Methylglyoxal is a toxic electrophile. In Escherichia coli cells, the principal route of methylglyoxal production is from dihydroxyacetone phosphate by the action of methylglyoxal synthase. The toxicity of methylglyoxal is believed to be due to its ability to interact with the nucleophilic centres of macromolecules such as DNA. Bacteria possess an array of detoxification pathways for methylglyoxal. In E. coli, glutathione-based detoxification is central to survival of exposure to methylglyoxal. The glutathione-dependent glyoxalase I-II pathway is the primary route of methylglyoxal detoxification, and the glutathione conjugates formed can activate the KefB and KefC potassium channels. The activation of these channels leads to a lowering of the intracellular pH of the bacterial cell, which protects against the toxic effects of electrophiles. In addition to the KefB and KefC systems, E. coli cells are equipped with a number of independent protective mechanisms whose purpose appears to be directed at ensuring the integrity of the DNA. A model of how these protective mechanisms function will be presented. The production of methylglyoxal by cells is a paradox that can be resolved by assigning an important role in adaptation to conditions of nutrient imbalance. Analysis of a methylglyoxal synthase-deficient mutant provides evidence that methylglyoxal production is required to allow growth under certain environmental conditions. The production of methylglyoxal may represent a high-risk strategy that facilitates adaptation, but which on failure leads to cell death. New strategies for antibacterial therapy may be based on undermining the detoxification and defence mechanisms coupled with deregulation of methylglyoxal synthesis.

A bacterial membrane protein, BacA, protects Sinorhizobium meliloti against the antimicrobial activity of host peptides, enabling the peptides to induce bacterial persistence rather than bacterial death.

Escherichia coli possesses two glutathione-gated potassium channels, KefB and KefC, that are activated by glutathione-S-conjugates formed with methylglyoxal. We demonstrate that activation of the channels leads to cytoplasmic acidification and that this protects cells during electrophilic attack. Further, we demonstrate that mutants lacking the channels can be protected against the lethal effects of methylglyoxal by acidification of the cytoplasm with a weak acid. The degree of protection is determined by the absolute value of the pHi and the time at which acidification takes place. Alterations in the pHi do not accelerate the rate of detoxification of methylglyoxal. The mechanism by which methylglyoxal causes cell death and the implications for pHi-mediated resistance to methylglyoxal are discussed.

In bacteria the detoxification of compounds as diverse as methylglyoxal and chlorodinitrobenzene proceeds through the formation of a glutathione adduct. In the Gram-negative bacteria, e.g. Escherichia coli, such glutathione adducts activate one, or both, of a pair of potassium efflux systems KefB and KefC. These systems share many of the properties of cation-translocating channels in eukaryotes. The activity of these systems has been found to be present in a range of Gram-negative bacteria, but not in the glutathione-deficient species of Gram-positive organisms. The conservation of the activity of these systems in a diverse range of organisms suggested a physiological role for these systems. Here we demonstrate that in E. coli cells activation of the KefB efflux system is essential for the survival of exposure to methylglyoxal. Methylglyoxal can be added to the growth medium or its synthesis can be stimulated in the cytoplasm. Under both sets of conditions survival is aided by the activity of KefB. Inhibition of KefB activity by the addition of 10 mM potassium to the growth medium stimulates methylglyoxal-induced cell death. This establishes an essential physiological function for the KefB system.

SummaryThe glyoxalase I gene (gloA) of Escherichia coli has been cloned and used to create a null mutant. Cells overexpressing glyoxalase I exhibit enhanced tolerance of methylglyoxal (MG) and exhibit elevated rates of detoxification, although the increase is not stoichiometric with the change in enzyme activity. Potassium efflux via KefB is also enhanced in the overexpressing strain. Analysis of the physiology of the mutant has revealed that growth and viability are quite normal, unless the cell is challenged with MG either added exogenously or synthesized by the cells. The mutant strain has a low rate of detoxification of MG, and cells rapidly lose viability when exposed to this electrophile. Activation of KefB and KefC is diminished in the absence of functional glyoxalase I. These data suggest that the glutathione-dependent glyoxalase I is the dominant detoxification pathway for MG in E. coli and that the product of glyoxalase I activity, S-lactoylglutathione, is the activator of KefB and KefC.

