In vivo bioluminescence imaging for the study of intestinal colonization by Escherichia coli in mice.

Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is emerging as a powerful tool for real-time monitoring of infections in living animals. However, since luciferases are oxygenases, it has been suggested that the requirement for oxygen may limit the use of BLI in anaerobic environments, such as the lumen of the gut. Strains of Escherichia coli harboring the genes for either the bacterial luciferase from Photorhabdus luminescens or the PpyRE-TS and PpyGR-TS firefly luciferase mutants of Photinus pyralis (red and green thermostable P. pyralis luciferase mutants, respectively) have been engineered and used to monitor intestinal colonization in the streptomycin-treated mouse model. There was excellent correlation between the bioluminescence signal measured in the feces (R2=0.98) or transcutaneously in the abdominal region of whole animals (R2=0.99) and the CFU counts in the feces of bacteria harboring the luxABCDE operon. Stability in vivo of the bioluminescence signal was achieved by constructing plasmid pAT881(pGB2OmegaPamiluxABCDE), which allowed long-term monitoring of intestinal colonization without the need for antibiotic selection for plasmid maintenance. Levels of intestinal colonization by various strains of E. coli could be compared directly by simple recording of the bioluminescence signal in living animals. The difference in spectra of light emission of the PpyRE-TS and PpyGR-TS firefly luciferase mutants and dual bioluminescence detection allowed direct in vitro and in vivo quantification of two bacterial populations by measurement of red and green emitted signals and thus monitoring of the two populations simultaneously. This system offers a simple and direct method to study in vitro and in vivo competition between mutants and the parental strain. BLI is a useful tool to study intestinal colonization.

New combinations of mutations in VanD-Type vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus faecalis, and Enterococcus avium strains.

We studied the clinical isolates Enterococcus faecium NEF1, resistant to high levels of vancomycin (MIC, 512 microg/ml) and teicoplanin (MIC, 64 microg/ml); Enterococcus faecium BM4653 and BM4656 and Enterococcus avium BM4655, resistant to moderate levels of vancomycin (MIC, 32 microg/ml) and to low levels of teicoplanin (MIC, 4 microg/ml); and Enterococcus faecalis BM4654, moderately resistant to vancomycin (MIC, 16 microg/ml) but susceptible to teicoplanin (MIC, 0.5 microg/ml). The strains were distinct, were constitutively resistant via the synthesis of peptidoglycan precursors ending in D-alanyl-D-lactate, and harbored a chromosomal vanD gene cluster that was not transferable. New mutations were found in conserved domains of VanS(D): at T(170)I near the phosphorylation site in NEF1, at V(67)A at the membrane surface in BM4653, at G(340)S in the G2 ATP-binding domain in BM4655, in the F domain in BM4656 (a 6-bp insertion), and in the G1 and G2 domains of BM4654 (three mutations). The mutations resulted in constitutivity, presumably through the loss of the phosphatase activity of the sensor. The chromosomal Ddl D-Ala:D-Ala ligase had an IS19 copy in NEF1, a mutation in the serine (S(185)F) or near the arginine (T(289)P) involved in D-Ala1 binding in BM4653 or BM4655, respectively, and a mutation next to the lysine (P(180)S) involved in D-Ala2 binding in BM4654, leading to the production of an impaired enzyme. In BM4653 vanY(D), a new insertion sequence, ISEfa9, belonging to the IS3 family, resulted in the absence of D,D-carboxypeptidase activity. Strain BM4656 had a functional D-Ala:D-Ala ligase, associated with high levels of both VanX(D) and VanY(D) activities, and is the first example of a VanD-type strain with a functional Ddl enzyme. Study of these five clinical isolates, displaying various assortments of mutations, confirms that all VanD-type strains isolated so far have undergone mutations in the vanS(D) or vanR(D) gene, leading to constitutive resistance, but that the Ddl host ligase is not always impaired. Based on sequence differences, the vanD gene clusters could be assigned to two subtypes: vanD-1 and vanD-4.