Identification of trkH, Encoding a Potassium Uptake Protein Required for Francisella tularensis Systemic Dissemination in Mice

Francisella tularensis is a highly infectious bacterium causing the zoonotic disease tularaemia. During its infectious cycle, F. tularensis is not only exposed to the intracellular environment of macrophages but also resides transiently in extracellular compartments, in particular during its systemic dissemination. The screening of a bank of F. tularensis LVS transposon insertion mutants on chemically defined medium (CDM) led us to identify a gene, designated trkH, encoding a homolog of the potassium uptake permease TrkH. Inactivation of trkH impaired bacterial growth in CDM. Normal growth of the mutant was only restored when CDM was supplemented with potassium at high concentration. Strikingly, although not required for intracellular survival in cell culture models, TrkH appeared to be essential for bacterial virulence in the mouse. In vivo kinetics of bacterial dissemination revealed a severe defect of multiplication of the trkH mutant in the blood of infected animals. The trkH mutant also showed impaired growth in blood ex vivo. Genome sequence analyses suggest that the Trk system constitutes the unique functional active potassium transporter in both tularensis and holarctica subspecies. Hence, the impaired survival of the trkH mutant in vivo is likely to be due to its inability to survive in the low potassium environment (1–5 mM range) of the blood. This work unravels thus the importance of potassium acquisition in the extracellular phase of the F. tularensis infectious cycle. More generally, potassium could constitute an important mineral nutrient involved in other diseases linked to systemic dissemination of bacterial pathogens.