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Frontiers in Plant Science 2015The necrotrophic bacteria Dickeya dadantii is the causal agent of soft-rot disease in a broad range of hosts. The model plant Nicotiana benthamiana, commonly used as...
The necrotrophic bacteria Dickeya dadantii is the causal agent of soft-rot disease in a broad range of hosts. The model plant Nicotiana benthamiana, commonly used as experimental host for a very broad range of plant pathogens, is susceptible to infection by D. dadantii. The inoculation with D. dadantii at high dose seems to overcome the plant defense capacity, inducing maceration and death of the tissue, although restricted to the infiltrated area. By contrast, the output of the defense response to low dose inoculation is inhibition of maceration and limitation in the growth, or even eradication, of bacteria. Responses of tissue invaded by bacteria (neighboring the infiltrated areas after 2-3 days post-inoculation) included: (i) inhibition of photosynthesis in terms of photosystem II efficiency; (ii) activation of energy dissipation as non-photochemical quenching in photosystem II, which is related to the activation of plant defense mechanisms; and (iii) accumulation of secondary metabolites in cell walls of the epidermis (lignins) and the apoplast of the mesophyll (phytoalexins). Infiltrated tissues showed an increase in the content of the main hormones regulating stress responses, including abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, and salicylic acid. We propose a mechanism involving the three hormones by which N. benthamiana could activate an efficient defense response against D. dadantii.
PubMed: 26779238
DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2015.01209 -
BMC Genomics Oct 2018Dickeya sp. strain PA1 is the causal agent of bacterial soft rot in Phalaenopsis, an important indoor orchid in China. PA1 and a few other strains were grouped into a...
BACKGROUND
Dickeya sp. strain PA1 is the causal agent of bacterial soft rot in Phalaenopsis, an important indoor orchid in China. PA1 and a few other strains were grouped into a novel species, Dickeya fangzhongdai, and only the orchid-associated strains have been shown to cause soft rot symptoms.
METHODS
We constructed the complete PA1 genome sequence and used comparative genomics to explore the differences in genomic features between D. fangzhongdai and other Dickeya species.
RESULTS
PA1 has a 4,979,223-bp circular genome with 4269 predicted protein-coding genes. D. fangzhongdai was phylogenetically similar to Dickeya solani and Dickeya dadantii. The type I to type VI secretion systems (T1SS-T6SS), except for the stt-type T2SS, were identified in D. fangzhongdai. The three phylogenetically similar species varied significantly in terms of their T5SSs and T6SSs, as did the different D. fangzhongdai strains. Genomic island (GI) prediction and synteny analysis (compared to D. fangzhongdai strains) of PA1 also indicated the presence of T5SSs and T6SSs in strain-specific regions. Two typical CRISPR arrays were identified in D. fangzhongdai and in most other Dickeya species, except for D. solani. CRISPR-1 was present in all of these Dickeya species, while the presence of CRISPR-2 varied due to species differentiation. A large polyketide/nonribosomal peptide (PK/NRP) cluster, similar to the zeamine biosynthetic gene cluster in Dickeya zeae rice strains, was discovered in D. fangzhongdai and D. solani. The D. fangzhongdai and D. solani strains might recently have acquired this gene cluster by horizontal gene transfer (HGT).
CONCLUSIONS
Orchid-associated strains are the typical members of D. fangzhongdai. Genomic analysis of PA1 suggested that this strain presents the genomic characteristics of this novel species. Considering the absence of the stt-type T2SS, the presence of CRISPR loci and the zeamine biosynthetic gene cluster, D. fangzhongdai is likely a transitional form between D. dadantii and D. solani. This is supported by the later acquisition of the zeamine cluster and the loss of CRISPR arrays by D. solani. Comparisons of phylogenetic positions and virulence determinants could be helpful for the effective quarantine and control of this emerging species.
Topics: Bacterial Secretion Systems; Base Composition; Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats; Computational Biology; Conserved Sequence; Enterobacteriaceae; Evolution, Molecular; Gene Order; Genes, Bacterial; Genome, Bacterial; Genomics; Molecular Sequence Annotation; Open Reading Frames; Orchidaceae; Phylogeny; Plant Diseases; Whole Genome Sequencing
PubMed: 30373513
DOI: 10.1186/s12864-018-5154-3 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2019Bacterial stem and root rot disease of sweet potato caused by recently broke out in major sweet potato planting areas in China and calls for effective approaches to...
