Canals Rocío, Jiménez Natalia, Vilches Silvia, Regué Miguel, Merino Susana, Tomás Juan M
Departamento Microbiología, Facultad Biología, Universidad Barcelona, Diagonal 645, 08071 Barcelona, Spain.
J Bacteriol. 2007 Jan;189(2):540-50. doi: 10.1128/JB.01260-06. Epub 2006 Nov 10.
The mesophilic Aeromonas hydrophila AH-3 (serotype O34) strain shows two different UDP-hexose epimerases in its genome: GalE (EC 3.1.5.2) and Gne (EC 3.1.5.7). Similar homologues were detected in the different mesophilic Aeromonas strains tested. GalE shows only UDP-galactose 4-epimerase activity, while Gne is able to perform a dual activity (mainly UDP-N-acetyl galactosamine 4-epimerase and also UDP-galactose 4-epimerase). We studied the activities in vitro of both epimerases and also in vivo through the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) structure of A. hydrophila gne mutants, A. hydrophila galE mutants, A. hydrophila galE-gne double mutants, and independently complemented mutants with both genes. Furthermore, the enzymatic activity in vivo, which renders different LPS structures on the mentioned A. hydrophila mutant strains or the complemented mutants, allowed us to confirm a clear relationship between the virulence of these strains and the presence/absence of the O34 antigen LPS.
嗜温性嗜水气单胞菌AH-3(血清型O34)菌株在其基因组中显示出两种不同的UDP-己糖差向异构酶:GalE(EC 3.1.5.2)和Gne(EC 3.1.5.7)。在测试的不同嗜温性气单胞菌菌株中检测到了类似的同源物。GalE仅显示UDP-半乳糖4-差向异构酶活性,而Gne能够执行双重活性(主要是UDP-N-乙酰半乳糖胺4-差向异构酶,也包括UDP-半乳糖4-差向异构酶)。我们研究了这两种差向异构酶的体外活性,还通过嗜水气单胞菌gne突变体、嗜水气单胞菌galE突变体、嗜水气单胞菌galE-gne双突变体以及分别用这两个基因互补的突变体的脂多糖(LPS)结构,研究了它们的体内活性。此外,体内酶活性在上述嗜水气单胞菌突变菌株或互补突变体上产生了不同的LPS结构,这使我们能够确认这些菌株的毒力与O34抗原LPS的存在与否之间存在明确的关系。