禽致病性大肠杆菌luxS和rbsC双基因缺失株的构建及其生物特性分析

禽致病性大肠杆菌(APEC)能引起家禽严重的呼吸系统和全身性疾病,由于APEC耐药菌株的不断出现迫使新型抗菌方式的研发迫在眉睫.本研究旨在评价APEC的luxS和rbsC双缺失的突变株作为减毒疫苗候选株的潜力,通过在APEC分离株DE17的单基因缺失株DE17ΔluxS的基础上,利用Red重组系统构建双基因缺失株DE1...     

APEC感染雏鸡小肠炎症相关基因的RNA-Seq分析

【目的】研究禽致病性大肠杆菌(APEC)感染雏鸡小肠炎症相关基因表达的变化。【方法】对14日龄雏鸡腿部肌肉注射0.5mL/羽1×106 CFU/mL的APEC菌液,观察雏鸡的发病情况,并取病变严重雏鸡空肠为测序样品,同时以注射等量生理盐水为对照,采用RNA高通量测序(RNA-Seq)技术,筛选分析感染和未感染APEC雏鸡小肠炎症相关基因表达的变化。【结果】以差异倍数在2倍及以上为标准,从试验组与对照组共筛选出差异表达基因131个。GO分类结果显示,有87个差异基因得到491个GO功能注释,这些基因主要富集在炎症反应、肝素整合、白细胞介素-6的生物合成等过程。基于KEGG分析,仅有29个差异基因得到注释,涉及41个信号通路,主要参与的信号通路有PPAR、花生四烯酸代谢、MAPK等。【结论】APEC感染雏鸡后会引起机体炎症相关基因表达的变化,从中筛选出10个可能在炎症反应中具有重要影响的炎症相关基因。     

Influence of the major nitrite transporter NirC on the virulence of a Swollen Head Syndrome Avian Pathogenic E. coli (APEC) strain

Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) strains are extra-intestinal E. coli that infect poultry and cause diseases. Nitrite is a central branch-point in bacterial nitrogen metabolism and is used as a cytotoxin by macrophages. Unlike nitric oxide (NO), nitrite cannot diffuse across bacterial membrane cells. The NirC protein acts as a specific channel to facilitate the transport of nitrite into Salmonella and E. coli cells for nitrogen metabolism and cytoplasmic detoxification. NirC is also required for the pathogenicity of Salmonella by downregulating the production of NO by the host macrophages. Based on an in vitro microarray that revealed the overexpression of the nirC gene in APEC strain SCI-07, we constructed a nirC-deficient SCI-07 strain (ΔnirC) and evaluated its virulence potential using in vivo and in vitro assays. The final cumulative mortalities caused by mutant and wild-type (WT) were similar; while the ΔnirC caused a gradual increase in the mortality rate during the seven days recorded, the WT caused mortality up to 24 h post-infection (hpi). Counts of the ΔnirC cells in the spleen, lung and liver were higher than those of the WT after 48 hpi but similar at 24 hpi. Although similar number of ΔnirC and WT cells was observed in macrophages at 3 hpi, there was higher number of ΔnirC cells at 16 hpi. The cell adhesion ability of the ΔnirC strain was about half the WT level in the presence and absence of alpha-d-mannopyranoside. These results indicate that the nirC gene influences the pathogenicity of SCI-07 strain.     

基于粮食生产能力的APEC地区粮食安全评价

 【目的】以具有典型代表性且在世界粮食供给体系中占据重要地位的亚太经合组织（Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation,APEC）地区为研究区域,开展基于粮食生产能力的粮食安全评价研究。【方法】利用机制法模型测算区域的土地生产潜力和粮食生产潜力,并以此作为粮食安全评价的基础;分别从粮食生产与消费、粮食增产潜力、人口承载等方面建立指标体系,应用层次分析法（AHP）分析APEC各成员体的粮食安全形势。【结果】APEC地区粮食生产潜力总和为17.39亿t,其中中国的潜力总产5.69亿t,为区域内最高。比照当前的粮食现实产量,总体来说,各成员体均具有一定的增产空间,但如果综合考虑人口承载、粮食消费等情况,各成员体的粮食安全形势呈现分化态势,除日本、韩国外,发达成员体总体上略好于不发达成员体。【结论】如何最大限度地挖掘区域粮食生产潜力并有效控制人口增长将是保障APEC地区粮食安全的重要途径和重要挑战。     

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli MT78 invades chicken fibroblasts

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) are responsible for extraintestinal diseases, called colibacillosis, in avian species. The most severe manifestation of the disease is colisepticemia that usually starts at the respiratory tract and may result in bird death. However, it is not yet clear how APEC cross the respiratory epithelium and get into the bloodstream. In this work, we studied the interaction between 8 APEC strains (UEL31, UEL17, UEL13, UEL29, MT78, IMT5155, IMT2470, A2363) and a chicken non-phagocytic cell, the fibroblast CEC-32 cell line. We investigated the association profile, the invasion capability, the cytotoxicity effect and the induction of caspase-3/7 activation in an attempt to understand the way the pathogen gains access to the host bloodstream. Association to cells was determined after 1 h of infection, while cell invasion was determined after 4 and 24 h of infection. The cytotoxic effect of bacterial infection was measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and the activation of the apoptotic program was verified by caspase-3/7 activation. Also, the presence of genes for adhesins, invasins and other related virulence-associated factors was verified by PCR. All bacterial strains showed similarity in relation to adhesion, LDH release and caspase-3/7 activation. However, one APEC strain, MT78, showed high invasion capability, comparable to the invasive Salmonella typhimurium strain SL1344. Since an APEC strain was capable of invading non-phagocytic cells in vitro, the same may be happening with the epithelial cells of the avian respiratory tract in vivo. CEC-32 monolayers can also provide a useful experimental model to study the molecular mechanisms used by APEC to invade non-phagocytic cells.     