Bacterial stem and root rot disease of sweet potato caused by recently broke out in major sweet potato planting areas in China and calls for effective approaches to control the pathogen and disease. Here, we developed a simple method for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using bacterial culture supernatants. AgNPs synthesized with the cell-free culture supernatant of a bacterium displayed the characteristic surface plasmon resonance peak at 420-430 nm and as nanocrystallites in diameters of 20-100 nm determined by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. Functional groups associated with proteins in the culture supernatant may reduce silver ions and stabilize AgNPs. The AgNPs showed antibacterial activities against growth, swimming motility, biofilm formation, and maceration of sweet potato tubers whereas the culture supernatant of did not. AgNPs (12 µg∙ml) and AgNO (50 µg∙ml) showed close antibacterial activities. The antibacterial activities increased with the increase of AgNP concentrations. The green-synthesized AgNPs can be used to control the soft rot disease by control of pathogen contamination of sweet potato seed tubers.
Topics: Anti-Bacterial Agents; China; Culture Media; Enterobacteriaceae; Green Chemistry Technology; Metal Nanoparticles; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Pseudomonas; Silver; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; Surface Plasmon Resonance
PubMed: 31234369
DOI: 10.3390/molecules24122303 -
Microorganisms Sep 2021(Pbr) 1692 is an aggressive phytopathogen affecting a broad host range of crops and ornamental plants, including potatoes. Previous research on animal pathogens, and a...
(Pbr) 1692 is an aggressive phytopathogen affecting a broad host range of crops and ornamental plants, including potatoes. Previous research on animal pathogens, and a few plant pathogens, revealed that Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs) are part of Gram-negative bacteria's (GNB) adaptive toolkit. For this reason, OMV production and subsequent release from bacteria is a conserved process. Therefore, we hypothesized that OMVs might transport proteins that play a critical role in causing soft rot disease and in the survival and fitness of Pbr1692. Here, we show that the potato pathogen, Pbr1692, releases OMVs of various morphologies in Luria Bertani media at 31 °C. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) confirmed the production of OMVs by Pbr1692 cells. Transmission Electron Microscopy showed that these exist as chain-, single-, and double-membrane morphologies. Mass spectrometry followed by Gene Ontology, Clusters of Orthologous Groups, Virulence Factor, CAZymes, Antibiotic Resistance Ontology, and Bastion6 T6SE annotations identified 129 OMV-associated proteins with diverse annotated roles, including antibiotic stress response, virulence, and competition. Pbr1692 OMVs contributed to virulence in potato tubers and elicited a hypersensitive response in leaves. Furthermore, Pbr1692 OMVs demonstrated antibacterial activity against .
PubMed: 34576813
DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9091918 -
Metallomics : Integrated Biometal... Mar 2023Bacteria secrete siderophores whose function is to acquire iron. In recent years, the siderophores of several Chryseobacterium species were shown to promote the health...
Bacteria secrete siderophores whose function is to acquire iron. In recent years, the siderophores of several Chryseobacterium species were shown to promote the health and growth of various plants such as tomato or rice. However, the chemical nature of Chryseobacterium siderophores remained unexplored despite great interest. In this work, we present the purification and structure elucidation by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) of chryseochelin A, a novel citrate-based siderophore secreted by three Chryseobacterium strains involved in plant protection. It contains the unusual building blocks 3-hydroxycadaverine and fumaric acid. Furthermore, the unstable structural isomer chryseochelin B and its stable derivative containing fatty acid chains, named chryseochelin C, were identified by mass spectrometric methods. The latter two incorporate an unusual ester connectivity to the citrate moiety showing similarities to achromobactin from the plant pathogen Dickeya dadantii. Finally, we show that chryseochelin A acts in a concentration-dependent manner against the plant-pathogenic Ralstonia solanacearum strain by reducing its access to iron. Thus, our study provides valuable knowledge about the siderophores of Chryseobacterium strains, which have great potential in various applications.
