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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, August 2009, p. 3515-3519, Vol. 53, No. 8
0066-4804/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.00012-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Hoa T. Nguyen,
Richard H. Cartabuke,
Ajay Singh,
Sam Ogwang, and
Liem Nguyen*
Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Received 5 January 2009/ Returned for modification 5 March 2009/ Accepted 6 June 2009
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As an intracellular pathogen, the key factor deciding the successful persistence of M. tuberculosis in the host is its ability to survive within infected cells (15). Beside several host factors, mycobacterial lipids, and the RD1 specialized secretion system (4, 23, 25), mycobacterial protein phosphatases and kinases are also emerging as key players in this process (1, 25, 26). The eukaryotic-type protein kinase G (PknG) is involved in mycobacterial survival within macrophages, presumably by blocking lysosomal delivery (26). It has been generally thought that factors required for pathogenicity such as PknG are not encoded in nonpathogenic mycobacteria, for example, Mycobacterium smegmatis (8, 26). However, recent studies showed that pknG is ubiquitously present in the Mycobacterium genus (7, 17). The M. tuberculosis PknG (PknGMtb) and M. smegmatis PknG (PknGMsm) share almost 80% identity and appear at syntenic loci of the genomes (7) (Fig. 1A). These observations suggested that PknG might provide physiological functions to both nonpathogenic and pathogenic mycobacteria besides its role in pathogenicity of the latter species.
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FIG. 1. Identification of MAR4, a pknGMsm transposon mutant. (A) Synteny of the pknG loci in M. smegmatis and M. tuberculosis genomes and the Himar1 transposon insertion in MAR4. Homologous genes are uniformly illustrated. The nucleotide sequence at the pknG-Himar1 junction shows truncation of PknGMsm at Ile338. (B) PCR amplification using primers flanking pknGMsm (arrows in panel A) from genomic DNA of wild-type M. smegmatis mc2155 and MAR4. (C) Western blot assay using PknGMtb antibody that recognizes PknG in cell extracts of M. bovis BCG and wild-type M. smegmatis mc2155 but not in MAR4 extract.
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TABLE 1. Susceptibility of M. smegmatis strains to antibiotics
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78 kDa corresponding to the molecular mass of PknG in cell extract of wild-type M. smegmatis which was undetectable in the extract of MAR4 (Fig. 1C).
To confirm that the multidrug-sensitive phenotype of MAR4 was due to pknG deletion but not secondary mutations or polar effects on downstream genes, a targeted pknG mutant (the
pknGMsm strain) was constructed by the recombineering method with modifications (24). Plasmid pVN701B was first constructed by cloning the SpeI-XbaI fragment encoding the mycobacteriophage Che9c recombination proteins gp60 and gp61 from pJV53 (24) into the XbaI site of pPR27 (19) (Fig. 2A). pVN701B was thus replicated from a temperature-sensitive origin of replication [Ori(Ts)] and expressed the counterselectable marker gene sacB, which is toxic for mycobacteria in the presence of sucrose (19, 20). These genetic elements facilitated homologous recombination and removal of pVN701B after gene deletion was completed. The pknGMsm deletion cassette (Fig. 2B) was constructed by cloning the chromosomal DNA sequences flanking pknGMsm into two sides of the hygromycin-resistant gene in pYUB854 (2): primers PknGDel1 (ACTAGTACCAGGTGGACATCGTCGTCAAGA) and PknGDel2 (AAGCTTGATCAGGGTTCTCGGGTGAAGTCA) were used to PCR amplify the 5'-flanking region, and primers PknGDel3 (TCTAGACTGGTCGACCTGGCCAACAGC) and PknGDel4 (GGTACCCAATGGGAATTGACGGGTCGATCC) were used for the 3'-flanking region. The linear pknGMsm deletion cassette fragment was removed from pYUB854 by SpeI/KpnI digestion and transformed into M. smegmatis cells that had been induced to express the recombineering system from pVN701B (Fig. 2A) (24). The hygromycin-resistant transformants were screened by PCR for the correct gene deletion by using primers annealing to chromosomal regions outside the homologous sequences (Fig. 2B). Primers P1 (ATCGGCAGCAACCTGTTCTCGTTC) and P2 (CTGCACGACTTCGAGGTGTTCGA) recovered the 5'-pknG-
hyg junction (PCR A, Fig. 2C); primers P3 (GCGATTCAGCCTGGTATGATCAGC) and P4 (CCGTCTTCTACAGTCGTCGTAGG) recovered the
hyg-3'-pknG (PCR B). All eight random hygromycin-resistant transformants showed correct homologous recombination (Fig. 2C). Besides being resistant to both hygromycin (75 mg/liter) and kanamycin (50 mg/liter), these
pknGMsm transformants showed reduced growth on a medium supplemented with sucrose (1%, wt/vol) (Fig. 2D, left panel), indicating the presence of pVN701B. To remove pVN701B, cultures were shifted to 39°C on medium supplemented with only hygromycin. All of the recovered
pknGMsm clones became kanamycin sensitive and sucrose resistant, indicating the successful removal of the plasmid (Fig. 2D, right panel). Two complementation plasmids expressing pknGMsm (pVN579) or pknGMtb (pVN578) from the heat shock promoter were constructed as previously described (26) and used to transform into the
pknGMsm strain. Transformants were selected on 7H10 medium containing kanamycin (50 mg/liter).
