Abstract
Plesiomonas shigelloides is the unique member of the Enterobacteriaceae family able to produce polar flagella when grow in liquid medium and lateral flagella when grown in solid or semisolid media. In this study on P. shigelloides 302-73 strain, we found two different gene clusters, one exclusively for the lateral flagella biosynthesis and the other one containing the biosynthetic polar flagella genes with additional putative glycosylation genes. P. shigelloides is the first Enterobacteriaceae were a complete lateral flagella cluster leading to a lateral flagella production is described. We also show that both flagella in P. shigelloides 302-73 strain are glycosylated by a derivative of legionaminic acid (Leg), which explains the presence of Leg pathway genes between the two polar flagella regions in their biosynthetic gene cluster. It is the first bacterium reported with O-glycosylated Leg in both polar and lateral flagella. The flagella O-glycosylation is essential for bacterial flagella formation, either polar or lateral, because gene mutants on the biosynthesis of Leg are non-flagellated. Furthermore, the presence of the lateral flagella cluster and Leg O-flagella glycosylation genes are widely spread features among the P. shigelloides strains tested.
Highlights
Plesiomonas shigelloides is a Gram-negative bacilli flagellated bacterium
In this work we study the genetics of P. shigelloides flagella, and their flagella post-translational modifications, the first report of flagellar glycosylation in enteric bacteria
Plesiomonas shigelloides 302-73 [serogroup O1 (Pieretti et al, 2010)] grown in liquid medium or semisolid medium showed the typical three-four flagella located in single point of one cell pole
Summary
Plesiomonas shigelloides is a Gram-negative bacilli flagellated bacterium. Sometimes could be the cause of gastroenteritis, including acute secretory gastroenteritis (Mandal et al, 1982), an invasive shigellosis-like disease (McNeeley et al, 1984), and a cholera-like illness (Tsukamoto et al, 1978). Extra intestinal infections, such as meningitis, bacteremia (Billiet et al, 1989), and pseudoappendicitis (Fischer et al, 1988), are associated with P. shigelloides infection. Of particular concern are the severe cases of meningitis and bacteremia (Fujita et al, 1994) caused by P. shigelloides
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