Previous Article | Next Article 
Journal of Bacteriology, January 2005, p. 785-790, Vol. 187, No. 2
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.187.2.785-790.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
The BpsIR Quorum-Sensing System of Burkholderia pseudomallei
Yan Song,
Chao Xie,
Yong-Mei Ong,
Yunn-Hwen Gan, and
Kim-Lee Chua*
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore
Received 1 March 2004/
Accepted 29 September 2004

ABSTRACT
BpsIR, a LuxIR quorum-sensing homolog, is required for optimal
expression of virulence and secretion of exoproducts in
Burkholderia pseudomallei. Cell density-dependent expression of
bpsI and
bpsR, the positive regulation of
bpsIR expression by BpsR, and
the synthesis of
N-octanoyl-homoserine lactone (C8HSL) by BpsI
are described in this report.

TEXT
Quorum sensing regulates many diverse biological functions in
gram-negative bacteria, including conjugation (
20,
32), antibiotic
synthesis, extracellular enzyme and exopolysaccharide production
(
13,
21), expression of extracellular virulence factors, and
biofilm formation (
5,
18). In this study, we describe BpsIR,
a LuxIR homolog in
Burkholderia pseudomallei, a gram-negative
soil bacillus and etiologic agent of human and animal melioidosis.
Autoinducer synthesis by BpsIR in B. pseudomallei KHW.
The bacterial strains and plasmids used in this study are described in Table 1. KHWbpsI::Km and KHWbpsR::Km insertion mutants were derived from a local virulent isolate, B. pseudomallei KHW, by gene replacement using the suicide vector pJQ200mp18 as described previously (2, 3). The bpsI and bpsR fragments were amplified from B. pseudomallei KHW genomic DNA using the primer pairs BpsIF (5'ATCTGCAGATGCGAACTTTCGTTCATGGC) and BpsIR (5'ATCTGCAGGAAATACCGTTGAATGGTCCA) and BpsRF (5'ATCTGCAGATGGAACTGCGCTGGCAAGA) and BpsRR (5'ATCTGCAGTTACGGCGCGTCGATGAGCC), respectively(Fig. 1). Located on chromosome 2 of B. pseudomallei, bpsIR is highly similar to pmlIR, which was recently described by Valade et al. (29), and the BpsI and BpsR proteins are 75 and 80% identical to B. cepacia CepI and CepR, respectively (29). bpsI and bpsR are divergently transcribed, and the intergenic 742-bp spacer region contained two lux box motifs composed of 20-bp palindromic sequences which matched the consensus lux box in 15 and 13 of 20 positions, respectively (Fig. 1, insert) (10).
The promoter
bpsI-lacZ fusion (pSYI) and the promoter
bpsR-lacZ
fusion (pSYR), obtained by ligating the putative
bpsI and
bpsR promoters, respectively, to
lacZ on pCYY, were introduced into
the wild type and
bpsIR mutants to study transcriptional regulation
of
bpsI and
bpsR. Exogenous addition of only 0.125 nM
N-octanoyl-homoserine
lactone (C8HSL) to KHW
bpsI::Km (pSYI) restored the
bpsI promoter
activity to the wild-type level. The
bpsI promoter was, in contrast,
10- and 1,600-fold less sensitive to C10HSL (
N-decanoyl-
L-homoserine
lactone) and C6HSL (
N-hexanoyl-
L-homoserine lactone), respectively,
and was insensitive to C4HSL (
N-butyryl-
L-homoserine lactone),
3OC6HSL [
N-(3-oxohexanoyl)-
L-homoserine lactone], 3OC8HSL [
N-(3-oxooctanoyl)-
L-homoserine
lactone], 3OC10HSL [
N-(3-oxodecanoyl)-
L-homoserine lactone],
and 3OC12HSL [
N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-
L-homoserine lactone] tested
at concentrations up to 1 µM (data not shown).
Acyl-HSLs, extracted from the spent culture supernatant of Escherichia coli DH5
(pGEM-T-bpsIR) expressing bpsI, were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a C18 reversed-phase column (Agilent Series 1100 Hypersil octyldecyl silane column; 200 by 4.6 mm; particle size, 5 µm). Upon elution at a flow rate of 1 ml/min with an isocratic profile of methanol-water (50:50, vol/vol) for 10 min, followed by a linear gradient of 50 to 90% methanol in water for 15 min, and an isocratic profile over 25 min, the amount of acyl-HSLs in each fraction was quantified by the ß-galactosidase activity produced using KHWbpsI::Km (pSYI). BpsI synthesized mainly C8HSL (Fig. 2). The PmlIR system, in comparison, synthesized predominantly C10HSL, but this may be attributed to the different B. pseudomallei strains used (29).