We study the migration of chemotactic wild-type Escherichia coli populations in semisolid (soft) agar in the concentration range C = 0.15-0.5% (w/v). For C≲0.35%, expanding bacterial colonies display characteristic chemotactic rings. At C = 0.35%, however, bacteria migrate as broad circular bands rather than sharp rings. These are growth/diffusion waves arising because of suppression of chemotaxis by the agar and have not been previously reported experimentally to our knowledge. For C = 0.4-0.5%, expanding colonies do not span the depth of the agar and develop pronounced front instabilities. The migration front speed is weakly dependent on agar concentration at C < 0.25%, but decreases sharply above this value. We discuss these observations in terms of an extended Keller-Segel model for which we derived novel transport parameter expressions accounting for perturbations of the chemotactic response by collisions with the agar. The model makes it possible to fit the observed front speed decay in the range C = 0.15-0.35%, and its solutions qualitatively reproduce the observed transition from chemotactic to growth/diffusion bands. We discuss the implications of our results for the study of bacteria in porous media and for the design of improved bacteriological chemotaxis assays.

Sinorhizobium meliloti, a legume symbiont, and Brucella abortus, a phylogenetically related mammalian pathogen, both require the bacterial-encoded BacA protein to establish chronic intracellular infections in their respective hosts. We found that the bacterial BacA proteins share sequence similarity with a family of eukaryotic peroxisomal-membrane proteins, including the human adrenoleukodystrophy protein, required for the efficient transport of verylong-chain fatty acids out of the cytoplasm. This insight, along with the increased sensitivity of BacA-deficient mutants to detergents and cell envelope-disrupting agents, led us to discover that BacA affects the very-long-chain fatty acid (27-OHC28:0 and 29-OHC30:0) content of both Sinorhizobium and Brucella lipid A. We discuss models for how BacA function affects the lipid-A fatty-acid content and why this activity could be important for the establishment of chronic intracellular infections. Sinorhizobia and brucellae are Gram-negative ␣-proteobacteria that live intracellularly within their respective hosts. Sinorhizobia form a beneficial symbiosis with agriculturally important legumes that results in the conversion of N 2 to NH 3 (1). In contrast, brucellae are highly infectious pathogens that cause abortions and infertility in domestic and wild mammals and a severe and debilitating zoonotic disease in humans (2). Brucella melitensis, Brucella suis, and Brucella abortus are potential biological warfare agents, and they are a serious concern because there is presently no human vaccine (3). Despite the strikingly different outcomes that sinorhizobia and brucellae eventually have on their hosts, commonalties exist in the chronicinfection process because both are endocytosed into host cells, where they adapt and survive for extensive periods of time within acidic, membrane-bound compartments (1, 2, 4, 5). More importantly, the close phylogenetic relatedness of the sinorhizobia and the brucellae that was revealed initially by RNA homology studies has been confirmed recently by determination of the complete genome sequences of Sinorhizobium meliloti, B. melitensis, and B. suis (6-8).The BacA protein, initially found to be essential for S. meliloti to form a long-term infection within alfalfa-plant cells (9), was also shown subsequently to be essential for the establishment and maintenance of chronic spleen and liver infections by B. abortus in BALB͞c mice (10). BacA is predicted to span the inner membrane of S. meliloti and B. abortus seven times, and it is homologous to the SbmA protein of Escherichia coli, a putative transporter of peptide antibiotics (9, 11). Although an S. meliloti bacA null mutant displays altered sensitivity to peptide antibiotics (11), the increased sensitivity of this mutant to detergents and cell envelope-disrupting agents supports an alternative model wherein the function of BacA affects the integrity of the bacterial cell envelope (12). Recently, an S. meliloti lpsB mutant, altered dramatically in its lipopolysaccharide (LPS) carbohydrate co...

SummarySinorhizobium meliloti , a legume symbiont and Brucella abortus , a phylogenetically related mammalian pathogen, both require their BacA proteins to establish chronic intracellular infections in their respective hosts. The lipid A molecules of S. meliloti and B. abortus are unusually modified with a very-longchain fatty acid (VLCFA; C ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ 28) and we discovered that BacA is involved in this unusual modification. This observation raised the possibility that the unusual lipid A modification could be crucial for the chronic infection of both S. meliloti and B. abortus . We investigated this by constructing and characterizing S. meliloti mutants in the lpxXL and acpXL genes, which encode an acyl transferase and acyl carrier protein directly involved in the biosynthesis of VLCFA-modified lipid A. Our analysis revealed that the unusually modified lipid A is important, but not crucial, for S. meliloti chronic infection and that BacA must have an additional function, which in combination with its observed effect on the lipid A in the freeliving form of S. meliloti , is essential for the chronic infection. Additionally, we discovered that in the absence of VLCFAs, S. meliloti produces novel pentaacylated lipid A species, modified with unhydroxylated fatty acids, which are important for stress resistance.