Plant growth promotion by Pseudomonas putida KT2440 under saline stress: role of eptA.

New strategies to improve crop yield include the incorporation of plant growth-promoting bacteria in agricultural practices. The non-pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas putida KT2440 is an excellent root colonizer of crops of agronomical importance and has been shown to activate the induced systemic resistance of plants in response to certain foliar pathogens. In this work, we have analyzed additional plant growth promotion features of this strain. We show it can tolerate high NaCl concentrations and determine how salinity influences traits such as the production of indole compounds, siderophore synthesis, and phosphate solubilization. Inoculation with P. putida KT2440 significantly improved seed germination and root and stem length of soybean and corn plants under saline conditions compared to uninoculated plants, whereas the effects were minor under non-saline conditions. Also, random transposon mutagenesis was used for preliminary identification of KT2440 genes involved in bacterial tolerance to saline stress. One of the obtained mutants was analyzed in detail. The disrupted gene encodes a predicted phosphoethanolamine-lipid A transferase (EptA), an enzyme described to be involved in the modification of lipid A during lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis. This mutant showed changes in exopolysaccharide (EPS) production, low salinity tolerance, and reduced competitive fitness in the rhizosphere.

Efficacy of microcin J25 in biomatrices and in a mouse model of Salmonella infection.

OBJECTIVES: To study the possible therapeutic utility of microcin J25 (MccJ25), a peptide RNA polymerase inhibitor. METHODS: We subjected the antibiotic to two types of assays. First, with an ex vivo assay, we evaluated the stability and efficacy of MccJ25 in complex fluid biomatrices such as human whole blood, plasma and serum, compared with that in conventional laboratory media. Antimicrobial efficacy of MccJ25 was assessed by quantitative culture 2 h after inoculation of the biomatrices with a Salmonella Newport target organism and compared with that of MccJ25-free controls. Second, the antibiotic was tested in a mouse model of Salmonella infection. The latter was induced by intraperitoneal inoculation of 10(6) cfu of Salmonella Newport and the treatment with MccJ25 was initiated at 2 h post-infection. RESULTS: MccJ25 retained full activity after 24 h of incubation in whole blood, plasma or serum. In addition, it did not show any haemolytic activity. In whole blood, homologous plasma and serum, introduction of MccJ25 was associated with a significant reduction in cfu versus the respective peptide-free controls. The counts of viable bacteria in the spleen and liver of mice treated with MccJ25 at a total dosage of 3 mg/mouse during either 24 h (0.5 mg/mouse every 4 h) or 6 days (0.5 mg/mouse every 24 h) significantly decreased by two or three orders of magnitude (P

Microcin J25 uptake: His5 of the MccJ25 lariat ring is involved in interaction with the inner membrane MccJ25 transporter protein SbmA.

Escherichia coli microcin J25 (MccJ25) is a plasmid-encoded antibiotic peptide consisting of 21 L-amino acid residues (G1-G-A-G-H5-V-P-E-Y-F10-V-G-I-G-T15-P-I-S-F-Y20-G). E. coli RNA polymerase (RNAP) is the intracellular target of MccJ25. MccJ25 enters cells after binding to specific membrane transporters: FhuA in the outer membrane and SbmA in the inner membrane. Here, we studied MccJ25 mutants carrying a substitution of His5 by Lys, Arg, or Ala. The inhibitory effects on cellular growth and in vitro RNAP activity were determined for each mutant microcin. The results show that all mutants inhibited RNAP in vitro. However, the mutants were defective in their ability to inhibit cellular growth. Experiments in which the FhuA protein was bypassed showed that substitutions of MccJ25 His5 affected the SbmA-dependent transport. Our results thus suggest that MccJ25 His5 located in the lariat ring is involved, directly or indirectly, in specific interaction with SbmA and is not required for MccJ25 inhibition of RNAP.