Cell density-dependent expression and transcriptional regulation of bpsI and bpsR.
Cell density-dependent expression of
bpsI was observed in the
wild type, but not the
bpsI or
bpsR mutants, which is a characteristic
of quorum-sensing genes (Fig.
3A and B). The addition of 0.125
nM C8HSL to the KHW
bpsI::Km (pSYI) culture restored the cell
density-dependent expression of
bpsI previously absent in the
bpsI mutant (Fig.
3A). The low-level expression of
bpsI in KHW
bpsI::Km
suggests the possibility of residual autoinducers produced by
other
B. pseudomallei LuxIR homologs acting on the
bpsI promoter
(Fig.
3A and B). Like
bpsI, transcription of
bpsR was also cell
density dependent (Fig.
3C) and was positively regulated by
bpsI as well as its own gene product (Fig.
3C and D). Such findings
are consistent with a model wherein the product of the BpsI
synthase, an acyl-HSL, interacts with the BpsR, an acyl-HSL
receptor protein, to activate the transcription of both
bpsI and
bpsR via interaction with the respective
lux box motifs
identified in the intergenic region between
bpsI and
bpsR (Fig.
1).
bpsI and bpsR mutants are partially attenuated in virulence in the Caenorhabditis elegans model.
In the
B. pseudomallei-C. elegans coculture assay using synchronized
L2-stage worms, twice as many worms survived after 48 h of coculture
with KHW
bpsI::Km as with KHW and the complemented KHW
bpsI::Km
mutant (Fig.
4A) (
8). Similarly, twice as many worms survived
when fed on KHW
bpsR::Km as when fed on KHW and the complemented
KHW
bpsR::Km mutant (Fig.
4B). The partial attenuation in
C. elegans killing observed with the
bpsI and
bpsR mutants may
be attributed to the presence of other
luxIR homologs which
may interact to control virulence in
B. pseudomallei as in the
cases of
Vibrio cholera and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (
16,
19).
Two other
luxIR homologs have been identified in the recently
sequenced
B. pseudomallei K96243 genome. In
P. aeruginosa, the
quorum-sensing mutants were also not completely avirulent in
both mammalian models of infection and pathogen-
C. elegans coculture
assay (
25). The expression of
B. pseudomallei virulence is probably
multifactorial, and although quorum-sensing genes have significant
effects on virulence, many other factors also play important
roles in regulating pathogenesis.
BpsIR is involved in the secretion of some exoproducts.
Previous studies have demonstrated that
B. pseudomallei secreted
protease, lipase, and phospholipase C (PLC) into the extracellular
milieu, but the roles of these in pathogenesis have not been
elucidated. Siderophore production in
B. pseudomallei KHW was
growth phase dependent, with maximal siderophore production
occurring in the stationary-phase culture supernatants (data
not shown). Both the
bpsI and
bpsR mutants yielded two- to threefold
more siderophores than the wild type (Fig.
5A). Complementation
of the mutants by use of the plasmids pUCP28T-
bpsI and pUCP28T-
bpsR restored the siderophores' levels to those of the wild type
(Fig.
5A). Siderophores, which function in the sequestration
of iron, are implicated in the virulence of several pathogenic
bacteria, including
B. cepacia, where the CepIR quorum-sensing
system also negatively regulates ornibactin synthesis, but the
significance of such a mechanism is also not established (
14).
PLC production in the culture supernatants of
B. pseudomallei was also dependent on the growth phase, with maximal production
of PLC occurring at the late log phase (data not shown). Unlike
siderophore production, PLC production in
B. pseudomallei is
positively regulated by the BpsIR quorum-sensing system, and
the production of PLC in the supernatants of 24-h-old cultures
was reduced to half in the
bpsI and
bpsR mutants compared to
that in the wild type (Fig.
5B). The production of PLC was likewise
restored to wild-type levels in the
trans-complemented KHW
bpsI::Km
and KHW
bpsR::Km mutants (Fig.
5B). The twofold difference between
the wild type and the mutants suggests either that the PLC promoter
may be indirectly controlled by the BpsIR quorum-sensing system
or, alternatively, that the high basal level of PLC expression
in the wild type and mutants might be attributable to a second
acyl-HSL system which bears upon the PLC promoter. Since PLC
is believed to be important for interaction with the phospholipids
in eukaryotic cell membranes during infection, the former suggestion
would explain how its production is positively regulated by
quorum sensing (
27,
28).