禽致病性大肠杆菌Hcp2b对雏鸡气管黏膜细胞因子-细胞因子受体相互作用通路的影响

T6SS(type Ⅵ secretion system)是革兰阴性菌中常见的一种分泌系统,其效应蛋白Hcp2b作用机制迄今仍未明晰.本研究以禽致病性大肠杆菌(avian pathogenic Escherichia coli,APEC)Hcp2b蛋白为研究主体,旨在探究Hcp2b蛋白在APEC感染鸡气管黏膜过程中发挥...     

禽病原性大肠杆菌tsh突变株的构建及分离株tsh基因的检测

运用基因重组方法将庆大霉素（Gentamycin,GM）抗性基因连接到PCR扩增的tsh两端区域产生的2个目的基因片段之间,并共同插入到pUC18载体的多克隆位点中,构建出带GM标志的载体pUC18-tshFRGM,从中切下此tshF-GM-tshR片段,再将之克隆到pMEG-375自杀性载体中,构建出自杀性载体pMEG375-tshFRGM,将突变载体转化到含tsh基因的受体APEC E037株中,根据同源重组原理,筛选出tsh基因缺失的E037突变株,命名为E037（Δtsh）。E037和E037（Δtsh）株对1日龄鸡的LD50分别为105.6CFU和109.0CFU,动物感染性试验表明E037（Δtsh）株在内脏器官和血液中的感染能力和大肠杆菌病变程度均有明显下降。在243株禽源分离株中,有167株为tsh＋菌株,其中高致病株、中等致病株和低致病株分别为87.4%（146/167）、12.6%（21/167）和0%（0/167）;O1、O2和O78血清型的高致病株占所在血清型分离株的89.5%-100%,而其它血清型的高致病株仅占其它分离株的53.3%,差异极显著（P〈0.01）。结果显示tsh＋株大多数为高致病性菌株,且其致病性与血清型的种类有一定的相关性,温度敏感性血凝素为APEC重要的致病因子。     

Development of Monoclonal Antibodies against the cOmpT Protein of Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli and Identification of Epitopes Recognized by Monoclonal Antibodies

To development monoclonal antibodies against cOmpT of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), the recombinant cOmpT of APEC origin expression plasmid pET-28a-compT was employed, and cOmpT protein with a molecular weight about 36 kD in the form of inclusion bodies was obtained after induction with IPTG, and then renatured by urea gradient dialysis. BALB/c mice were immunized with the purified cOmpT. An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) was developed, the optimal coating concentration of the antigen was 0.625 μg·mL^-1 and the optimal serum dilution was 1:6 400. After the fourth immunization, the spleen of immunized mice was collected for cell fusion, three monoclonal hybridomas that can secrete antibody specific to cOmpT were obtained after multiple screenings, named 1G8, 2C3 and 2G3 respectively. And all of their immunoglobulin subclasses were IgG2b. The titers of monoclonal antibodies in the cell culture supernatant were 1:200, 1:3 200 and 1:3 200 determined by iELISA, respectively. All three monoclonal antibodies were confirmed to react with cOmpT in Western blot, without cross reaction with other tested bacteria. The antigenic epitopes recognized by the three monoclonal antibodies were identified by using a series of E. coli strains harboring expression plasmids recombined with truncated fragments from compT gene. The results revealed that the antigenic epitope required for reactivity with the 1G8 was ⁸³DQDWMDS⁸⁹, and ⁹⁰SNPGTW⁹⁵, ¹⁹⁷TFKYSGW²⁰³were recognized by 2C3 and 2G3, respectively. In this study, three monoclonal antibodies against cOmpT were successfully developed and the antigenic epitopes recognized by the antibodies were identified. The cOmpT specific monoclonal antibodies obtained in this study are potentially useful tools for both the functional study of cOmpT and the development of APEC epitope vaccines.     

Population structure and virulence content of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from outbreaks in Sri Lanka

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) causes economically significant infections in poultry. The genetic diversity of APEC and phylogenetic relationships within and between APEC and other pathogenic E. coli are not yet well understood. We used multilocus sequence typing (MLST), PCR-based phylogrouping and virulence genotyping to analyse 75 avian E. coli strains, including 55 isolated from outbreaks of colisepticaemia and 20 from healthy chickens. Isolates were collected from 42 commercial layer and broiler chicken farms in Sri Lanka. MLST identified 61 sequence types (ST) with 44 being novel. The most frequent ST, ST48, was represented by only six isolates followed by ST117 with four isolates. Phylogenetic clusters based on MLST sequences were mostly comparable to phylogrouping by PCR and MLST further differentiated phylogroups B1 and D into two subgroups. Genotyping of 16 APEC associated virulence genes found that 27 of the clinical isolates and one isolate from a healthy chicken belonged to highly virulent genotype according to previously established classification schemes. We found that a combination of four genes, ompT, hlyF, iroN and papC, gave a comparable prediction to that of using five and nine genes by other studies. Four STs (ST10, ST48, ST117 and ST2016) contained APEC isolates from this study and human UPEC isolates reported by others, suggesting that these STs are potentially zoonotic. Our results enhanced the understanding of APEC population structure and virulence association.