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Functional analysis of pyochelin-/enantiopyochelin-related genes from a pathogenicity island of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA14

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Abstract

Genomic islands are foreign DNA blocks inserted in so-called regions of genomic plasticity (RGP). Depending on their gene content, they are classified as pathogenicity, symbiosis, metabolic, fitness or resistance islands, although a detailed functional analysis is often lacking. Here we focused on a 34-kb pathogenicity island of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14 (PA14GI-6), which is inserted at RGP5 and carries genes related to those for pyochelin/enantiopyochelin biosynthesis. These enantiomeric siderophores of P. aeruginosa and certain strains of Pseudomonas protegens are assembled by a thiotemplate mechanism from salicylate and two molecules of cysteine. The biochemical function of several proteins encoded by PA14GI-6 was investigated by a series of complementation analyses using mutants affected in potential homologs. We found that PA14_54940 codes for a bifunctional salicylate synthase/salicyl-AMP ligase (for generation and activation of salicylate), that PA14_54930 specifies a dihydroaeruginoic acid (Dha) synthetase (for coupling salicylate with a cysteine-derived thiazoline ring), that PA14_54910 produces a type II thioesterase (for quality control), and that PA14_54880 encodes a serine O-acetyltransferase (for increased cysteine availability). The structure of the PA14GI-6-specified metabolite was determined by mass spectrometry, thin-layer chromatography, and HPLC as (R)-Dha, an iron chelator with antibacterial, antifungal and antitumor activity. The conservation of this genomic island in many clinical and environmental P. aeruginosa isolates of different geographical origin suggests that the ability for Dha production may confer a selective advantage to its host.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Zeb A. Youard for help with degenerate primer design, Paul Majcherczyk for HPLC analyses, and Nadja Leimer and Luis Alejandro González Blázquez for carrying out initial experiments on this project. This work as supported by the Swiss National Foundation for scientific research (project 31003A-132998).

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  1. Département de Microbiologie Fondamentale, Université de Lausanne, Bâtiment Biophore, Quartier UNIL-Sorge, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Alessandro Maspoli, Nicolas Wenner & Cornelia Reimmann

  2. Transport Membranaires Bactériens, UMR 7242, Université de Strasbourg-CNRS, Boulevard Sébastien Brant, BP 10413, Illkirch Cedex, France

    Gaëtan L. A. Mislin

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  1. Alessandro Maspoli
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Correspondence to Cornelia Reimmann.

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Maspoli, A., Wenner, N., Mislin, G.L.A. et al. Functional analysis of pyochelin-/enantiopyochelin-related genes from a pathogenicity island of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA14. Biometals 27, 559–573 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-014-9729-4

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