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FIG. 2. Construction and complementation of the pknGMsm strain. (A) Construction of pVN701B. (B) The pknGMsm deletion cassette and pknG locus in wild-type M. smegmatis mc2155 and its derived pknGMsm strain. (C) PCR confirmation of pknG deletion in eight random mutant candidates. (D) Removal of pVN701B by a temperature shift resulted in kanamycin sensitivity and sucrose resistance of the pknGMsm strain. (E) Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR detection of pknG transcription in M. smegmatis strains. (F) Western blot detection of PknG in M. smegmatis strains. Samples of 35 µg of proteins (except for 10 µg of pknGMsm/pknGMtb sample) were loaded onto sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels.
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pknGMsm strain (Fig. 2E and F). Transformation of pVN578 or pVN579 restored both transcription and translation of PknG in the
pknGMsm strain (Fig. 2E and F). Compared to M. bovis BCG (lane 1, Fig. 2F), a dramatic reduction of PknG signals was observed in wild-type M. smegmatis (lane 2, Fig. 2F). The reduced signal intensities likely reflected lower PknG production in M. smegmatis rather than a preferred specificity of the antibody for Mycobacterium bovis PknG (100% identical to PknGMtb) because in trans expression of PknGMsm or PknGMtb from the same vector yielded comparable signals on Western blots (lanes 4 and 5, Fig. 2F). Interestingly, a recent study suggested that the differential expression of PknG may relate to its new function as a virulence factor in pathogenic mycobacteria (7). Antibiotic susceptibility was tested using the Etest assay as described above. Similarly to MAR4, the
pknGMsm mutant became more sensitive to multiple antibiotics with diverse chemical structures and mechanisms of action (Table 1). In trans expression of pknGMsm or pknGMtb completely restored the multiple antibiotic resistance of the
pknGMsm strain to wild-type levels (Table 1). Similar results were also obtained for wild-type M. tuberculosis, M. bovis BCG, their derived
pknG mutants (26), and the complemented strains expressing pknGMtb from pVN578 (examples in Fig. 3), demonstrating that PknG provides a drug resistance function not only to the nonpathogenic M. smegmatis but also to pathogenic mycobacteria such as M. tuberculosis.
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FIG. 3. Antibiotic susceptibilities of M. tuberculosis strains. (A) Growing cultures (10 µl; optical density at 600 nm, 1.0) of wild-type M. tuberculosis H37Rv, its derived pknGMtb mutant, and the complemented pknGMtb/pknGMtb (pVN578) strain were plated on solid 7H10-OADC medium (13) in the absence (–) or presence (+) of erythromycin (100 mg/liter) and incubated at 37°C for 4 weeks. (B) M. tuberculosis H37Rv (circles), the pknGMtb strain (triangles), and the pknGMtb/pknGMtb strain (squares) were grown at 37°C for 7 days with shaking (200 rpm) in liquid 7H9-OADC (13) supplemented with increasing concentrations of sulfachloropyridazine. Growth was recorded as optical density at 600 nm (n = 3) normalized to the absorbance of control (no antibiotic).
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pknGMsm strain. Whereas overexpression of this dominant-negative PknGK181M form did not alter the antibiotic susceptibility of the
pknGMsm strain, it resulted in an increased antibiotic susceptibility in the wild-type M. smegmatis strain, similar to the effect caused by pknG deletion (Table 1).
The nonspecific sensitivity of the pknG mutants to antibiotics with diverse chemical structures and mechanisms of action suggested two possibilities: (i) PknG controls activities of dedicated multiple antibiotic resistance systems such as efflux pumps or (ii) PknG controls essential cellular functions (for example, metabolism or cell envelope structure) whose disruption resulted in pleiotropic defects leading to the reduced drug resistance. Properties of the mycobacterial cell surface were characterized using previously described methods (3, 6). Compared to wild-type M. smegmatis, the cell wall of the
pknGMsm strain displayed a significantly reduced hydrophobicity (Table 2), which correlates with a reduced association of Congo red, a lipid-bound hydrophobic dye that has been used as an indicator of phenotypic drug susceptibility (3). Reduced cell wall hydrophobicity has previously been reported to be important for multiple antibiotic resistance in mycobacteria (9, 13). Recent findings that PknG is involved in metabolic pathways such as the tricarboxylic acid cycle and glutamine utilization in Corynebacterium and Mycobacterium species (5, 16, 17) also favor the latter hypothesis. The fact that increased expression of PknG in the
pknGMsm strain (lanes 4 and 5 in Fig. 2F) did not lead to a reduced drug susceptibility compared to wild-type M. smegmatis (Table 1) further suggested that PknG does not directly control dedicated antibiotic resistance systems.
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TABLE 2. Surface properties of M. smegmatis strains
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Support was provided by start-up funds from the School of Medicine, a STERIS Infectious Diseases Research Grant, and a CFAR Developmental Award from the Case Center for AIDS Research to L.N. S.O. is a recipient of a Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP) Fellowship.
Published ahead of print on 15 June 2009. ![]()
These authors contributed equally to this research. ![]()
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