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Alterations in Caenorhabditis elegans and Cronobacter sakazakii lipopolysaccharide during interaction

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Abstract

Lipopolysaccharide is one of the pathogen-associated molecular patterns of Gram-negative bacteria which are essential for its pathogenicity. Cronobacter sakazakii is an opportunistic, emergent pathogen, which infects and cause mortality in Caenorhabditis elegans. In this study, modifications in host and C. sakazakii LPS during infections were evaluated. The physiological assays revealed that LPS alone is sufficient to affect the host pharyngeal pumping rate, brood size and cause lethality. FTIR spectra of LPS revealed that C. sakazakii modifies its LPS to escape from the recognition of host immune system. These results indicate that LPS plays a key role in C. sakazakii pathogenicity. qPCR studies revealed that LPS modulated the expression of selected host immune (clec-60, clec-87, lys-7, ilys-3, F08G5.6, atf-7, scl-2, cpr-2) and aging-related genes (skn-1, clk-2, bra-2, age-1, bec-1, daf-16, daf-2). Moreover, it was confirmed that p38 MAPK pathway has a major role in host immune response against LPS-mediated challenges.

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Abbreviations

CGC:

Caenorhabditis Genetics Center

LPS:

Lipopolysaccharide

MAPK:

Mitogen-activated protein kinase

NGM:

Nematode growth medium

O/N:

Overnight

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

Pmk :

P38 MAP kinase family

RT-PCR:

Reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction

Sek :

SAPK/ERK kinase

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Acknowledgments

We thank Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources for providing C. elegans N2 WT, mutant strains and E. coli OP50. KB thankfully acknowledges the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), University Grand Commission (UGC), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, New Delhi, India, for the financial assistances. BS wishes to thank DBT and CSIR, India, for the financial assistance (DBT-JRF & CSIR-SRF). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the use of the Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility, Alagappa University funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India (No. BT/BI/25/001/2006).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Alagappa University, Science Campus, Karaikudi, 630 004, India

    Bhagavathi Sundaram Sivamaruthi, Mani Iyer Prasanth & Krishnaswamy Balamurugan

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  1. Bhagavathi Sundaram Sivamaruthi
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  2. Mani Iyer Prasanth
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  3. Krishnaswamy Balamurugan
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Correspondence to Krishnaswamy Balamurugan.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Sivamaruthi, B.S., Prasanth, M.I. & Balamurugan, K. Alterations in Caenorhabditis elegans and Cronobacter sakazakii lipopolysaccharide during interaction. Arch Microbiol 197, 327–337 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-014-1064-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-014-1064-1

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