Department of Biochemistry, Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Apr 26;108(17):7194-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1014125108. Epub 2011 Apr 11.
Campylobacter jejuni is a prevalent gastrointestinal pathogen in humans and a common commensal of poultry. When colonizing its hosts, C. jejuni comes into contact with intestinal carbohydrates, including L-fucose, released from mucin glycoproteins. Several strains of C. jejuni possess a genomic island (cj0480c-cj0490) that is up-regulated in the presence of both L-fucose and mucin and allows for the utilization of L-fucose as a substrate for growth. Strains possessing this genomic island show increased growth in the presence of L-fucose and mutation of cj0481, cj0486, and cj0487 results in the loss of the ability to grow on this substrate. Furthermore, mutants in the putative fucose permease (cj0486) are deficient in fucose uptake and demonstrate a competitive disadvantage when colonizing the piglet model of human disease, which is not paralleled in the colonization of poultry. This identifies a previously unrecorded metabolic pathway in select strains of C. jejuni associated with a virulent lifestyle.
空肠弯曲菌是一种常见的人类胃肠道病原体，也是家禽的常见共生菌。当它定殖于宿主时，会接触到肠道碳水化合物，包括从粘蛋白糖蛋白释放的 L-岩藻糖。几株空肠弯曲菌具有一个基因组岛（cj0480c-cj0490），在存在 L-岩藻糖和粘蛋白的情况下会被上调，并且允许 L-岩藻糖作为生长的底物被利用。具有该基因组岛的菌株在存在 L-岩藻糖的情况下表现出增加的生长，并且 cj0481、cj0486 和 cj0487 的突变导致丧失在该底物上生长的能力。此外，假定的岩藻糖透性酶（cj0486）中的突变体在摄取岩藻糖方面存在缺陷，并且在定殖人类疾病的仔猪模型中表现出竞争劣势，这在禽类的定殖中并没有出现。这确定了与毒力生活方式相关的特定空肠弯曲菌菌株中以前未记录的代谢途径。
