Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (3): 867-874.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2022.03.019

• PREVENTIVE VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Construction of Listeria monocytogenes Two-Component System hssS/hssR Deletion and Research on Its Biological Characteristics

AN Ni, ZHANG Yu, FANG Xiaowei, LIANG Xiongyan, LIU Jing, YANG Yuying, FANG Chun*   

  1. College of Animal Science, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, China
  • Received:2021-07-12 Online:2022-03-23 Published:2022-03-31

Abstract: Listeria monocytogenes(LM)is an important food-borne zoonotic pathogenic microorganism, which can survival under various stress conditions, such as acidic, alkalic, osmotic and oxidative stresses.Two-component systems play important roles in sensing and adaptating to the environments. In this study, we try to explore the roles of the two-component system HssS/HssR in stresses resistance and pathogenicity of Listeria monocytogenes. A hssS/hssR deleted strain was constructed based on Listeria monocytogenes 10403S, and its biological characteristics were investigated. Growth curves showed that deletion of hssS/hssR weakened the growth ability under oxidative stress (20 mmol·L-1 H2O2) condition. Survival assays showed that the growth rate of deletion strain ΔhssS/hssR was significantly lower than that of the parent strain treated with 20 mmol·L-1 H2O2for one hour (P<0.01). Phagocytosis and proliferation assays in macrophage RAW264.7 cells showed that deletion of hssS/hssR significantly enhanced the ability of anti-phagocytosis (P<0.01) and proliferation in macrophages (P<0.05). Virulence assays conducted on chicken embryo showed that the LD50 of the parent strain and deleted strain were 102.2and 101.4, respectively. And the bacteria load in the liver of chicken embryo infected by the deletion strain was significantly higher than that of parent strain (P<0.01), indicating that deletion of hssS/hssR significantly enhanced the virulence of Listeria monocytogenes. These results indicated that the two-component system HssS/HssR mediates the oxidative stress resistance and virulence of Listeria monocytogenes.

Key words: Listeria monocytogenes, two-component system, oxidative stress, virulence

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