Ethanolamine gene regulation in EHEC

Bacterial pathogens must be able to both recognize suitable niches within the host for colonization and successfully compete with commensal flora for nutrients in order to establish infection. Ethanolamine (EA) is a major component of mammalian and bacterial membranes and may be used by pathogens as a carbon and/or nitrogen source in the gastrointestinal tract. We examined how EA influences gene expression in the human pathogen enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 (EHEC). Our results indicate EA is not only important for nitrogen metabolism, but that EA is used in cell-to-cell signaling to activate virulence gene expression. Genes encoding for the global regulatory proteins QseC, QseE, and QseA, as well as for attaching and effacement (AE) lesion formation and Shiga toxin are differentially regulated when EHEC is grown with micromolar concentrations of EA. We also constructed a deletion of eutR that encodes the regulator of the eut (EA utilization) operon and examined virulence gene expression. These results suggest that EutR is important in regulating gene expression in response to EA, but that EA signaling does not occur solely through EutR. This is the first report linking EA to cell-to-cell signaling and pathogenesis.

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Kendall MM, Gruber CC, Parker CT, Sperandio V