Abstract
Currently, it is clear that the luxS gene has an impact on the process of biofilm formation in Campylobacter jejuni. However, even within the species, naturally occurring strains of Campylobacter lacking the luxS gene exist, which can form biofilms. In order to better understand the genetic determinants and the role of quorum sensing through the LuxS/AI-2 pathway in biofilm formation, a set of mutant/complemented strains of C. jejuni 81–176 were prepared. Additionally, the impact of the mutagenic strategy used against the luxS gene was investigated. Biofilm formation was affected by both the presence and absence of the luxS gene, and by the mutagenic strategy used. Analysis by CLSM showed that all mutant strains formed significantly less biofilm mass when compared to the wild-type. Interestingly, the deletion mutant (∆luxS) showed a larger decrease in biofilm mass than the substitution (∙luxS) and insertional inactivated (\(\colon\colon\)luxS) mutants, even though all the mutant strains lost the ability to produce autoinducer-2 molecules. Moreover, the biofilm of the ∆luxS mutant lacked the characteristic microcolonies observed in all other strains. The complementation of all mutant strains resulted in restored ability to produce AI-2, to form a complex biofilm, and to develop microcolonies at the level of the wild-type.
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Data Availability
Datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.
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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Ruth Ketley and Jana Terenova, both from the University of Oxford, for language corrections and critical comments on the manuscript. We also thank professor Elzbieta Katarzyna Jagusztyn-Krynicka from the University of Warsaw for providing us the plasmid pRY107 used in this study. The work was financially supported by The Czech Science Foundation through Project No. 18-16549S.
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The work was financially supported by The Czech Science Foundation through Project No. 18-16549S.
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Conceptualization: [Martin Teren]; Methodology: [Martin Teren]; Formal analysis and investigation: [Martin Teren, Ekaterina Shagieva, Viviana Svarcova]; Writing – original draft preparation: [Martin Teren]; Writing – review and editing: [Hana T. Michova, Lucie Vondrakova, Jitka Viktorova, Katerina Demnerova]; Funding acquisition: [Katerina Demnerova]; Resources: [Hana T. Michova, Lucie Vondrakova, Jitka Viktorova, Katerina Demnerova]; Supervision: [Katerina Demnerova].
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Communicated by Agnieszka Szalewska-Palasz
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Teren, M., Shagieva, E., Vondrakova, L. et al. Mutagenic strategies against luxS gene affect the early stage of biofilm formation of Campylobacter jejuni. J Appl Genetics 63, 145–157 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-021-00655-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-021-00655-y