1887

Abstract

The polysaccharide capsule protects from phagocytosis during invasive infection, but inhibits adherence. Serotypes vary in their tendency to colonize the nasopharynx or cause invasive infection, and differences in capsule expression may play a role. Expression of the first gene of the capsule operon, , during growth of 43 clinical isolates representing 14 common pneumococcal serotypes was compared using quantitative RT-PCR. Serotypes associated with invasive infection (1, 4, 5, 7F, 8 and 14) expressed an average of twofold (=0.0003) more than serotypes associated with nasopharyngeal colonization (6A, 6B, 9V, 15, 18C, 19F, 23F and 33). There was no difference in expression in response to growth under environmental oxygen or anaerobic conditions between the invasive and colonizing transparent strains tested: oxygen concentration did not affect expression in either the invasive or the colonizing transparent strains. Expression of at OD 0.6 tended to be greater in strains with a longer lag phase during growth (=0.07). Therefore, expression under ambient oxygen concentrations correlates with serotype-specific invasiveness and is inversely associated with the prevalence of serotype-specific carriage.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.2006/005066-0
2007-08-01
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/micro/153/8/2465.html?itemId=/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.2006/005066-0&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Adamou J. E., Wizemann T. M., Barren P., Langermann S. 1998; Adherence of Streptococcus pneumoniae to human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B. Infect Immun 66:820–822
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Arrecubieta C., Lopez R., Garcia E. 1994; Molecular characterization of cap3A , a gene from the operon required for the synthesis of the capsule of Streptococcus pneumoniae type 3: sequencing of mutations responsible for the unencapsulated phenotype and localization of the capsular cluster on the pneumococcal chromosome. J Bacteriol 176:6375–6383
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bättig P., Hathaway L. J., Hofer S., Mühlemann K. 2006; Serotype-specific invasiveness and colonization prevalence in Streptococcus pneumoniae correlate with the lag phase during in vitro growth. Microbes Infect 8:2612–2617
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bender M. H., Cartee R. T., Yother J. 2003; Positive correlation between tyrosine phosphorylation of CpsD and capsular polysaccharide production in Streptococcus pneumoniae . J Bacteriol 185:6057–6066
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bentley S. D., Aanensen D. M., Mavroidi A., Saunders D., Rabbinowitsch E., Collins M., Donohoe K., Harris D., Murphy L. other authors 2006; Genetic analysis of the capsular biosynthetic locus from all 90 pneumococcal serotypes. PLoS Genet 2:e31
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Brueggemann A. B., Spratt B. G. 2003; Geographic distribution and clonal diversity of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 1 isolates. J Clin Microbiol 41:4966–4970
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Brueggemann A. B., Peto T. E., Crook D. W., Butler J. C., Kristinsson K. G., Spratt B. G. 2004; Temporal and geographic stability of the serogroup-specific invasive disease potential of Streptococcus pneumoniae in children. J Infect Dis 190:1203–1211
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Cundell D. R., Weiser J. N., Shen J., Young A., Tuomanen E. I. 1995; Relationship between colonial morphology and adherence of Streptococcus pneumoniae . Infect Immun 63:757–761
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Garcia E., Llull D., Lopez R. 1999; Functional organization of the gene cluster involved in the synthesis of the pneumococcal capsule. Int Microbiol 2:169–176
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Guidolin A., Morona J. K., Morona R., Hansman D., Paton J. C. 1994; Nucleotide sequence analysis of genes essential for capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis in Streptococcus pneumoniae type 19F. Infect Immun 62:5384–5396
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Hammerschmidt S., Wolff S., Hocke A., Rosseau S., Muller E., Rohde M. 2005; Illustration of pneumococcal polysaccharide capsule during adherence and invasion of epithelial cells. Infect Immun 73:4653–4667
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Hanage W. P., Kaijalainen T. H., Syrjanen R. K., Auranen K., Leinonen M., Makela P. H., Spratt B. G. 2005; Invasiveness of serotypes and clones of Streptococcus pneumoniae among children in Finland. Infect Immun 73:431–435
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Hathaway L. J., Stutzmann Meier P., Battig P., Aebi S., Mühlemann K. 2004; A homologue of aliB is found in the capsule region of nonencapsulated Streptococcus pneumoniae . J Bacteriol 186:3721–3729
