Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

, Volume 99, Issue 24, pp 10639–10654 | Cite as

The effects of upaB deletion and the double/triple deletion of upaB, aatA, and aatB genes on pathogenicity of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli

  • Xiang-kai Zhu-Ge
  • Zi-hao Pan
  • Fang Tang
  • Xiang Mao
  • Lin Hu
  • Shao-hui Wang
  • Bin Xu
  • Cheng-ping Lu
  • Hong-jie Fan
  • Jian-jun Dai
Applied microbial and cell physiology
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

Autotransporters (ATs) are associated with pathogenesis of Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC). The molecular characterization of APEC ATs can provide insights about their relevance to APEC pathogenesis. Here, we characterized a conventional autotransporter UpaB in APEC DE205B genome. The upaB existed in 41.9 % of 236 APEC isolates and was predominantly associated with ECOR B2 and D. Our studies showed that UpaB mediates the DE205B adhesion in DF-1 cells, and enhances autoaggregation and biofilm formation of fimbria-negative E. coli AAEC189 (MG1655Δfim) in vitro. Deletion of upaB of DE205B attenuates the virulence in duck model and early colonization in the duck lungs during APEC systemic infection. Furthermore, double and triple deletion of upaB, aatA, and aatB genes cumulatively attenuated DE205B adhesion in DF-1 cells, accompanying with decreased 50 % lethal dose (LD50) in duck model and the early colonization in the duck lungs. However, DE205BΔupaB/ΔaatA/ΔaatB might “compensate” the influence of gene deletion by upregulating the expression of fimbrial adhesin genes yqiL, yadN, and vacuolating autotransporter vat during early colonization of APEC. Finally, we demonstrated that vaccination with recombinant UpaB, AatA, and AatB proteins conferred protection against colisepticemia caused by DE205B infection in duck model.

Keywords

APEC Autotransporter UPAB Pathogenicity Double/triple deletion Vaccination 
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Notes

Compliance with ethical standards

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Funding

This work was supported by The Fund of Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) and the Chinese Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201403054).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

All animal experimental protocols were approved by the Laboratory Animal Monitoring Committee of Jiangsu Province, China.

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Supplementary material

253_2015_6925_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (582 kb)
ESM 1 (PDF 582 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Xiang-kai Zhu-Ge
    • 1
  • Zi-hao Pan
    • 1
  • Fang Tang
    • 1
  • Xiang Mao
    • 2
  • Lin Hu
    • 1
  • Shao-hui Wang
    • 2
  • Bin Xu
    • 1
  • Cheng-ping Lu
    • 1
  • Hong-jie Fan
    • 1
  • Jian-jun Dai
    • 1
  1. 1.Key Lab of Animal Bacteriology, Ministry of AgricultureNanjing Agricultural, UniversityNanjingChina
  2. 2.Shanghai Veterinary Research InstituteChinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesShanghaiChina

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