Topics: Siderophores; Citric Acid; Chryseobacterium; Tandem Mass Spectrometry; Iron; Citrates
PubMed: 36792066
DOI: 10.1093/mtomcs/mfad008 -
Scientific Reports Jan 2016Osmoregulated periplasmic glucans (OPGs) are a family of periplasmic oligosaccharides found in the envelope of most Proteobacteria. They are required for virulence of...
Osmoregulated periplasmic glucans (OPGs) are a family of periplasmic oligosaccharides found in the envelope of most Proteobacteria. They are required for virulence of zoo- and phyto-pathogens. The glucose backbone of OPGs is substituted by various kinds of molecules depending on the species, O-succinyl residues being the most widely distributed. In our model, Dickeya dadantii, a phytopathogenic bacteria causing soft rot disease in a wide range of plant species, the backbone of OPGs is substituted by O-succinyl residues in media of high osmolarity and by O-acetyl residues whatever the osmolarity. The opgC gene encoding a transmembrane protein required for the succinylation of the OPGs in D. dadantii was found after an in silico search of a gene encoding a protein with the main characteristics recovered in the two previously characterized OpgC of E. coli and R. sphaeroides, i.e. 10 transmembrane segments and one acyl-transferase domain. Characterization of the opgC gene revealed that high osmolarity expression of the succinyl transferase is controlled by both the EnvZ-OmpR and RcsCDB phosphorelay systems. The loss of O-succinyl residue did not affect the virulence of D. dadantii, suggesting that only the glucose backbone of OPGs is required for virulence.
Topics: Bacterial Proteins; Enterobacteriaceae; Escherichia coli; Gene Order; Genetic Complementation Test; Genome, Bacterial; Glucans; Osmolar Concentration; Osmoregulation; Periplasm; Phosphorylation; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Protein Binding; Virulence
PubMed: 26790533
DOI: 10.1038/srep19619 -
The Plant Journal : For Cell and... Apr 2015Transcriptome analysis of bacterial pathogens is a powerful approach to identify and study the expression patterns of genes during host infection. However, analysis of...
Transcriptome analysis of bacterial pathogens is a powerful approach to identify and study the expression patterns of genes during host infection. However, analysis of the early stages of bacterial virulence at the genome scale is lacking with respect to understanding of plant-pathogen interactions and diseases, especially during foliar infection. This is mainly due to both the low ratio of bacterial cells to plant material at the beginning of infection, and the high contamination by chloroplastic material. Here we describe a reliable and straightforward method for bacterial cell purification from infected leaf tissues, effective even if only a small amount of bacteria is present relative to plant material. The efficiency of this method for transcriptomic analysis was validated by analysing the expression profiles of the phytopathogenic enterobacterium Dickeya dadantii, a soft rot disease-causing agent, during the first hours of infection of the model host plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Transcriptome profiles of epiphytic bacteria and bacteria colonizing host tissues were compared, allowing identification of approximately 100 differentially expressed genes. Requiring no specific equipment, cost-friendly and easily transferable to other pathosystems, this method should be of great interest for many other plant-bacteria interaction studies.
Topics: Arabidopsis; Enterobacteriaceae; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Plant Diseases; Virulence
PubMed: 25740271
DOI: 10.1111/tpj.12812 -
Molecular Plant Pathology Feb 2018Soft-rot diseases of plants attributed to Dickeya dadantii result from lysis of the plant cell wall caused by pectic enzymes released by the bacterial cell by a type II...
Soft-rot diseases of plants attributed to Dickeya dadantii result from lysis of the plant cell wall caused by pectic enzymes released by the bacterial cell by a type II secretion system (T2SS). Arabidopsis thaliana can express several lines of defence against this bacterium. We employed bacterial mutants with defective envelope structures or secreted proteins to examine early plant defence reactions. We focused on the production of AtrbohD-dependent reactive oxygen species (ROS), callose deposition and cell death as indicators of these reactions. We observed a significant reduction in ROS and callose formation with a bacterial mutant in which genes encoding five pectate lyases (Pels) were disrupted. Treatment of plant leaves with bacterial culture filtrates containing Pels resulted in ROS and callose production, and both reactions were dependent on a functional AtrbohD gene. ROS and callose were produced in response to treatment with a cellular fraction of a T2SS-negative mutant grown in a Pels-inducing medium. Finally, ROS and callose were produced in leaves treated with purified Pels that had also been shown to induce the expression of jasmonic acid-dependent defence genes. Pel catalytic activity is required for the induction of ROS accumulation. In contrast, cell death observed in leaves infected with the wild-type strain appeared to be independent of a functional AtrbohD gene. It was also independent of the bacterial production of pectic enzymes and the type III secretion system (T3SS). In conclusion, the work presented here shows that D. dadantii is recognized by the A. thaliana innate immune system through the action of pectic enzymes secreted by bacteria at the site of infection. This recognition leads to AtrbohD-dependent ROS and callose accumulation, but not cell death.
