Chitinase Expression in Listeria monocytogenes Is Influenced by lmo0327, Which Encodes an Internalin-Like Protein

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  • Dafni Katerina Paspaliari
  • Vicky Gaedt Kastbjerg
  • Ingmer, Hanne
  • Magdalena Popowska
  • Marianne Halberg Larsen
The chitinolytic system of Listeria monocytogenes thus far comprises two chitinases, ChiA and ChiB, and a lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase, Lmo2467. The role of the system in the bacterium appears to be pleiotropic, as besides mediating the hydrolysis of chitin, the second most ubiquitous carbohydrate in nature, the chitinases have been deemed important for the colonization of unicellular molds, as well as mammalian hosts. To identify additional components of the chitinolytic system, we screened a transposon mutant library for mutants exhibiting impaired chitin hydrolysis. The screening yielded a mutant with a transposon insertion in a locus corresponding to lmo0327 of the EGD-e strain. lmo0327 encodes a large (1,349 amino acids [aa]) cell wall-associated protein that has been proposed to possess murein hydrolase activity. The single inactivation of lmo0327, as well as of lmo0325 that codes for a putative transcriptional regulator functionally related to lmo0327, led to an almost complete abolishment of chitinolytic activity. The effect could be traced at the transcriptional level, as both chiA and chiB transcripts were dramatically decreased in the lmo0327 mutant. In accordance with that, we could barely detect ChiA and ChiB in the culture supernatants of the mutant strain. Our results provide new information regarding the function of the lmo0325-lmo0327 locus in L. monocytogenes and link it to the expression of chitinolytic activity.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere01283-17
JournalApplied and Environmental Microbiology
Volume83
Issue number22
ISSN0099-2240
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2017

    Research areas

  • Listeria monocytogenes, chitin, chitinase, internalin, autolysin, murein hydrolase, Lmo0327, Lmo0325

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