The secretion of lipase by B. pseudomallei KHW, which was also growth phase dependent, was unaffected in the bpsIR mutants (data not shown). Likewise, protease secretion in B. pseudomallei KHW, as detected by a zone of clearance around the colonies on dialyzed brain heart infusion agar supplemented with 1.5% skim milk (26), was also unaffected by the bpsIR mutations (data not shown). It is also unclear if protease is a virulence determinant in B. pseudomallei, since there was no correlation between virulence and the level of exoproteolytic activity when B. pseudomallei was injected into mice via the intraperitoneal route (9). Further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms by which BpsIR regulates the production of siderophores and phospholipase C in B. pseudomallei.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 8 Medical Dr., Singapore 117597, Singapore. Phone: (65) 68743684. Fax: (65) 67791453. E-mail:
bchckl{at}nus.edu.sg.


REFERENCES
1 - Casadaban, M. J., J. Chou, and S. N. Cohen. 1980. In vitro gene fusions that join an enzymatically active beta-galactosidase segment to amino-terminal fragments of exogenous proteins: Escherichia coli plasmid vectors for the detection and cloning of translational initiation signals. J. Bacteriol. 143:971-980.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2 - Chan, Y. Y., T. M. Tan, Y. M. Ong, and K. L. Chua. 2004. BpeAB-OprB, a multidrug efflux pump in Burkholderia pseudomallei. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 48:1128-1135.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3 - Chua, K. L., Y. Y. Chan, and Y. H. Gan. 2003. Flagella are virulence determinants of Burkholderia pseudomallei. Infect. Immun. 71:1622-1629.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
4 - Clark, D., and O. Maaloe. 1967. DNA replication and the division cycle in Escherichia coli. J. Mol. Biol. 23:99-112.[CrossRef]
5 - Davies, D. G., M. R. Parsek, J. P. Pearson, B. H. Iglewski, J. W. Costerton, and E. P. Greenberg. 1998. The involvement of cell-to-cell signals in the development of a bacterial biofilm. Science 280:295-298.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
6 - de Lorenzo, V., M. Herrero, U. Jakubzik, and K. N. Timmis. 1990. Mini-Tn5 transposon derivatives for insertion mutagenesis, promoter probing, and chromosomal insertion of cloned DNA in gram-negative eubacteria. J. Bacteriol. 172:6568-6572.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
7 - de Lorenzo, V., and K. N. Timmis. 1994. Analysis and construction of stable phenotypes in gram-negative bacteria with Tn5- and Tn10-derived minitransposons. Methods Enzymol. 235:386-405.[Medline]
8 - Gan, Y. H., K. L. Chua, H. H. Chua, B. Liu, C. S. Hii, H. L. Chong, and P. Tan. 2002. Characterization of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection and identification of novel virulence factors using a Caenorhabditis elegans host system. Mol. Microbiol. 44:1185-1197.[CrossRef][Medline]
9 - Gauthier, Y. P., F. M. Thibault, J. C. Paucod, and D. R. Vidal. 2000. Protease production by Burkholderia pseudomallei and virulence in mice. Acta Trop. 74:215-220.[CrossRef][Medline]
10 - Gray, K. M., L. Passador, B. H. Iglewski, and E. P. Greenberg. 1994. Interchangeability and specificity of components from the quorum-sensing regulatory systems of Vibrio fischeri and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. J. Bacteriol. 176:3076-3080.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
11 - Hoang, T. T., A. J. Kutchma, A. Becher, and H. P. Schweizer. 2000. Integration-proficient plasmids for Pseudomonas aeruginosa: site-specific integration and use for engineering of reporter and expression strains. Plasmid 43:59-72.[CrossRef][Medline]
12 - Kurioka, S., and M. Matsuda. 1976. Phospholipase C assay using p-nitrophenylphosphoryl-choline together with sorbitol and its application to studying the metal and detergent requirement of the enzyme. Anal. Biochem. 75:281-289.[CrossRef][Medline]
13 - Lewenza, S., B. Conway, E. P. Greenberg, and P. A. Sokol. 1999. Quorum sensing in Burkholderia cepacia: identification of the LuxRI homologs CepRI. J. Bacteriol. 181:748-756.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
14 - Lewenza, S., and P. A. Sokol. 2001. Regulation of ornibactin biosynthesis and N-acyl-L-homoserine lactone production by CepR in Burkholderia cepacia. J. Bacteriol. 183:2212-2218.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
