Regulation and molecular basis of environmental muropeptide uptake and utilization in fastidious oral Anaerobe Tannerella forsythia

17Citations
Citations of this article
18Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Tannerella forsythia is a Gram-negative oral anaerobe associated with periodontitis. This bacterium is auxotrophic for the peptidoglycan amino sugar N-acetylmuramic (MurNAc) and likely relies on scavenging peptidoglycan fragments (muropeptides) released by cohabiting bacteria during their cell wall recycling. Many Gram-negative bacteria utilize an inner membrane permease, AmpG, to transport peptidoglycan fragments into their cytoplasm. In the T. forsythia genome, the Tanf_08365 ORF has been identified as a homolog of AmpG permease. In order to confirm the functionality of Tanf_08365, a reporter system in an Escherichia coli host was generated that could detect AmpG-dependent accumulation of cytosolic muropeptides via a muropeptide-inducible β-lactamase reporter gene. In trans complementation of this reporter strain with a Tanf_08365 containing plasmid caused significant induction of β-lactamase activity compared to that with an empty plasmid control. These data indicated that Tanf_08365 acted as a functional muropeptide permease causing accumulation of muropeptides in E. coli and thus suggested that it is a permease involved in muropeptide scavenging in T. forsythia. Furthermore, we showed that the promoter regulating the expression of Tanf_08365 was activated significantly by a hybrid two-component system regulatory protein, GppX. We also showed that compared to the parental T. forsythia strain a mutant lacking GppX in which the expression of AmpG was reduced significantly attenuated in utilizing free muropeptides. In summary, we have uncovered the mechanism by which this nutritionally fastidious microbe accesses released muropeptides in its environment, opening up the possibility of targeting this activity to reduce its numbers in periodontitis patients with potential benefits in the treatment of disease.

References Powered by Scopus

Microbial complexes in subgingival plaque

3661Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Two-component signal transduction

2652Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

The HMMTOP transmembrane topology prediction server

1635Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Peptidoglycan muropeptides: Release, perception, and functions as signaling molecules

131Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

The oral microbiome: diversity, biogeography and human health

82Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Two-component signal transduction systems in oral bacteria

49Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Ruscitto, A., Honma, K., Veeramachineni, V. M., Nishikawa, K., Stafford, G. P., & Sharma, A. (2017). Regulation and molecular basis of environmental muropeptide uptake and utilization in fastidious oral Anaerobe Tannerella forsythia. Frontiers in Microbiology, 8(APR). https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00648

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 10

67%

Lecturer / Post doc 3

20%

Professor / Associate Prof. 2

13%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Medicine and Dentistry 5

33%

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Bi... 5

33%

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3

20%

Immunology and Microbiology 2

13%

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free