Carbohydrate metabolism in Oenococcus oeni: a genomic insight.

BACKGROUND: Oenococcus oeni is the bacterial species that drives malolactic fermentation in most wines. Several studies have described a high intraspecific diversity regarding carbohydrate degradation abilities but the link between the phenotypes and the genes and metabolic pathways has been poorly described. RESULTS: A collection of 41 strains whose genomic sequences were available and representative of the species genomic diversity was analyzed for growth on 18 carbohydrates relevant in wine. The most frequently used substrates (more than 75% of the strains) were glucose, trehalose, ribose, cellobiose, mannose and melibiose. Fructose and L-arabinose were used by about half the strains studied, sucrose, maltose, xylose, galactose and raffinose were used by less than 25% of the strains and lactose, L-sorbose, L-rhamnose, sorbitol and mannitol were not used by any of the studied strains. To identify genes and pathways associated with carbohydrate catabolic abilities, gene-trait matching and a careful analysis of gene mutations and putative complementation phenomena were performed. CONCLUSIONS: For most consumed sugars, we were able to propose putatively associated metabolic pathways. Most associated genes belong to the core genome. O. oeni appears as a highly specialized species, ideally suited to fermented fruit juice and more specifically to wine for a subgroup of strains.

HpaB-Dependent Secretion of Type III Effectors in the Plant Pathogens Ralstonia solanacearum and Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria.

Plant pathogenic bacteria exerts their pathogenicity through the injection of large repertoires of type III effectors (T3Es) into plant cells, a mechanism controlled in part by type III chaperones (T3Cs). In Ralstonia solanacearum, the causal agent of bacterial wilt, little is known about the control of type III secretion at the post-translational level. Here, we provide evidence that the HpaB and HpaD proteins do act as bona fide R. solanacearum class IB chaperones that associate with several T3Es. Both proteins can dimerize but do not interact with each other. After screening 38 T3Es for direct interactions, we highlighted specific and common interacting partners, thus revealing the first picture of the R. solanacearum T3C-T3E network. We demonstrated that the function of HpaB is conserved in two phytopathogenic bacteria, R. solanacearum and Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv). HpaB from Xcv is able to functionally complement a R. solanacearum hpaB mutant for hypersensitive response elicitation on tobacco plants. Likewise, Xcv is able to translocate a heterologous T3E from R. solanacearum in an HpaB-dependent manner. This study underlines the central role of the HpaB class IB chaperone family and its potential contribution to the bacterial plasticity to acquire and deliver new virulence factors.