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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2004, p . 4046-4050, Vol . 186, No . 12
Microarray Analysis and Functional Characterization of the Nitrosative Stress
Response in Nonmucoid and Mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa
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| ABSTRACT |
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The type strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, PAO1, showed great
upregulation of many nitrosative defense genes upon treatment with
S-nitrosoglutathione, while the mucoid strain PAO578II showed no
further upregulation above its constitutive upregulation of nor
and fhp . NO· consumption however, showed that both
strains mount functional, protein synthesis-dependent NO·-consumptive
responses .
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The prevalence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in individuals with
cystic fibrosis (CF) is thought to be due to derangements of salt
concentrations in airway surface fluid, bacterial adhesion to airway
epithelial cells, and nitric oxide (NO·)-mediated innate
immunity (23) . While these factors can be interrelated
(5), decreased NO·-mediated innate immunity
is clearly important (15) . NO· is a
potently bactericidal component of the innate immune system (3,
19) that acts either directly or via its ready
conversion to other species, e.g., peroxynitrite and S-nitrosothiols .
Microarray studies have demonstrated mucoidy-induced expression
increases for genes whose products, such as nitric oxide reductase (nor)
and flavohemoglobin (fhp), are involved in defense against NO·
(7) . Conversion to mucoidy in the CF-infected host
increases general bacterial resistance to host clearance and
antibiotics (11, 17), to which
constitutive NO· defense by Nor and Fhp may contribute . To
further characterize this NO· resistance, we induced
nitrosative defense responses in the P . aeruginosa type
strain, PAO1 (which is nonmucoid), and its mucoid derivative strain,
PA0578II, by using S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) . GSNO is a
physiologically relevant NO· donor that provides a
nonvolatile carrier of NO· in the airway surface fluid of
the lung (27) and whose levels are decreased in
the lower airways in individuals with CF (12) .
These characteristics are thought to be important in the pathogenesis
of P . aeruginosa in cases of CF (10) . Gene
expression was determined by microarray analysis as previously
described (7) . Furthermore, rates of in vivo NO·
consumption were measured by a microelectrode technique .
Microarray analysis of nitrosative defense by GSNO. GSNO (13) was added to cultures of PAO1 and its mucoid derivative, PAO578II (4, 8), for 30 min at a 5 mM final concentration, and then RNA extraction and analysis were performed as previously described (7) . Strain PAO578II is a prototypical strain of mucoid isolates from individuals with CF: it carries both the mucA22 and sup-2 mutations (4, 8) . The GSNO treatment caused growth arrest, but plate assays showed it not to be bactericidal (data not shown) . The results from three microarray chips, i.e., independent identical experiments, were obtained for each strain (see Table S1 in the supplemental material) . Each value from each chip represents the average of 13 independent spots for each gene on each chip, providing further averaging . Ratios of gene expression levels in GSNO-treated bacteria to those in controls were calculated, and the 30 most upregulated, annotated genes (28) for each strain were selected (see the online annotation project at http://www.pseudomonas.com) . All statistical analysis was done by t testing (with Microcal Origin software) .
The P . aeruginosa mucoid strain PAO578II and the nonmucoid strain
PAO1 were grown and treated with GSNO as described above . Total
cellular RNA was isolated by using the AquaPure RNA isolation kit
(Bio-Rad) and treated with DNA-free (Ambion) to remove any
contaminating DNA . Reverse transcription was performed with a
Retroscript kit (Ambion) per the manufacturer's protocol . The total
cDNA was quantified by spectrophotometry, and exactly 50 ng was used
in each real-time PCR . Real-time PCR was carried out in triplicate on
an iCycler iQ real-time PCR detection system (Bio-Rad) by using iQ
SYBR Green Supermix (Bio-Rad) with 50 ng of cDNA and a 500 nM
concentration of each primer . Controls consisted of samples to which
no cDNA template had been added or to which original RNA was added .
Primers were designed for norB and fhp with Primer
Express software (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif.) . The PCR
primers for norB were CCAATGGCTCCCTGAAATTC and
GCCCGACGAAGAGGATCA . The primers for fhp were TGCGCCGCAACTATTCG
and TTGACGCTGATGCGGTATTC . Following PCR, relative expression levels
were calculated by using 2
CT,
where
CT
represents the difference between cycling times (CT) for the two
samples being compared . The CT is the point at which the PCR cycle
crosses the preset logarithmic threshold .
