Effects Of Polyamines On Vibrio Cholerae Virulence Properties
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Ece Karatan Ph.D., Associate Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
Abstract: Vibrio cholerae is the causative agent of the severe enteric disease cholera. To cause cholera the bacterium must be able to synthesize both cholera toxin (CT) and toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) which mediates auto-agglutination and is required for colonization of the small intestine. Only a few environmental signals have been shown to regulate V. cholerae virulence gene expression. Polyamines, which are ubiquitous in nature, and have been implicated in regulating virulence gene expression in other bacteria, have not been extensively studied for their effect on V. cholerae virulence properties. The objective of this study was to test the effect of several polyamines that are abundant in the human intestine on Vcholerae virulence properties. All of the polyamines tested inhibited autoagglutination of V. cholerae O1 classical strain in a concentration dependent manner. Putrescine and cadaverine decreased the synthesis of the major pilin subunit, TcpA, spermidine increased its production, and spermine had no effect. Putrescine and spermidine led to a decrease and increase, respectively, on the relative abundance of TCP found on the cell surface. Spermine led to a small reduction in cholera toxin synthesis whereas none of the other polyamines had an effect. The polyamines did not affect pili bundling morphology, but caused a small reduction in CTXw transduction, indicating that the TCP present on the cell surface may not be fully functional. We hypothesize the inhibition of auto-agglutination is likely to be caused by the positively charged amine groups on the polyamines electrostatically disrupting the pili-pili interactions which mediate auto-agglutination. Our results implicate that polyamines may have a protective function against colonization of the small intestine by V. cholerae.
Effects Of Polyamines On Vibrio Cholerae Virulence Properties
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Additional Information
- Publication
- John Bradley Goforth, Nicholas Emmanuel Walter, Ece Karatan (2013) "Effects Of Polyamines On Vibrio Cholerae Virulence Properties." . PLoS ONE 8(4): e60765. [DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0060765] Version Of Record Available At www.PloS ONE.com
- Language: English
- Date: 2013
- Keywords
- vibrio cholerae, toxin-coregulated pilus, spermidine, polyamines