Isolation and Characterization of Bile Salts-Sensitive Mutants of Enterococcus faecalis

Yoann Le Breton (1) , Alain Mazé (2) , Axel Hartke (1) , Sylviane Lemarinier , Yanick Auffray (1) , Alain Rincé (1)

1 LME - Laboratoire de Microbiologie de l’Environnement
2 MGM - Microbiologie et Génétique Moléculaire

A library of insertional mutants of Enterococcus faecalis was constructed; it allowed the isolation and the characterization of 10 mutants affected in resistance to bile salts. Insertion loci of two mutants corresponded to genes of unknown function, while the amino acid sequences deduced from the other loci were homologous to proteins related to DNA repair, oxidative response, transcriptional regulation, dGTP hydrolysis, membrane composition, or cell wall synthesis. Further characterization of one mutant revealed that the insertion within the E. faecalis sagA gene led to a decrease of the resistance towards numerous independent physicochemical stresses, to modifications of the cell wall integrity, and to perturbations of cell division with septation anomalies.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Biochimie, Biologie Moléculaire; Biologie moléculaire

Yoann Le Breton, Alain Mazé, Axel Hartke, Sylviane Lemarinier, Yanick Auffray, et al.. Isolation and Characterization of Bile Salts-Sensitive Mutants of Enterococcus faecalis. Current Microbiology, 2002, 45 (6), pp.0434-0439. ⟨10.1007/s00284-002-3714-3⟩. ⟨hal-02182342⟩