The cell wall envelope of gram-positive bacteria is a macromolecular, exoskeletal organelle that is assembled and turned over at designated sites. The cell wall also functions as a surface organelle that allows gram-positive pathogens to interact with their environment, in particular the tissues of the infected host. All of these functions require that surface proteins and enzymes be properly targeted to the cell wall envelope. Two basic mechanisms, cell wall sorting and targeting, have been identified. Cell well sorting is the covalent attachment of surface proteins to the peptidoglycan via a C-terminal sorting signal that contains a consensus LPXTG sequence. More than 100 proteins that possess cell wall-sorting signals, including the M proteins of Streptococcus pyogenes, protein A of Staphylococcus aureus, and several internalins of Listeria monocytogenes, have been identified. Cell wall targeting involves the noncovalent attachment of proteins to the cell surface via specialized binding domains. Several of these wall-binding domains appear to interact with secondary wall polymers that are associated with the peptidoglycan, for example teichoic acids and polysaccharides. Proteins that are targeted to the cell surface include muralytic enzymes such as autolysins, lysostaphin, and phage lytic enzymes. Other examples for targeted proteins are the surface S-layer proteins of bacilli and clostridia, as well as virulence factors required for the pathogenesis of L. monocytogenes (internalin B) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (PspA) infections. In this review we describe the mechanisms for both sorting and targeting of proteins to the envelope of gram-positive bacteria and review the functions of known surface proteins.

Surface Proteins of Gram-Positive Bacteria and Mechanisms of Their Targeting to the Cell Wall Envelope

Enterococci are used as starter and probiotic cultures in foods, and they occur as natural food contaminants. The genus Enterococcus is of increased significance as a cause of nosocomial infections, and this trend is exacerbated by the development of antibiotic resistance. In this study, we investigated the incidence of known virulence determinants in starter, food, and medical strains of Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium, and E. durans. PCR and gene probe strategies were used to screen enterococcal isolates from both food and medical sources. Different and distinct patterns of incidence of virulence determinants were found for the E. faecalis and E. faecium strains. Medical E. faecalis strains had more virulence determinants than did food strains, which, in turn, had more than did starter strains. All of the E. faecalis strains tested possessed multiple determinants (between 6 and 11). E. faecium strains were generally free of virulence determinants, with notable exceptions. Significantly, esp and gelE determinants were identified in E. faecium medical strains. These virulence determinants have not previously been identified in E. faecium strains and may result from regional differences or the evolution of pathogenic E. faecium. Phenotypic testing revealed the existence of apparently silent gelE and cyl genes. In E. faecalis, the trend in these silent genes mirrors that of the expressed determinants. The potential for starter strains to acquire virulence determinants by natural conjugation mechanisms was investigated. Transconjugation in which starter strains acquired additional virulence determinants from medical strains was demonstrated. In addition, multiple pheromone-encoding genes were identified in both food and starter strains, indicating their potential to acquire other sex pheromone plasmids. These results suggest that the use of Enterococcus spp. in foods requires careful safety evaluation.

Molecular screening of Enterococcus virulence determinants and potential for genetic exchange between food and medical isolates.

Enterococci are commensal organisms well suited to survival in intestinal and vaginal tracts and the oral cavity. However, as for most bacteria described as causing human disease, enterococci also possess properties that can be ascribed roles in pathogenesis. The natural ability of enterococci to readily acquire, accumulate, and share extrachromosomal elements encoding virulence traits or antibiotic resistance genes lends advantages to their survival under unusual environmental stresses and in part explains their increasing importance as nosocomial pathogens. This review discusses the current understanding of enterococcal virulence relating to (i) adherence to host tissues, (ii) invasion and abscess formation, (iii) factors potentially relevant to modulation of host inflammatory responses, and (iv) potentially toxic secreted products. Aggregation substance, surface carbohydrates, or fibronectin-binding moieties may facilitate adherence to host tissues. Enterococcus faecalis appears to have the capacity to translocate across intact intestinal mucosa in models of antibiotic-induced superinfection. Extracellular toxins such as cytolysin can induce tissue damage as shown in an endophthalmitis model, increase mortality in combination with aggregation substance in an endocarditis model, and cause systemic toxicity in a murine peritonitis model. Finally, lipoteichoic acid, superoxide production, or pheromones and corresponding peptide inhibitors each may modulate local inflammatory reactions. Images

Virulence of enterococci.

Enterococci at the crossroads of food safety

Short-sequence DNA repeat (SSR) loci can be identified in all eukaryotic and many prokaryotic genomes. These loci harbor short or long stretches of repeated nucleotide sequence motifs. DNA sequence motifs in a single locus can be identical and/or heterogeneous. SSRs are encountered in many different branches of the prokaryote kingdom. They are found in genes encoding products as diverse as microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules and specific bacterial virulence factors such as lipopolysaccharide-modifying enzymes or adhesins. SSRs enable genetic and consequently phenotypic flexibility. SSRs function at various levels of gene expression regulation. Variations in the number of repeat units per locus or changes in the nature of the individual repeat sequences may result from recombination processes or polymerase inadequacy such as slipped-strand mispairing (SSM), either alone or in combination with DNA repair deficiencies. These rather complex phenomena can occur with relative ease, with SSM approaching a frequency of 10−4 per bacterial cell division and allowing high-frequency genetic switching. Bacteria use this random strategy to adapt their genetic repertoire in response to selective environmental pressure. SSR-mediated variation has important implications for bacterial pathogenesis and evolutionary fitness. Molecular analysis of changes in SSRs allows epidemiological studies on the spread of pathogenic bacteria. The occurrence, evolution and function of SSRs, and the molecular methods used to analyze them are discussed in the context of responsiveness to environmental factors, bacterial pathogenicity, epidemiology, and the availability of full-genome sequences for increasing numbers of microorganisms, especially those that are medically relevant.

