Effect of Trehalose and Trehalose Transport on the Tolerance ofClostridium perfringensto Environmental Stress in a Wild Type Strain and Its Fluoroquinolone-Resistant Mutant

Abstract

Trehalose has been shown to protect bacterial cells from environmental stress. Its uptake and osmoprotective effect in Clostridium perfringens were investigated by comparing wild type C. perfringens ATCC 13124 with a fluoroquinolone- (gatifloxacin-) resistant mutant. In a chemically defined medium, trehalose and sucrose supported the growth of the wild type but not that of the mutant. Microarray data and qRT-PCR showed that putative genes for the phosphorylation and transport of sucrose and trehalose (via phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase systems, PTS) and some regulatory genes were downregulated in the mutant. The wild type had greater tolerance than the mutant to salts and low pH; trehalose and sucrose further enhanced the osmotolerance of the wild type to NaCl. Expression of the trehalose-specific PTS was lower in the fluoroquinolone-resistant mutant. Protection of C. perfringens from environmental stress could therefore be correlated with the ability to take up trehalose.

A High-Resolution View of Adaptive Event Dynamics in a Plasmid

“…In addition to its role as a carbon source, intracellular trehalose can act as an osmoprotectant at high osmolarity (Boos et al. 1990; Rimmele and Boos 1994; Park et al 2016). The T-to-A transversion in treB observed in our work has been suggested to be a consequence of adaptation of E. coli to LB medium and has been identified in three parallel populations in two recent mutation accumulation experiments (Blaby et al.…”

Effects of Bile Acids and Nisin on the Production of Enterotoxin byClostridium perfringensin a Nutrient-Rich Medium

“…It was grown in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth under anaerobic conditions (85% N 2 , 10% H 2 , and 5% CO 2 ). Colonies were grown anaerobically [ 24 ] on blood agar plates (tryptic soy agar containing 5% sheep red blood cells) and used to inoculate BHI broth with or without 1 μ g/ml (0.3 μ M) of nisin or 100 μ g/ml (0.24 mM) of bile acids from Sigma-Aldrich, which contained 50% each of cholic and deoxycholic acid sodium salts. The cultures were incubated at 37°C and samples were withdrawn anaerobically at different intervals during 24 h incubation.…”

“…The harvested cultures were used for spore and total cell counts, RNA extraction for qRT-PCR, and enterotoxin assays. Other strains of C. perfringens [ 24 ] were grown similarly in BHI, with or without bile acids and nisin, for the enterotoxin assay.…”

The role of chemoenzymatic synthesis in advancing trehalose analogues as tools for combatting bacterial pathogens

“…In the meantime, these studies illustrate the diversity of trehalose metabolic pathways that occur and evolve in bacteria, even between different strains of the same species, and also call attention to the possibility that trehalose consumption can impact the trehalose-metabolizing population of the human microbiota. Indeed, numerous other genera that include human commensal or pathogenic bacteria have been experimentally demonstrated to have trehalose synthesis and/or degradation capabilities, [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] although in most cases these pathways are not wellcharacterized and their roles in host interactions or infection are not known.…”