(wild type)-lacZ; closed circles, 168 amyE::pbmr3(C T)-lacZ; open squares, 168 amyE::pbmr3(T A)-lacZ; closed squares, 168 amyE::pbmr3(PR mutant)-lacZ.
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T)-lacZ fusion gene mRNAs were about 4 min, whereas those of the pbmr3(PR mutant)-lacZ and pbmr3(T
A)-lacZ mRNAs were more than 15 min (Fig. 6). These results indicate that the 5' UTR sequence of the bmr3 gene is a determinant of mRNA stability and that the base change of T to A at the +4 position resulted in increased stability of bmr3 mRNA. The base change of C to T at the 18 position had no effect on mRNA stability. Therefore, the twofold increase of pbmr3(C
T)-lacZ fusion gene mRNA compared to that of wild-type fusion gene mRNA may be due to an increase in the rate of mRNA synthesis.
Endonucleases RNase III and RNase M5 are not involved in the degradation of bmr3 mRNA.
A predicted
-independent transcriptional terminator, which includes 17-bp perfectly matched inverted repeats, is located immediately downstream of the stop codon of the bmr3 gene. Therefore, bmr3 mRNA is predicted to have stem-loop structures at both the 3' and 5' ends. We attempted to determine whether endonucleases are involved in degradation of bmr3 mRNA. It is expected that the deletion of an RNase, which is involved in the critical step of bmr3 mRNA degradation in strain 168, may result in increased drug resistance as well as an increase in the expression of the bmr3(wild type)-lacZ fusion gene. An endoribonuclease, RNase III, has been reported to be involved in the degradation of certain mRNAs in B. subtilis. The mRNA of the early genes of B. subtilis phage SP82 is cleaved by RNase III at the loop of a hairpin structure (22), and it also cleaves the small cytoplasmic RNA precursor of the signal recognition particle at the bulge in the stem structure (18). Drug resistance levels of an rncS deletion mutant (BG322) and a control strain (BG324) were compared (11). No increase in resistance to puromycin was observed in BG322. The pbmr3(wild type)-lacZ fusion gene was also introduced into the amyE locus of BG322 and BG324. ß-Galactosidase activity was not increased by the rncS deletion. rnmV encodes RNase, which has been reported to be responsible for 5S rRNA maturation (5). We compared puromycin resistance levels of strain 168 and the pMutin insertional disruption mutant of the rnmV gene (YABFd). No difference in resistance was observed between the two strains. These results indicate that endoribonucleases RNase III and RNase M5 are not involved in the degradation of bmr3 mRNA. Based on a gene array analysis, Condon et al. reported that RNase M5 has few, if any, mRNA substrates in B. subtilis (6).
Several mRNAs with extreme stability have been reported for B. subtilis. Individual factors contributing to the stabilization of these mRNAs have been discussed in each case. The half-life of an ermC transcript increases about 20-fold upon exposure to erythromycin. The erythromycin-bound ribosome stalls while translating a leader peptide preceding the coding region of ErmC. The stalled ribosome protects the transcript from degradation (4, 14). The gsiB mRNA, which encodes a
B-dependent general stress protein, has a remarkably long half-life (
20 min) (15). It was found that a strong ribosome binding site was crucial for the increased stability of the gsiB mRNA. The mRNA of the aprE gene, which encodes subtilisin, is stable, with a half-life exceeding 20 min (9). aprE-5' UTR-lacZ fusion mRNA has a similar half-life, indicating that the determinants for aprE mRNA stability are located in the 5' UTR, which is predicted to fold into a stem-loop structure at the 5' end. Our results indicate that endonucleases RNase III and RNase M5 are not involved in the degradation of bmr3 mRNA. The possibility that a protein factor other than RNase is involved in the regulation of mRNA stability has not been excluded. Further work is required to elucidate the precise mechanism of the bmr3 mRNA degradation process.
The results obtained in the present study indicate the possibility that MDR clinical isolates have a mutation which results in the stabilization of MDT mRNA. This finding provides an additional target for potential drugs designed to overcome MDR pathogens.
This work was partly supported by a grant in aid from the Scientific Research Promotion Fund of the Japan Private School Promotion Foundation.
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