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/8835/9618442.pdf

Short-Sequence DNA Repeats in Prokaryotic Genomes

Transformation of bacteria with plasmid DNA by electroporation.

The sex pheromone system of Enterococcus faecalis was discovered by observing a clumping reaction of E. faecalis strains during conjugative transfer of plasmids. It was found that only a special type of E. faecalis plasmids, the so-called sex pheromone plasmids, are transferred via this mechanism. Various experiments, especially by the group of D. B. Clewell, led to the formulation of a model describing how the sex pheromone system works. Small linear peptides, the so-called sex pheromones, are excreted by strains not possessing the corresponding sex pheromone plasmid. Donor strains harboring the plasmid do not produce the corresponding sex pheromone; they react to the presence of the peptide by production of a plasmid-encoded adhesin, the so-called aggregation substance. This adhesin allows contact between the non-motile mating partners; after conjugative transfer of the plasmid, the former recipient possesses and replicates the new plasmid. Thereby the population of E. faecalis strains is shifted to a high percentage of donor strains. This is especially true because a donor strain will still excrete sex pheromones corresponding to plasmids it does not harbor; therefore, such a strain can also function as recipient for other sex pheromone plasmids it does not possess.

https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1432-1033.1994.tb18862.x

The sex pheromone system of Enterococcus faecalis More than just a plasmid-collection mechanism?

We have undertaken a systematic study to test the transformation of various species of gram-negative bacteria using the electroporation method. The data obtained show very clearly that a great variety of gram-negative bacteria--15 different species belonging to 11 different genera--including freshly isolated wild-type strains can be transformed efficiently by use of the electric-field mediated transformation technique. These include species of the families Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Rhizobiaceae, photosynthetic bacteria and strains for which transformation could not be achieved, up to now, by other methods.

Transformation of various species of gram-negative bacteria belonging to 11 different genera by electroporation.

Mutants of Escherichia coli were isolated in which transcription of the structural genes for hydrogenase (hyd) and for one of the components of formate dehydrogenase (fdh) (of the formate hydrogen-lyase complex) is coupled with that of the lacZ gene. They were — together with lac fusions of the nifH and nifL genes from Klebsiella — used to study regulation by redox control, of the expression of the respective structural genes. The following results were obtained: (i) β-galactosidase synthesis was fully repressed in the presence of O2 or nitrate (anaerobically), and induced in the absence of an external electron acceptor. Fumarate as terminal electron acceptor only marginally affected nif expression and partially repressed hyd and fdh expression. Redox control of the synthesis of hydrogenase and formate dehydrogenase, therefore, (as well as that of nif) acts at the level of transcription; the size of the redox potential seems to be correlated with the amount of repression; (ii) β-galactosidase synthesis in the hyd:: lac and fdh::lac fusion strains is induced by formate. At high concentrations formate reverses the repression by nitrate and fumarate but not that by oxygen.

On the redox control of synthesis of anaerobically induced enzymes in enterobacteriaceae

Summary
The expression of several neighbouring genes on plasmid pAD1 that are necessary for conjugation depend on induction with sex pheromone CAD1. Analyses of transcripts by Northern blot hybridization demonstrated that the genes seal (encoding surface exclusion protein) and asa 1 (encoding aggregation substance) are transcribed independently. Both genes are organized in different operons together with neighbouring open reading frames of unknown function. Several transcripts could be identified for seal and asa1. Their transcriptional start sites were determined by primer extension experiments, confirming the results of the Northern blot experiments. We also could identify seal- and iad- (encoding an inhibitory peptide counteracting sex pheromone CAD1) specific transcripts which are expressed constitutively, but to a lower extent relative to induced conditions. In addition, we localized the asp1 gene coding for aggregation substance of sex pheromone plasmid pPD1 and determined its DNA sequence, which was found to be highly homologous to asa1 (aggregation substance gene of pAD1) and prgB (aggregation substance gene of pCFiO). The structural genes were found to be organized more or less identically on the three sex-pheromone plasmids pAD1, pCF10, and pPD1, and to be highly conserved. Regions supposed to be of crucial importance for regulatory functions, however, were found to differ. We also could identify some conserved DNA motifs which might be potential target sites for transcriptional regulators. In combination these data allowed us to formulate a model for the regulation of sex-pheromone-induclble genes of plasmid pAD1. Its main statement is that only in the presence of cAD1 can the gene traE1 be transcribed. The positive regulatory factor TraE1 then can trigger expression of the structural genes seal and asa1.

Transcriptional control of sex-pheromone-inducible genes on plasmid pAD1 of Enterococcus faecalis and sequence analysis of a third structural gene for (pPD1-encoded) aggregation substance.

Reinhard Wirth

Papers

Transformation of bacteria with plasmid DNA by electroporation.

The sex pheromone system of Enterococcus faecalis More than just a plasmid-collection mechanism?

Transformation of various species of gram-negative bacteria belonging to 11 different genera by electroporation.

On the redox control of synthesis of anaerobically induced enzymes in enterobacteriaceae

Transcriptional control of sex-pheromone-inducible genes on plasmid pAD1 of Enterococcus faecalis and sequence analysis of a third structural gene for (pPD1-encoded) aggregation substance.