Contribution of eukaryotic-type serine/threonine kinase to stress response and virulence of Streptococcus suis

Haodan Zhu; Junming Zhou; Yanxiu Ni; Zhengyu Yu; Aihua Mao; Yiyi Hu; Wei Wang; Xuehan Zhang; Libin Wen; Bin Li; Xiaomin Wang; Yang Yu; Lixin Lv; Rongli Guo; Chengping Lu; Kongwang He

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091971

Contribution of eukaryotic-type serine/threonine kinase to stress response and virulence of Streptococcus suis

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 17;9(3):e91971. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091971. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Haodan Zhu¹, Junming Zhou¹, Yanxiu Ni¹, Zhengyu Yu¹, Aihua Mao¹, Yiyi Hu¹, Wei Wang¹, Xuehan Zhang¹, Libin Wen¹, Bin Li¹, Xiaomin Wang¹, Yang Yu¹, Lixin Lv¹, Rongli Guo¹, Chengping Lu², Kongwang He¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biological Engineering and Technology of Ministry of Agriculture, National Center for Engineering Research of Veterinary Bio-products, Nanjing, China; Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou, China.
² Key Lab of Animal Bacteriology, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (SS2) is an important swine and human pathogen responsible for septicemia and meningitis. The bacterial homologues of eukaryotic-type serine/threonine kinases (ESTKs) have been reported to play critical roles in various cellular processes. To investigate the role of STK in SS2, an isogenic stk mutant strain (Δstk) and a complemented strain (CΔstk) were constructed. The Δstk showed a significant decrease in adherence to HEp-2 cells, compared with the wild-type strain, and a reduced survival ratio in whole blood. In addition, the Δstk exhibited a notable reduced tolerance of environmental stresses including high temperature, acidic pH, oxidative stress, and high osmolarity. More importantly, the Δstk was attenuated in both the CD1 mouse and piglet models of infection. The results of quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis indicated that the expressions of a few genes involving in adherence, stress response and virulence were clearly decreased in the Δstk mutant strain. Our data suggest that SsSTK is required for virulence and stress response in SS2.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Bacterial Adhesion / genetics
Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
Disease Models, Animal
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
Genome, Bacterial
Mice
Mutation
Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / deficiency
Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / genetics
Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism*
Streptococcal Infections / microbiology*
Streptococcal Infections / mortality
Streptococcus suis / pathogenicity
Streptococcus suis / physiology*
Streptococcus suis / ultrastructure
Stress, Physiological / genetics
Swine
Virulence / genetics
Virulence Factors / genetics

Substances

Bacterial Proteins
Virulence Factors
Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31302114 and 31072155), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant (2012M521026), Innovation of Agricultural Sciences in Jiangsu province (CX(11)2060), and Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry of Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (201303041). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.