21Salmonella enterica encodes a wide array of virulence factors. One novel virulence 22 factor, a DNA-damaging toxin known as the typhoid toxin (TT), was recently characterized 23 in >40 nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) serovars. Interestingly, these NTS serovars, including 24 S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar Javiana, also encode artB, a homolog of the binding 25 subunit (PltB) of the TT. Here, we show that ArtB and PltB compete for inclusion in the 26 pentameric binding subunit of the TT. Using a combination of in silico modeling, a bacterial 27 two-hybrid system expressed in S. Javiana, and tandem affinity purification (TAP) of the 28 holotoxin subunits, we show that ArtB and PltB interact in vivo. Furthermore, binding 29 subunits composed of homo-and heteropentamers of ArtB and PltB are able to associate with 30 CdtB and PltA to form biologically active toxins. As artB was, (i) conserved among S. 31 Javiana isolates, and (ii) co-expressed with pltB and cdtB under Mg 2+ -limiting conditions, we 32 hypothesized that ArtB and PltB compete for inclusion in the binding subunit. Using a novel 33 competition assay, we show that PltB outcompetes ArtB for inclusion in the binding subunit, 34 when cultured at neutral pH. Together, our results suggest that the TT produced by S. Javiana 35 utilizes multiple configurations of the binding subunit, representing a novel toxin form and 36 adaptation mechanism for the AB5 toxin family. Our work suggests that Salmonella serovars, 37 including S. Javiana, evolved to encode and maintain multiple binding subunits that can be 38 used to form an active toxin, which may enhance the variety of cells, tissues, or hosts 39 susceptible to this novel form of the TT.
40Difco Lennox broth pH 7 (LB; Becton Dickinson [BD], Franklin Lakes, NJ). For two-hybrid 82 system interactions, E. coli and S. Javiana strains were grown in M63 medium with maltose 83 as the sole carbon source (Battesti and Bouveret, 2012). N-salts minimal medium (pH 5.8 or 84 7) containing 8 µM MgSO4 (Deiwick et al., 1999) was used for experiments assessing RNA 85 transcript levels. Unless otherwise indicated, ampicillin and kanamycin were used at 100 86 µg/mL and 50 µg/mL, respectively, in complex medium (LB) and 50 µg/mL and 25 µg/mL, 87 respectively, in chemically defined medium (M9 or N-salts minimal media). 88 Human intestinal epithelial cells (HIEC-6 cells; ATCC, Manassas, VA), (Perreault 89 and Beaulieu, 1996), were routinely cultured in Opti-MEM (Gibco-Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) 90 medium supplemented with 10% (v/v) fetal bovine serum (FBS; Gibco-Invitrogen) and 91 4recombinant epidermal growth factor (10 ng/ml; Gibco-Invitrogen) at 37°C with 5% CO2.
92Cell supernatants were tested routinely for Mycoplasma spp. and Acheoplasma spp. infection 93 using the VenorGEM Mycoplasma detection kit (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO).
94Cloning and expression of toxin proteins in E. coli 95 To express CdtB, PltA, PltB, and ArtB, we cloned and expressed the following 96 constructs in E. coli BTH101 cells (Karimova et al.,...