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The Streptomycin-Treated Mouse Intestine Selects Escherichia coli envZ Missense Mutants That Interact with Dense and Diverse Intestinal Microbiota

Authors :
Megan E. Banner
Tyrrell Conway
Jimmy Adediran
Matthew E. Mokszycki
Mary P. Leatham-Jensen
Joyce E. Caughron
Karen A. Krogfelt
Jakob Frimodt-Møller
Paul S. Cohen
Source :
Infection and Immunity. 80:1716-1727
Publication Year :
2012
Publisher :
American Society for Microbiology, 2012.

Abstract

Previously, we reported that the streptomycin-treated mouse intestine selected nonmotile Escherichia coli MG1655 flhDC deletion mutants of E. coli MG1655 with improved colonizing ability that grow 15% faster in vitro in mouse cecal mucus and 15 to 30% faster on sugars present in mucus (M. P. Leatham et al., Infect. Immun. 73:8039–8049, 2005). Here, we report that the 10 to 20% remaining motile E. coli MG1655 are envZ missense mutants that are also better colonizers of the mouse intestine than E. coli MG1655. One of the flhDC mutants, E. coli MG1655 Δ flhD , and one of the envZ missense mutants, E. coli MG1655 mot-1, were studied further. E. coli MG1655 mot-1 is more resistant to bile salts and colicin V than E. coli MG1655 Δ flhD and grows ca. 15% slower in vitro in mouse cecal mucus and on several sugars present in mucus compared to E. coli MG1655 Δ flhD but grows 30% faster on galactose. Moreover, E. coli MG1655 mot-1 and E. coli MG1655 Δ flhD appear to colonize equally well in one intestinal niche, but E. coli MG1655 mot-1 appears to use galactose to colonize a second, smaller intestinal niche either not colonized or colonized poorly by E. coli MG1655 Δ flhD . Evidence is also presented that E. coli MG1655 is a minority member of mixed bacterial biofilms in the mucus layer of the streptomycin-treated mouse intestine. We offer a hypothesis, which we call the “Restaurant” hypothesis, that explains how nutrient acquisition in different biofilms comprised of different anaerobes can account for our results.

Details

ISSN :
10985522 and 00199567
Volume :
80
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Infection and Immunity
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....b2e2f2bb21b9de0b928cfbd2cf285518
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1128/iai.06193-11