Peroxide sensing is essential for bacterial survival during aerobic metabolism and host infection. Peroxide stress regulators (PerRs) are homodimeric transcriptional repressors with each monomer typically containing both structural and regulatory metal-binding sites. PerR binding to gene promoters is controlled by the presence of iron in the regulatory site, and iron-catalyzed oxidation of PerR by HO leads to the dissociation of PerR from DNA. In addition to a regulatory metal, most PerRs require a structural metal for proper dimeric assembly. We present here a structural and functional characterization of the PerR from the pathogenic spirochete , a rare example of PerR lacking a structural metal-binding site. studies showed that the leptospiral PerR belongs to the peroxide stimulon in pathogenic species and is involved in controlling resistance to peroxide. Moreover, a mutant had decreased fitness in other host-related stress conditions, including at 37 °C or in the presence of superoxide anion., leptospiral PerR could bind to the promoter region in a metal-dependent manner. The crystal structure of the leptospiral PerR revealed an asymmetric homodimer, with one monomer displaying complete regulatory metal coordination in the characteristic caliper-like DNA-binding conformation and the second monomer exhibiting disrupted regulatory metal coordination in an open non-DNA-binding conformation. This structure showed that leptospiral PerR assembles into a dimer in which a metal-induced conformational switch can occur independently in the two monomers. Our study demonstrates that structural metal binding is not compulsory for PerR dimeric assembly and for regulating peroxide stress.

The adhesion properties of 14 Streptococcus salivarius strains to mucus (HT29-MTX) and non-mucus secreting (Caco-2/TC7) human intestinal epithelial cells were investigated. Ability to adhere to these two eukaryotic cell lines greatly differs between strains. The presence of mucus played a major factor in adhesion, likely due to high adhesiveness to mucins present in the native human mucus layer covering the whole cell surface. Only one S. salivarius strain (F6-1), isolated from the feces of a healthy baby, was found to strongly adhere to HT-29 MTX cells at a level comparable to that of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, a probiotic strain considered to be highly adherent. By sequencing the genome of F6-1, we were able to identify 36 genes encoding putative surface proteins. Deletion mutants were constructed for six of them and their adhesion abilities on HT-29 MTX cells were checked. Our study confirmed that four of these genes encode adhesins involved in the adhesion of S. salivarius to host cells. Such adhesins were also identified in other S. salivarius strains.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00253-018-8794-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Streptococcus thermophilus (ST) is a lactic acid bacterium widely used in dairy industry and displays several properties which could be beneficial for host. The objective of this study was to investigate, in vitro, the implication of sortase A (SrtA) and sortase-dependent proteins (SDPs) in the adhesion of ST LMD-9 strain to intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) and resistance to bile salt mixture (BSM; taurocholoate, deoxycholate, and cholate). The effect of mutations in prtS (protease), mucBP (MUCin-Binding Protein), and srtA genes in ST LMD-9 in these mechanisms were examined. The HT29-MTX, HT29-CL.16E, and Caco-2 TC7 cell lines were used. HT29-MTX and HT29-CL.16E cells express different mucins found in the gastro intestinal tract; whereas, Caco-2 TC7 express cell surface proteins found in the small intestine. All mutants showed different adhesion profiles depending on cell lines. The mutation in genes srtA and mucBP leads to a significant decrease in LMD-9 adhesion capacity to Caco-2 TC7 cells. A mutation in mucBP gene has also shown a significant decrease in LMD-9 adhesion capacity to HT29-CL.16E cells. However, no difference was observed using HT29-MTX cells. Furthermore, ST LMD-9 and srtA mutant were resistant to BSM up to 3 mM. Contrariwise, no viable bacteria were detected for prtS and mucBP mutants at this concentration. Two conclusions could be drawn. First, SDPs could be involved in the LMD-9 adhesion depending on the cell lines indicating the importance of eukaryotic-cell surface components in adherence. Second, SDPs could contribute to resistance to bile salts probably by maintaining the cell membrane integrity.