Nonmucoid strain PAO1 strongly upregulates transcription of nitrosative defense genes upon GSNO treatment. Of the 30 most upregulated genes (upregulated more than threefold, with a P value of <0.05), 12 are involved with metabolizing oxides of nitrogen and 2 have antioxidative functions (Table 1) . The most highly upregulated gene, fhp, codes for flavohemoglobin, which oxidatively metabolizes NO· to NO3– by using O2 and NADPH (14) The genes norB and norC code for NO· reductase (Nor), which reductively metabolizes NO· to relatively inert N2O and thus can protect against nitrosative stress . This parallel induction of both nor and fhp is consistent with the physiological need to detoxify NO· as rapidly as possible . Nor, an integral inner membrane protein (32), is well placed to detoxify NO· as it enters bacterial cells, while cytosolic Fhp can act only once NO· has entered the cell . These capabilities can be viewed as providing nitrosative defense throughout the cell . To confirm the microarray analysis, real-time PCR was performed upon fhp and norB . In PAO1, upon GSNO treatment, the fhp and norB gene expression levels were 194- and 23-fold higher than those of the non-GSNO-treated controls, respectively (P < 0.00001) . Other classes of genes involved in denitrification were also upregulated; their connections to the metabolic pathways are shown in Fig . 1 . For example, moaB1 codes for the synthesis of the molybdopterin cofactor of nitrate reductase, and narK1 codes for a nitrate transporter (32) . However, expression of adhC, glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase, which directly metabolizes GSNO and would be expected to be upregulated (16), was in fact not increased (0.8-fold increase; not significant) .
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The mucoid strain PAO578II displays limited upregulation of nitrosative
defense genes but upregulates pyochelin and other stress proteins. The
mucoid strain PAO578II exhibited a substantially different pattern of
gene activation upon GSNO treatment, with a hallmark being little or
no upregulation of the key nitrosative defense genes, nor and
fhp, that are upregulated in PAO1 (Table 1) .
This finding was confirmed by real-time PCR analysis of fhp
and norB . In the mucoid strain PAO578II, upon GSNO treatment
the gene expression ratios for fhp and norB were increased
1.15-fold and decreased 1.9-fold, respectively, over those of the
non-GSNO treated controls (P < 0.025) . The fhp and
nor genes are already greatly upregulated in mucoid cells;
however, this is not the case for most of the other genes shown . The
reason for this difference is unclear . The data showing little
constitutive or GSNO-induced upregulation in mucoid strain PAO578II
(compared to that in PAO1) of most genes (excluding nor and
fhp) involved in denitrification are in contrast to the
expectation that mucoid P . aeruginosa uses the denitrification
pathway in respiration during mucoid colonization (30) .
One potential explanation, at least for the nir genes, is that
Nir is proinflammatory due to increased epithelial-cell interleukin-8
production (18, 21) . The lack
of upregulation of nir is consistent with mucoidy-associated
persistence in the lung and a decrease in the systemic virulence of
most mucoid CF-associated isolates (31) . The pattern of
upregulated genes in PAO578II (Table 2) was quite
different from that of the genes in PAO1 . One category of genes
showing significant increases in expression in GSNO-treated mucoid
strain PAO578II was that of the damage control and repair genes
bfr, groEL, grpE, grx, hslU, and
ohr, which were upregulated 4.3-, 5.2-, 5.4-, 6.1-, 5.6-, and
13.7-fold, respectively . These damage control and repair genes were
not significantly upregulated in PAO1 . Although nor and fhp
are constitutively upregulated upon conversion to mucoidy (and hence
in PAO578II) (7), this upregulation appears
insufficient to completely protect against nitrosative damage; hence,
these repair mechanisms are induced . Another major class of genes
upregulated by GSNO in PAO578II was that of the pch genes that
are involved in synthesis of the siderophore pyochelin (22,
24), which were also upregulated in PAO1 (although
only the upregulation of pchF reached significance at a P
value of <0.05) . In particular, pchA (whose product is a
rate-limiting step in pyochelin synthesis in P . aeruginosa) (9)
is strongly upregulated . Expression of the pyochelin receptor gene (fptA)
(1) was also increased 4.6-fold (P < 0.05) . It
is as yet unclear, however, whether this upregulation of pchF
resulted from the known disregulation of iron metabolism caused
by nitrosative stress (6) or from a metabolic requirement for
iron . Pyoverdin genes were not upregulated significantly in
PAO578II or PAO1 by GSNO .
