Elucidation of the RamA Regulon in Klebsiella pneumoniae Reveals a Role in LPS Regulation
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Klebsiella pneumoniae is a significant human pathogen, in part due to high rates of multidrug resistance. RamA is an intrinsic regulator in K. pneumoniae established to be important for the bacterial response to antimicrobial challenge; however, little is known about its possible wider regulatory role in this organism during infection. In this work, we demonstrate that RamA is a global transcriptional regulator that significantly perturbs the transcriptional landscape of K. pneumoniae, resulting in altered microbe-drug or microbe-host response. This is largely due to the direct regulation of 68 genes associated with a myriad of cellular functions. Importantly, RamA directly binds and activates the lpxC, lpxL-2 and lpxO genes associated with lipid A biosynthesis, thus resulting in modifications within the lipid A moiety of the lipopolysaccharide. RamA-mediated alterations decrease susceptibility to colistin E, polymyxin B and human cationic antimicrobial peptide LL-37. Increased RamA levels reduce K. pneumoniae adhesion and uptake into macrophages, which is supported by in vivo infection studies, that demonstrate increased systemic dissemination of ramA overexpressing K. pneumoniae. These data establish that RamA-mediated regulation directly perturbs microbial surface properties, including lipid A biosynthesis, which facilitate evasion from the innate host response. This highlights RamA as a global regulator that confers pathoadaptive phenotypes with implications for our understanding of the pathogenesis of Enterobacter, Salmonella and Citrobacter spp. that express orthologous RamA proteins.
Date Issued
2015-01-29
Date Acceptance
2014-12-14
Citation
PLOS Pathogens, 2015, 11 (1)
ISSN
1553-7366
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Journal / Book Title
PLOS Pathogens
Volume
11
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2015 De Majumdar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
License URL
Subjects
Animals
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides
Bacterial Proteins
Base Sequence
Cells, Cultured
Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
Genes, Bacterial
Host-Pathogen Interactions
Klebsiella Infections
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Lipopolysaccharides
Membrane Transport Proteins
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Molecular Sequence Data
Polymyxins
Regulon
Virology
0605 Microbiology
1107 Immunology
1108 Medical Microbiology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e1004627