Topics: Arabidopsis; Gammaproteobacteria; Glucans; Immunity, Innate; Oligosaccharides; Polysaccharide-Lyases; Reactive Oxygen Species; Type III Secretion Systems; Virulence
PubMed: 27925401
DOI: 10.1111/mpp.12522 -
Journal of Bacteriology Jul 2023The transcriptional regulator PecS is encoded by select bacterial pathogens. For instance, in the plant pathogen Dickeya dadantii, PecS controls a range of virulence...
The transcriptional regulator PecS is encoded by select bacterial pathogens. For instance, in the plant pathogen Dickeya dadantii, PecS controls a range of virulence genes, including pectinase genes and the divergently oriented gene , which encodes an efflux pump through which the antioxidant indigoidine is exported. In the plant pathogen (formerly named Agrobacterium tumefaciens), the locus is conserved. Using a strain of in which has been disrupted, we show here that PecS controls a range of phenotypes that are associated with bacterial fitness. PecS represses flagellar motility and chemotaxis, which are processes that are important for to reach plant wound sites. Biofilm formation and microaerobic survival are reduced in the disruption strain, whereas the production of acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) and resistance to reactive oxygen species (ROS) are increased when is disrupted. AHL production and resistance to ROS are expected to be particularly relevant in the host environment. We also show that PecS does not participate in the induction of genes. The inducing ligands for PecS, urate, and xanthine, may be found in the rhizosphere, and they accumulate within the plant host upon infection. Therefore, our data suggest that PecS mediates fitness during its transition from the rhizosphere to the host plant. PecS is a transcription factor that is conserved in several pathogenic bacteria, where it regulates virulence genes. The plant pathogen is important not only for its induction of crown galls in susceptible plants but also for its role as a tool in the genetic manipulation of host plants. We show here that PecS controls a range of phenotypes, which would confer the bacteria an advantage while transitioning from the rhizosphere to the host plant. This includes the production of signaling molecules, which are critical for the propagation of the tumor-inducing plasmid. A more complete understanding of the infection process may inform approaches by which to treat infections as well as to facilitate the transformation of recalcitrant plant species.
Topics: Transcription Factors; Reactive Oxygen Species; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Agrobacterium; Agrobacterium tumefaciens; Bacterial Proteins
PubMed: 37314346
DOI: 10.1128/jb.00478-22 -
Environmental Microbiology Reports Oct 2015This review emphasizes the biological roles of the osmoregulated periplasmic glucans (OPGs). Osmoregulated periplasmic glucans occur in almost all α-, β- and... (Review)
Review
This review emphasizes the biological roles of the osmoregulated periplasmic glucans (OPGs). Osmoregulated periplasmic glucans occur in almost all α-, β- and γ-Proteobacteria. This polymer of glucose is required for full virulence. The roles of the OPGs are complex and vary depending on the species. Here, we outline the four major roles of the OPGs through four different pathogenic and one symbiotic bacterial models (Dickeya dadantii, Salmonella enterica, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Brucella abortus and Sinorhizobium meliloti). When periplasmic, the OPGs are a part of the signal transduction pathway and indirectly regulate genes involved in virulence. The OPGs can also be secreted. When outside of the cell, they interact directly with antibiotics to protect the bacterial cell or interact with the host cell to facilitate the invasion process. When OPGs are not found, as in the ε-Proteobacteria, OPG-like oligosaccharides are present. Their presence strengthens the evidence that OPGs play an important role in virulence.
Topics: Alphaproteobacteria; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Gammaproteobacteria; Glucans; Osmoregulation; Periplasm; Signal Transduction; Virulence
PubMed: 26265506
DOI: 10.1111/1758-2229.12325