Characterization of PaxA and its operon: a cohemolytic RTX toxin determinant from pathogenic Pasteurella aerogenes

Kuhnert, Peter; Heyberger-Meyer, Bénédicte; Nicolet, Jacques; Frey, Joachim (2000). Characterization of PaxA and its operon: a cohemolytic RTX toxin determinant from pathogenic Pasteurella aerogenes. Infection and immunity, 68(1), pp. 6-12. New York, N.Y.: American Society for Microbiology 10.1128/IAI.68.1.6-12.2000

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Pasteurella aerogenes is known as a commensal bacterium or as an opportunistic pathogen, as well as a primary pathogen found to be involved in abortion cases of humans, swine, and other mammals. Using broad-range DNA probes for bacterial RTX toxin genes, we cloned and subsequently sequenced a new operon named paxCABD encoding the RTX toxin PaxA in P. aerogenes. The pax operon is organized analogous to the classical RTX operons containing the activator gene paxC upstream of the structural toxin gene paxA, which is followed by the secretion protein genes paxB and paxD. The highest sequence similarity of paxA with known RTX toxin genes is found with apxIIIA (82%). PaxA is structurally similar to ApxIIIA and also shows functional analogy to ApxIIIA, since it shows cohemolytic activity with the sphingomyelinase of Staphylococcus aureus, known as the CAMP effect, but is devoid of direct hemolytic activity. In addition, it shows to some extent immunological cross-reactions with ApxIIIA. P. aerogenes isolated from various specimens showed that the pax operon was present in about one-third of the strains. All of the pax-positive strains were specifically related to swine abortion cases or septicemia of newborn piglets. These strains were also shown to produce the PaxA toxin as determined by the CAMP phenomenon, whereas none of the pax-negative strains did. This indicated that the PaxA toxin is involved in the pathogenic potential of P. aerogenes. The examined P. aerogenes isolates were phylogenetically analyzed by 16S rRNA gene (rrs) sequencing in order to confirm their species. Only a small heterogeneity (<0.5%) was observed between the rrs genes of the strains originating from geographically distant farms and isolated at different times.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP) > Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology

UniBE Contributor:

Kuhnert, Peter, Frey, Joachim

Subjects:

500 Science
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
600 Technology > 630 Agriculture

ISSN:

0019-9567

Publisher:

American Society for Microbiology

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Kuhnert-Ryser

Date Deposited:

30 Jan 2014 12:24

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:27

Publisher DOI:

10.1128/IAI.68.1.6-12.2000

PubMed ID:

10603361

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.39162

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/39162

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