Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (2): 607-617.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2022.02.027

• BASIC VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Effect of R91S Mutation in FliC on the Flagellar Shape and Salmonella Enteritidis Colonization in BALB/c Mice

WANG Jun1*, LI Jun1, CUI Guolin2*   

  1. 1. Jiaxing Vocational and Technical College, Jiaxing 314036, China;
    2. College of Life Science and Food Engineering, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China
  • Received:2021-06-11 Online:2022-02-23 Published:2022-03-02

Abstract: FliC amino acid sequences alignment of three serovars in Salmonella enterica serogroup D revealed that S. Enteritidis sharing the same pattern with S. Gallinarum displayed different amino acid residue at the 91th position. The objective of this work is to investigate the effect of arginine mutation at the 91th position of FliC protein on flagellar shape and S. Enteritidis colonization in liver and spleen in BALB/c mice. fliC gene was deleted from the genome of CICC10467 using λ-Red homologous recombination system and a series of trans-complemented strains were constructed. The growth characteristics and FliC expression were evaluated through growth curve analysis and Western blot assay. Flagellar motility and shape were analyzed with soft agar plates and transmission electron microscope, respectively. The ability of cellular adhesion and invasion of wild type and its derivates in vitro and in vivo were tested. The result suggested that there was no difference on bacterial growth and FliC expression between wild type and complements besides loss of expression in fliC mutant. R91S substitution changed the flagellar shape of S. Enteritidis into blunt and straight and weaken flexibility and nearly abrogated bacterial motility (P<0.000 1), the ability of adhesion and invasion to HCT116 and RAW264.7 and the load of mutant in liver and spleen of BALB/c mice was decreased comparison with wild type (P<0.001). Taken together, arginine at the 91th position is essential for bacterial motility, R91S substitution remarkably changes the flagellar shape of S. Enteritidis and impairs bacterial colonization in BALB/c mice.

Key words: Salmonella Enteritidis, FliC protein, R91S, flagellar shape, BALB/c, colonization

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