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Article Dans Une Revue Infection and Immunity Année : 2017

Spontaneous Loss of Virulence in Natural Populations of Listeria monocytogenes

Lei Han
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Mariela Scortti
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Jose Vazquez-Boland
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Résumé

The pathogenesis of Listeria monocytogenes depends on the ability of this bacterium to escape from the phagosome of the host cells via the action of the pore-forming toxin listeriolysin O (LLO). Expression of the LLO-encoding gene (hly) requires the transcriptional activator PrfA, and both hly and prfA genes are essential for L. monocytogenes virulence. Here, we used the hemolytic activity of LLO as a phenotypic marker to screen for spontaneous virulence-attenuating mutations in L. monocytogenes. Sixty nonhemolytic isolates were identified among a collection of 57,820 confirmed L. monocytogenes strains isolated from a variety of sources (0.1%). In most cases (56/60; 93.3%), the nonhemolytic phenotype resulted from nonsense, missense, or frameshift mutations in prfA. Five strains carried hly mutations leading to a single amino acid substitution (G299V) or a premature stop codon causing strong virulence attenuation in mice. In one strain, both hly and gshF (encoding a glutathione synthase required for full PrfA activity) were missing due to genomic rearrangements likely caused by a transposable element. The PrfA/LLO loss-of-function (PrfA Ϫ /LLO Ϫ) mutants belonged to phylogenetically diverse clades of L. monocyto-genes, and most were identified among nonclinical strains (57/60). Consistent with the rare occurrence of loss-of-virulence mutations, we show that prfA and hly are under purifying selection. Although occurring at a low frequency, PrfA Ϫ /LLO Ϫ muta-tional events in L. monocytogenes lead to niche restriction and open an evolutionary path for obligate saprophytism in this facultative intracellular pathogen.
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pasteur-02168452 , version 1 (28-06-2019)

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Mylène M Maury, Viviane Chenal-Francisque, Hélène Bracq-Dieye, Lei Han, Alexandre Leclercq, et al.. Spontaneous Loss of Virulence in Natural Populations of Listeria monocytogenes. Infection and Immunity, 2017, 85 (11), pp.e00541-17. ⟨10.1128/IAI.00541-17⟩. ⟨pasteur-02168452⟩
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