International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Feb 2023)

Genomic Distribution of Pro-Virulent <i>cpdB</i>-like Genes in Eubacteria and Comparison of the Enzyme Specificity of CpdB-like Proteins from <i>Salmonella enterica</i>, <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Streptococcus suis</i>

  • João Meireles Ribeiro,
  • José Canales,
  • María Jesús Costas,
  • Alicia Cabezas,
  • Rosa María Pinto,
  • Miguel García-Díaz,
  • Paloma Martín-Cordero,
  • José Carlos Cameselle

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24044150
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 24, no. 4
p. 4150

Abstract

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The cpdB gene is pro-virulent in avian pathogenic Escherichia coli and in Salmonella enterica, where it encodes a periplasmic protein named CpdB. It is structurally related to cell wall-anchored proteins, CdnP and SntA, encoded by the also pro-virulent cdnP and sntA genes of Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus suis, respectively. CdnP and SntA effects are due to extrabacterial hydrolysis of cyclic-di-AMP, and to complement action interference. The mechanism of CpdB pro-virulence is unknown, although the protein from non-pathogenic E. coli hydrolyzes cyclic dinucleotides. Considering that the pro-virulence of streptococcal CpdB-like proteins is mediated by c-di-AMP hydrolysis, S. enterica CpdB activity was tested as a phosphohydrolase of 3′-nucleotides, 2′,3′-cyclic mononucleotides, linear and cyclic dinucleotides, and cyclic tetra- and hexanucleotides. The results help to understand cpdB pro-virulence in S. enterica and are compared with E. coli CpdB and S. suis SntA, including the activity of the latter on cyclic-tetra- and hexanucleotides reported here for the first time. On the other hand, since CpdB-like proteins are relevant to host-pathogen interactions, the presence of cpdB-like genes was probed in eubacterial taxa by TblastN analysis. The non-homogeneous genomic distribution revealed taxa with cpdB-like genes present or absent, identifying eubacteria and plasmids where they can be relevant.

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