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An ABC Transporter Is Required for Secretion of Peptide Sex Pheromones in Enterococcus faecalis
Enterococci are leading causes of hospital-acquired infection in the United States and continue to develop resistances to new antibiotics. Many Enterococcus faecalis isolates harbor pheromone-responsive plasmids that mediate horizontal transfer of even large blocks of chromosomal genes, resulting in...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
American Society of Microbiology
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4173765/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25249282 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01726-14 |
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author | Varahan, Sriram Harms, Nathan Gilmore, Michael S. Tomich, John M. Hancock, Lynn E. |
author_facet | Varahan, Sriram Harms, Nathan Gilmore, Michael S. Tomich, John M. Hancock, Lynn E. |
author_sort | Varahan, Sriram |
collection | PubMed |
description | Enterococci are leading causes of hospital-acquired infection in the United States and continue to develop resistances to new antibiotics. Many Enterococcus faecalis isolates harbor pheromone-responsive plasmids that mediate horizontal transfer of even large blocks of chromosomal genes, resulting in hospital-adapted strains over a quarter of whose genomes consist of mobile elements. Pheromones to which the donor cells respond derive from lipoprotein signal peptides. Using a novel bacterial killing assay dependent on the presence of sex pheromones, we screened a transposon mutant library for functions that relate to the production and/or activity of the effector pheromone. Here we describe a previously uncharacterized, but well-conserved, ABC transporter that contributes to pheromone production. Using three distinct pheromone-dependent mating systems, we show that mutants defective in expressing this transporter display a 5- to 6-order-of-magnitude reduction in conjugation efficiency. In addition, we demonstrate that the ABC transporter mutant displays an altered biofilm architecture, with a significant reduction in biofilm biomass compared to that of its isogenic parent, suggesting that pheromone activity also influences biofilm development. The conservation of this peptide transporter across the Firmicutes suggests that it may also play an important role in cell-cell communication in other species within this important phylum. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4173765 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | American Society of Microbiology |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-41737652014-10-06 An ABC Transporter Is Required for Secretion of Peptide Sex Pheromones in Enterococcus faecalis Varahan, Sriram Harms, Nathan Gilmore, Michael S. Tomich, John M. Hancock, Lynn E. mBio Research Article Enterococci are leading causes of hospital-acquired infection in the United States and continue to develop resistances to new antibiotics. Many Enterococcus faecalis isolates harbor pheromone-responsive plasmids that mediate horizontal transfer of even large blocks of chromosomal genes, resulting in hospital-adapted strains over a quarter of whose genomes consist of mobile elements. Pheromones to which the donor cells respond derive from lipoprotein signal peptides. Using a novel bacterial killing assay dependent on the presence of sex pheromones, we screened a transposon mutant library for functions that relate to the production and/or activity of the effector pheromone. Here we describe a previously uncharacterized, but well-conserved, ABC transporter that contributes to pheromone production. Using three distinct pheromone-dependent mating systems, we show that mutants defective in expressing this transporter display a 5- to 6-order-of-magnitude reduction in conjugation efficiency. In addition, we demonstrate that the ABC transporter mutant displays an altered biofilm architecture, with a significant reduction in biofilm biomass compared to that of its isogenic parent, suggesting that pheromone activity also influences biofilm development. The conservation of this peptide transporter across the Firmicutes suggests that it may also play an important role in cell-cell communication in other species within this important phylum. American Society of Microbiology 2014-09-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4173765/ /pubmed/25249282 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01726-14 Text en Copyright © 2014 Varahan et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) , which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Varahan, Sriram Harms, Nathan Gilmore, Michael S. Tomich, John M. Hancock, Lynn E. An ABC Transporter Is Required for Secretion of Peptide Sex Pheromones in Enterococcus faecalis |
title | An ABC Transporter Is Required for Secretion of Peptide Sex Pheromones in Enterococcus faecalis |
title_full | An ABC Transporter Is Required for Secretion of Peptide Sex Pheromones in Enterococcus faecalis |
title_fullStr | An ABC Transporter Is Required for Secretion of Peptide Sex Pheromones in Enterococcus faecalis |
title_full_unstemmed | An ABC Transporter Is Required for Secretion of Peptide Sex Pheromones in Enterococcus faecalis |
title_short | An ABC Transporter Is Required for Secretion of Peptide Sex Pheromones in Enterococcus faecalis |
title_sort | abc transporter is required for secretion of peptide sex pheromones in enterococcus faecalis |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4173765/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25249282 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01726-14 |
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