15 - Miller, J. H. 1972. Experiments in molecular genetics. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
16 - Miller, M. B., K. Skorupski, D. H. Lenz, R. K. Taylor, and B. L. Bassler. 2002. Parallel quorum sensing systems converge to regulate virulence in Vibrio cholerae. Cell 110:303-314.[CrossRef][Medline]
17 - Miller, V. L., and J. J. Mekalanos. 1988. A novel suicide vector and its use in construction of insertion mutations: osmoregulation of outer membrane proteins and virulence determinants in Vibrio cholerae requires toxR. J. Bacteriol. 170:2575-2583.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
18 - Passador, L., J. M. Cook, M. J. Gambello, L. Rust, and B. H. Iglewski. 1993. Expression of Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence genes requires cell-to-cell communication. Science 260:1127-1130.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
19 - Pearson, J. P., M. Feldman, B. H. Iglewski, and A. Prince. 2000. Pseudomonas aeruginosa cell-to-cell signaling is required for virulence in a model of acute pulmonary infection. Infect. Immun. 68:4331-4334.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
20 - Piper, K. R., S. Beck von Bodman, and S. K. Farrand. 1993. Conjugation factor of Agrobacterium tumefaciens regulates Ti plasmid transfer by autoinduction. Nature 362:448-450.[CrossRef][Medline]
21 - Pirhonen, M., D. Flego, R. Heikinheimo, and E. T. Palva. 1993. A small diffusible signal molecule is responsible for the global control of virulence and exoenzyme production in the plant pathogen Erwinia carotovora. EMBO J. 12:2467-2476.[Medline]
22 - Quandt, J., and M. F. Hynes. 1993. Versatile suicide vectors which allow direct selection for gene replacement in gram-negative bacteria. Gene 127:15-21.[CrossRef][Medline]
23 - Sambrook, J., E. F. Fritsch, and T. Maniatis. 1989. Molecular cloning: a laboratory manual, 2nd ed. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
24 - Simon, R., U. Priefer, and A. Puhler. 1983. A broad host range mobilization system for in vivo genetic engineering: transposon mutagenesis in gram negative bacteria. Bio/Technology 1:784-791.[CrossRef]
25 - Smith, R. S., and B. H. Iglewski. 2003. P. aeruginosa quorum-sensing systems and virulence. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 6:56-60.[CrossRef][Medline]
26 - Sokol, P. A., D. E. Ohman, and B. H. Iglewski. 1979. A more sensitive plate assay for detection of protease production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. J. Clin. Microbiol. 9:538-540.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
27 - Stonehouse, M. J., A. Cota-Gomez, S. K. Parker, W. E. Martin, J. A. Hankin, R. C. Murphy, W. Chen, K. B. Lim, M. Hackett, A. I. Vasil, and M. L. Vasil. 2002. A novel class of microbial phosphocholine-specific phospholipases C. Mol. Microbiol. 46:661-676.[CrossRef][Medline]
28 - Titball, R. W. 1998. Bacterial phospholipases. Symp. Ser. Soc. Appl. Microbiol. 27:127S-137S.[Medline]
29 - Valade, E., F. M. Thibault, Y. P. Gauthier, M. Palencia, M. Y. Popoff, and D. R. Vidal. 2004. The PmlI-PmlR quorum-sensing system in Burkholderia pseudomallei plays a key role in virulence and modulates production of the MprA protease. J. Bacteriol. 186:2288-2294.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
30 - West, S. E., H. P. Schweizer, C. Dall, A. K. Sample, and L. J. Runyen-Janecky. 1994. Construction of improved Escherichia-Pseudomonas shuttle vectors derived from pUC18/19 and sequence of the region required for their replication in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Gene 148:81-86.[CrossRef][Medline]
31 - Yang, H. M., W. Chaowagul, and P. A. Sokol. 1991. Siderophore production by Pseudomonas pseudomallei. Infect. Immun. 59:776-780.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
32 - Zhang, L., P. J. Murphy, A. Kerr, and M. E. Tate. 1993. Agrobacterium conjugation and gene regulation by N-acyl-L-homoserine lactones. Nature 362:446-448.[CrossRef][Medline]
Journal of Bacteriology, January 2005, p. 785-790, Vol. 187, No. 2
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.187.2.785-790.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Chandler, J. R., Duerkop, B. A., Hinz, A., West, T. E., Herman, J. P., Churchill, M. E. A., Skerrett, S. J., Greenberg, E. P.
