Publikationsdatenbank

Production of the Catechol Type Siderophore Bacillibactin by the Honey Bee Pathogen Paenibacillus larvae (2014)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Hertlein, Gillian

Müller, Sebastian

Garcia-Gonzalez, Eva

Poppinga, Lena

Süssmuth, Roderich D

Genersch, Elke (WE 7)

Quelle

PLOS ONE

Bandzählung: 9

Heftzählung: 9

Seiten: e108272

ISSN: 1932-6203

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): http://edocs.fu-berlin.de/docs/receive/FUDOCS_document_000000021480

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108272

Pubmed: 25237888

Kontakt

Institut für Mikrobiologie und Tierseuchen

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 51843 / 66949
mikrobiologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

The Gram-positive bacterium Paenibacillus larvae is the etiological agent of American Foulbrood. This bacterial infection of honey bee brood is a notifiable epizootic posing a serious threat to global honey bee health because not only individual larvae but also entire colonies succumb to the disease. In the recent past considerable progress has been made in elucidating molecular aspects of host pathogen interactions during pathogenesis of P. larvae infections. Especially the sequencing and annotation of the complete genome of P. larvae was a major step forward and revealed the existence of several giant gene clusters coding for non-ribosomal peptide synthetases which might act as putative virulence factors. We here present the detailed analysis of one of these clusters which we demonstrated to be responsible for the biosynthesis of bacillibactin, a P. larvae siderophore. We first established culture conditions allowing the growth of P. larvae under iron-limited conditions and triggering siderophore production by P. larvae. Using a gene disruption strategy we linked siderophore production to the expression of an uninterrupted bacillibactin gene cluster. In silico analysis predicted the structure of a trimeric trithreonyl lactone (DHB-Gly-Thr)3 similar to the structure of bacillibactin produced by several Bacillus species. Mass spectrometric analysis unambiguously confirmed that the siderophore produced by P. larvae is identical to bacillibactin. Exposure bioassays demonstrated that P. larvae bacillibactin is not required for full virulence of P. larvae in laboratory exposure bioassays. This observation is consistent with results obtained for bacillibactin in other pathogenic bacteria.