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A low-pH medium in vitro or the environment within a macrophage decreases the transcriptional levels of fimA, fimZ and lrp in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

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Abstract

Many Salmonella Typhimurium isolates produce type 1 fimbriae and exhibit fimbrial phase variation in vitro. Static broth culture favours the production of fimbriae, while solid agar medium inhibits the generation of these appendages. Little information is available regarding whether S. Typhimurium continues to produce type 1 fimbriae during in vivo growth. We used a type 1 fimbrial phase-variable strain S. Typhimurium LB5010 and its derivatives to infect RAW 264.7 macrophages. Following entry into macrophages, S. Typhimurium LB5010 gradually decreased the transcript levels of fimbrial subunit gene fimA, positive regulatory gene fimZ, and global regulatory gene lrp. A similar decrease in transcript levels was detected by RT-PCR when the pH of static broth medium was shifted from pH 7 to a more acidic pH 4. A fimA-deleted strain continued to multiply within macrophages as did the parental strain. An lrp deletion strain was unimpaired for in vitro growth at pH 7 or pH 4, while a strain harboring an lrp-containing plasmid exhibited impaired in vitro growth at pH 4. We propose that acidic medium, which resembles one aspect of the intracellular environment in a macrophage, inhibits type 1 fimbrial production by down-regulation of the expression of lrp, fimZ and fimA.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grant NSC98-2313-B-038-001-MY3 from the National Science Council, Taiwan, to KSY.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ke-Chuan Wang & Yuan-Hsun Hsu

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yuan-Hsun Hsu

  3. Department of Veterinary Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, College of Bioresources and Agriculture, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yi-Ning Huang, Jiunn-Horng Lin & Kuang-Sheng Yeh

  4. Graduate Institute of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Ter-Hsin Chen, Shih-Ling Hsuan, Maw-Sheng Chien & Wei-Cheng Lee

  5. Division of Animal Medicine, Animal Technology Institute Taiwan, Chunan, Miaoli, Taiwan

    Jiunn-Horng Lin

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  1. Ke-Chuan Wang
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  2. Yuan-Hsun Hsu
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  3. Yi-Ning Huang
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  6. Shih-Ling Hsuan
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  7. Maw-Sheng Chien
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  8. Wei-Cheng Lee
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  9. Kuang-Sheng Yeh
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Correspondence to Kuang-Sheng Yeh.

Additional information

Corresponding editor: DURGADAS P KASBEKAR

MS received 07 February 2013; accepted 10 June 2013

Corresponding editor: Durgadas P Kasbekar

[Wang K-C, Hsu Y-H, Huang Y-N, Chen T-H, Lin J-H, Hsuan S-L, Chien M-S, Lee W-C and Yeh K-S 2013 A low-pH medium in vitro or the environment within a macrophage decreases the transcriptional levels of fimA, fimZ and lrp in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. J. Biosci. 38 1–9] DOI 10.1007/s12038-013-9347-2

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Wang, KC., Hsu, YH., Huang, YN. et al. A low-pH medium in vitro or the environment within a macrophage decreases the transcriptional levels of fimA, fimZ and lrp in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. J Biosci 38, 499–507 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-013-9347-2

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