(2009). Mutational Analysis of Burkholderia thailandensis Quorum Sensing and Self-Aggregation. J. Bacteriol.
191: 5901-5909
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Duerkop, B. A., Varga, J., Chandler, J. R., Peterson, S. B., Herman, J. P., Churchill, M. E. A., Parsek, M. R., Nierman, W. C., Greenberg, E. P.
(2009). Quorum-Sensing Control of Antibiotic Synthesis in Burkholderia thailandensis. J. Bacteriol.
191: 3909-3918
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Malott, R. J., O'Grady, E. P., Toller, J., Inhulsen, S., Eberl, L., Sokol, P. A.
(2009). A Burkholderia cenocepacia Orphan LuxR Homolog Is Involved in Quorum-Sensing Regulation. J. Bacteriol.
191: 2447-2460
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Kiratisin, P., Sanmee, S.
(2008). Roles and Interactions of Burkholderia pseudomallei BpsIR Quorum-Sensing System Determinants. J. Bacteriol.
190: 7291-7297
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Duerkop, B. A., Herman, J. P., Ulrich, R. L., Churchill, M. E. A., Greenberg, E. P.
(2008). The Burkholderia mallei BmaR3-BmaI3 Quorum-Sensing System Produces and Responds to N-3-Hydroxy-Octanoyl Homoserine Lactone. J. Bacteriol.
190: 5137-5141
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Iida, A., Ohnishi, Y., Horinouchi, S.
(2008). Control of Acetic Acid Fermentation by Quorum Sensing via N-Acylhomoserine Lactones in Gluconacetobacter intermedius. J. Bacteriol.
190: 2546-2555
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Duerkop, B. A., Ulrich, R. L., Greenberg, E. P.
(2007). Octanoyl-Homoserine Lactone Is the Cognate Signal for Burkholderia mallei BmaR1-BmaI1 Quorum Sensing. J. Bacteriol.
189: 5034-5040
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Chan, Y. Y., Bian, H. S., Tan, T. M. C., Mattmann, M. E., Geske, G. D., Igarashi, J., Hatano, T., Suga, H., Blackwell, H. E., Chua, K. L.
(2007). Control of Quorum Sensing by a Burkholderia pseudomallei Multidrug Efflux Pump. J. Bacteriol.
189: 4320-4324
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Lumjiaktase, P., Diggle, S. P., Loprasert, S., Tungpradabkul, S., Daykin, M., Camara, M., Williams, P., Kunakorn, M.
(2006). Quorum sensing regulates dpsA and the oxidative stress response in Burkholderia pseudomallei. Microbiology
152: 3651-3659
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Rodrigues, F., Sarkar-Tyson, M., Harding, S. V., Sim, S. H., Chua, H. H., Lin, C. H., Han, X., Karuturi, R. K. M., Sung, K., Yu, K., Chen, W., Atkins, T. P., Titball, R. W., Tan, P.
(2006). Global Map of Growth-Regulated Gene Expression in Burkholderia pseudomallei, the Causative Agent of Melioidosis. J. Bacteriol.
188: 8178-8188
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Inglis, T. J. J., Sagripanti, J.-L.
(2006). Environmental Factors That Affect the Survival and Persistence of Burkholderia pseudomallei. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
72: 6865-6875
[Full Text]
-
Pilatz, S., Breitbach, K., Hein, N., Fehlhaber, B., Schulze, J., Brenneke, B., Eberl, L., Steinmetz, I.
(2006). Identification of Burkholderia pseudomallei Genes Required for the Intracellular Life Cycle and In Vivo Virulence.. Infect. Immun.
74: 3576-3586
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Chan, Y. Y., Chua, K. L.
(2005). The Burkholderia pseudomallei BpeAB-OprB Efflux Pump: Expression and Impact on Quorum Sensing and Virulence. J. Bacteriol.
187: 4707-4719
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Ou, K., Ong, C., Koh, S. Y., Rodrigues, F., Sim, S. H., Wong, D., Ooi, C. H., Ng, K. C., Jikuya, H., Yau, C. C., Soon, S. Y., Kesuma, D., Lee, M. A., Tan, P.
(2005). Integrative Genomic, Transcriptional, and Proteomic Diversity in Natural Isolates of the Human Pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei. J. Bacteriol.
187: 4276-4285
[Abstract]
[Full Text]