The O-antigen negative ∆wbaV mutant of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis shows adaptive resistance to antimicrobial peptides and elicits colitis in streptomycin pretreated mouse model

BACKGROUND: Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, the most common cause of human gastroenteritis, employs several virulence factors including lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for infection and establishment of disease inside the host. The LPS of S. enterica serovar Enteritidis consists of lipid A, core oligosaccharide and O-antigen (OAg). The OAg consists of repeating units containing different sugars. The sugars of OAg are synthesized and assembled by a set of enzymes encoded by genes organized into clusters. Present study focuses on the effect of deletion of genes involved in biosynthesis of OAg repeating units on resistance to antimicrobial peptides and virulence in mice. METHODS: In the present study, the OAg biosynthesis was impaired by deleting tyv, prt and wbaV genes involved in tyvelose biosynthesis and its transfer to OAg. The virulence phenotype of resulting mutants was evaluated by assessing resistance to antimicrobial peptides, serum complement, adhesion, invasion and in vivo colonization. RESULTS: Deletion of the above three genes resulted in the production of OAg-negative LPS. All the OAg-negative mutants showed phenotype reported for rough strains. Interestingly, ΔwbaV mutant showed increased resistance against antimicrobial peptides and normal human serum. In addition, the ΔwbaV mutant also showed increased adhesion and invasion as compared to the other two O-Ag negative mutants Δtyv and Δprt. In vivo experiments also confirmed the increased virulent phenotype of ΔwbaV mutant as compared to Δprt mutant. CONCLUSION: OAg-negative mutants are known to be avirulent; however, this study demonstrates that certain OAg negative mutants e.g. ∆wbaV may also show resistance to antimicrobial peptides and cause colitis in Streptomyces pretreated mouse model.