Affiliation:
1. Division of Infectious Diseases, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles,1 and
2. Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern California,2Los Angeles, California 90027
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Escherichia coli
K1 is the most common gram-negative organism causing neonatal meningitis, but the mechanism by which
E. coli
K1 crosses the blood-brain barrier is incompletely understood. We have previously described the cloning and molecular characterization of a determinant,
ibeA
(also called
ibe10
), from the chromosome of an invasive cerebrospinal fluid isolate of
E. coli
K1 strain RS218 (O18:K1:H7). Here we report the identification of another chromosomal locus,
ibeB
, which allows RS218 to invade brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMEC). The noninvasive Tn
phoA
mutant 7A-33 exhibited <1% the invasive ability of the parent strain in vitro in BMEC and was significantly less invasive in the central nervous system in the newborn rat model of hematogenous
E. coli
meningitis than the parent strain. The Tn
phoA
insert with flanking sequences was cloned and sequenced. A 1,383-nucleotide open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 50-kDa protein was identified and termed
ibeB
. This ORF was found to be 97% identical to a gene encoding a 50-kDa hypothetical protein (p77211) and located in the 13-min region of the
E. coli
K-12 genome. However, no homology was observed between
ibeB
and other known invasion genes when DNA and protein databases in GenBank were searched. Like the Tn
phoA
insertion mutant 7A-33, an isogenic
ibeB
deletion mutant (IB7D5) was unable to invade BMEC. A 7.0-kb locus containing
ibeB
was isolated from a LambdaGEM-12 genomic library of
E. coli
RS218 and subcloned into a pBluescript KS vector (pKS7-7B). pKS7-7B was capable of completely restoring the BMEC invasion of the noninvasive Tn
phoA
mutant 7A-33 and the
ibeB
deletion mutant IB7D5 to the level of the parent strain. More importantly, the
ibeB
deletion mutant IB7D5 was fully complemented by pFN476 carrying the
ibeB
ORF (pFN7C), indicating that
ibeB
is required for
E. coli
K1 invasion of BMEC. Taken together, these findings indicate that several
E. coli
determinants, including
ibeA
and
ibeB
, contribute to crossing of the blood-brain barrier.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Immunology,Microbiology,Parasitology
Cited by
111 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献