New role for the ibeA gene in H2O2 stress resistance of Escherichia coli
2012
Flechard, Maud | Cortes, Mélanie | Répérant, Maryline | Germon, Pierre
ibeA is a virulence factor found in some Extra-intestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) strains from the B2 phylogenetic group, and more particularly in newborn meningitic and avian pathogenic strains. It was shown to be involved in the invasion process of the newborn meningitic strain RS218. In a previous work, we showed that in the APEC strain BEN2908 isolated from a colibacillosis case, ibeA was rather involved in adhesion to eukaryotic cells by modulating type 1 fimbriae synthesis. In this study, we demonstrate a new role for ibeA in oxidative stress resistance. We showed that an ibeA mutant of E. coli BEN2908 was more sensitive than its wild type counterpart to H(2)O(2) killing. This phenotype was also observed in a mutant deleted for the whole GimA genomic region carrying ibeA and might be linked to alterations in the expression of a subset of genes involved in the oxidative stress response. We also showed that RpoS expression was not altered by the ibeA deletion. Moreover, the transfer of an ibeA-expressing plasmid into an E. coli K-12 strain, expressing or not type 1 fimbriae, rendered it more resistant to an H(2)O(2) challenge. Altogether, these results show that ibeA by itself is able to confer an increased H(2)O(2) resistance to E. coli. This feature could partly explain the role played by ibeA in the virulence of pathogenic strains.
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