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Jiang S.-M., Wang L., Reeves P. R. 2001; Molecular characterization of Streptococcus pneumoniae type 4, 6B, 8, and 18C capsular polysaccharide gene clusters. Infect Immun 69:1244–1255
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Kronenberg A., Zucs P., Droz S., Mühlemann K. 2006; Distribution and invasiveness of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes in a country with low antibiotic selection pressure, Switzerland 2001–2004. J Clin Microbiol 44:2032–2038
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Léchot P., Schaad H. J., Graf S., Täuber M., Mühlemann K. 2001; Group A Streptococcus clones causing repeated epidemics and endemic disease in intravenous drug users. Scand J Infect Dis 33:41–46
    [Google Scholar]
  17. LeMessurier K. S., Ogunniyi A. D., Paton J. C. 2006; Differential expression of key pneumococcal virulence genes in vivo . Microbiology 152:305–311
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Morona J. K., Morona R., Paton J. C. 1997; Characterization of the locus encoding the Streptococcus pneumoniae type 19F capsular polysaccharide biosynthetic pathway. Mol Microbiol 23:751–763
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Mühlemann K., Matter H. C., Tauber M. G., Bodmer T. 2003; Nationwide surveillance of nasopharyngeal Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from children with respiratory infection, Switzerland, 1998–1999. J Infect Dis 187:589–596
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Munoz R., Mollerach M., Lopez R., Garcia E. 1997; Molecular organization of the genes required for the synthesis of type 1 capsular polysaccharide of Streptococcus pneumoniae : formation of binary encapsulated pneumococci and identification of cryptic dTDP-rhamnose biosynthesis genes. Mol Microbiol 25:79–92
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Ogunniyi A. D., Giammarinaro P., Paton J. C. 2002; The genes encoding virulence-associated proteins and the capsule of Streptococcus pneumoniae are upregulated and differentially expressed in vivo . Microbiology 148:2045–2053
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Orihuela C. J., Radin J. N., Sublett J. E., Gao G., Kaushal D., Tuomanen E. I. 2004; Microarray analysis of pneumococcal gene expression during invasive disease. Infect Immun 72:5582–5596
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Sandgren A., Sjostrom K., Olsson-Liljequist B., Christensson B., Samuelsson A., Kronvall G., Henriques Normark B. 2004; Effect of clonal and serotype-specific properties on the invasive capacity of Streptococcus pneumoniae . J Infect Dis 189:785–796
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Sjostrom K., Spindler C., Ortqvist A., Kalin M., Sandgren A., Kuhlmann-Berenzon S., Henriques-Normark B. 2006; Clonal and capsular types decide whether pneumococci will act as a primary or opportunistic pathogen. Clin Infect Dis 42:451–459
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Stutzmann Meier P., Utz S., Aebi S., Mühlemann K. 2003; Low-level resistance to rifampin in Streptococcus pneumoniae . Antimicrob Agents Chemother 47:863–868
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Ventura C. L., Cartree R. T., Forsee W. T., Yother J. 2006; Control of capsular polysaccharide chain length by UDP-sugar substrate concentrations in Streptococcus pneumoniae . Mol Microbiol 61:723–733
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Waite R. D., Struthers J. K., Dowson C. G. 2001; Spontaneous sequence duplication within an open reading frame of the pneumococcal type 3 capsule locus causes high-frequency phase variation. Mol Microbiol 42:1223–1232
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Waite R. D., Penfold D. W., Struthers J. K., Dowson C. G. 2003; Spontaneous sequence duplications within capsule genes cap8E and tts control phase variation in Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes 8 and 37. Microbiology 149:497–504
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Weiser J. N., Austrian R., Sreenivasan P. K., Masure H. R. 1994; Phase variation in pneumococcal opacity: relationship between colonial morphology and nasopharyngeal colonization. Infect Immun 62:2582–2589
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Weiser J. N., Bae D., Epino H., Gordon S. B., Kapoor M., Zenewicz L. A., Shchepetov M. 2001; Changes in availability of oxygen accentuate differences in capsular polysaccharide expression by phenotypic variants and clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae . Infect Immun 69:5430–5439
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.2006/005066-0
Loading
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.2006/005066-0
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error