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Gene expression responses of conversion to mucoidy in PAO578II and of
nitrosative defense in PAO1 are essentially independent. A comparative
study of the upregulation by nitrosative stress and mucoidy (shown
for selected genes in Table 3) showed little
cross-correlation between genes induced by mucoidy in PAO578II (7)
and nitrosative stress . The control pathways involved in mucoidy and
nitrosative defense appear to be essentially independent .
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Expression of adherence genes is downregulated by nitrosative stress in
both PAO1 and PAO578II. A recent study has shown that NO·
decreases adherence between P . aeruginosa and airway
epithelial cells (5) . Upon the onset of nitrosative
stress, the expression of several important adherence genes,
including fliO (26), fliD (2),
and several cupA and cupB genes (29),
was significantly downregulated in both PAO1 and mucoid strain
PAO578II (Table 4) . This downregulation may explain
the decreased adherence, and maximizing this effect may provide a
useful treatment strategy for CF .
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In vivo NO· consumption analysis. For the analysis
of NO· consumption, 45 min of GSNO exposure was used (to
allow protein expression from increased mRNA), followed by
centrifugation and resuspension in fresh Luria-Bertani (LB) medium .
NO· (final concentration, 50 µM) was added to 1 ml of
stirred aerobic culture (3 x 108
CFU/ml) in a glass chamber at 37°C (20) . The NO·
concentration was measured with a daily calibrated inNO-T system
(Harvard Apparatus, Holliston, Mass.) . The baseline NO·
consumption of mucoid strain PAO578II (14.6 ± 1.1 pmol 108
CFU–1 s–1) was significantly higher than that of nonmucoid
strain PAO1 (5.8 ± 4.9 pmol 108 CFU–1 s–1),
at a P value of <0.01, in accordance with its higher
expression of nor and fhp genes . NO·
consumption was substantially increased with GSNO treatment for both
PAO1 and PAO578II (Fig . 2) . This GSNO-induced
increase in NO· consumption was inhibited in both strains
by the protein synthesis inhibitor tetracycline (Fig . 3) .
We observed a 15-fold increase in NO· consumption in PAO1 (from 0 to
105 min) (Fig . 2), consistent with the microarray
data for nor and fhp . For mucoid strain PAO578II, the
induction of NO· consumption by GSNO that we observed was
sixfold higher than that demonstrated by the microarray data for
PAO578II, in which neither nor nor fhp genes were
upregulated . This difference may be the result of induction of an NO·-consuming
system other than Nor or Fhp or of a posttranscriptional regulation
process that increases synthesis of Nor or Fhp in the absence of
increased mRNA .
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These data could have implications for our understanding of P .
aeruginosa pathogenesis in individuals with CF . For example, the
limited effectiveness of clinical NO· or GNSO therapies
for CF (25, 27) could derive in part from
an induction of NO·-consuming, nitrosative defense
systems, as demonstrated here . While this induction may explain the
failure of these NO· and GSNO treatments, our studies with
tetracycline suggest that combination therapy with a protein
synthesis-inhibiting antibiotic could circumvent this problem .
Additionally, characterization of NO· defenses of PAO1 and PAO578II
at the protein level could provide an understanding of the
nitrosative defense of clinically important mucoid strains .
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grant
AI31139 (to V.D.) and by a microarray supplement (to V.D.) and a
grant (to G.S.T.) from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation . Microarry
instrumentation was supported by the Keck-UNM genomics core .
| FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author . Mailing address: College of Pharmacy,
Toxicology Program, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center,
Albuquerque, NM 87131 . Phone: (505) 272-4103 . Fax: (505) 272-6749 . E-mail: gtimmins@salud.unm.edu.
Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/ .
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