Chou Huei-Chi, Lee Cha-Ze, Ma Li-Chen, Fang Chi-Tai, Chang Shan-Chwen, Wang Jin-Town
Department of Microbiology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, 1 Jen-Ai Road, Taipei, Taiwan.
Infect Immun. 2004 Jul;72(7):3783-92. doi: 10.1128/IAI.72.7.3783-3792.2004.
Klebsiella pneumoniae liver abscess with metastatic complications is an emerging infectious disease in Taiwan. To identify genes associated with liver infection, we used a DNA microarray to compare the transcriptional profiles of three strains causing liver abscess and three strains not associated with liver infection. There were 13 clones that showed higher RNA expression levels in the three liver infection strains, and 3 of these 13 clones contained a region that was absent in MGH 78578. Sequencing of the clones revealed the replacement of 149 bp of MGH 78578 with a 21,745-bp fragment in a liver infection strain, NTUH-K2044. This 21,745-bp fragment contained 19 open reading frames, 14 of which were proven to be associated with allantoin metabolism. The K2044 (DeltaallS) mutant showed a significant decrease of virulence in intragastric inoculation of BALB/c mice, and the prevalence of this chromosomal region was significantly higher in strains associated with liver abscess than in those that were not (19 or 32 versus 2 of 94; P = 0.0001 [chi(2) test]). Therefore, the 22-kb region may play a role in K. pneumoniae liver infection and serve as a marker for rapid identification.
肺炎克雷伯菌肝脓肿伴发转移性并发症在台湾是一种新出现的传染病。为了鉴定与肝脏感染相关的基因，我们使用DNA微阵列比较了三株引起肝脓肿的菌株和三株与肝脏感染无关的菌株的转录谱。有13个克隆在三株肝脏感染菌株中显示出较高的RNA表达水平，这13个克隆中有3个包含一个在MGH 78578中不存在的区域。对这些克隆进行测序发现，在一株肝脏感染菌株NTUH-K2044中，MGH 78578的149 bp被一个21,745 bp的片段所取代。这个21,745 bp的片段包含19个开放阅读框，其中14个被证明与尿囊素代谢有关。K2044（DeltaallS）突变体在对BALB/c小鼠进行胃内接种时毒力显著降低，并且该染色体区域在与肝脓肿相关的菌株中的流行率显著高于未与肝脓肿相关的菌株（19/32对94株中的2株；P = 0.0001[卡方检验]）。因此，这个22 kb的区域可能在肺炎克雷伯菌肝脏感染中起作用，并可作为快速鉴定的标志物。
