AI Article Synopsis

  • The bacterium studied is a common part of the human gut microbiota but has evolved into a multidrug-resistant pathogen causing hospital infections.
  • Most research has focused on this bacterium in oxygen-rich conditions, while its natural gut environment is low-oxygen, which has been overlooked.
  • A study created a library of mutants to identify key genes crucial for anaerobic growth, revealing important insights into its carbohydrate metabolism and ability to colonize the gut.

Article Abstract

The facultative anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium is a ubiquitous member of the human gut microbiota. However, it has gradually evolved into a pathogenic and multidrug resistant lineage that causes nosocomial infections. The establishment of high-level intestinal colonization by enterococci represents a critical step of infection. The majority of current research on has been conducted under aerobic conditions, while limited attention has been given to its physiological characteristics in anaerobic environments, which reflects its natural colonization niche in the gut. In this study, a high-density transposon mutant library containing 26,620 distinct insertion sites was constructed. Tn-seq analysis identified six genes that significantly contribute to growth under anaerobic conditions. Under anaerobic conditions, deletion of (encoding Fe-S cluster assembly protein B) results in more extensive and significant impairments on carbohydrate metabolism compared to aerobic conditions. Consistently, the pathways involved in this utilization-restricted carbohydrates were mostly expressed at significantly lower levels in mutant compared to wild-type under anaerobic conditions. Moreover, deletion of or (encoding pyruvate formate lyase-activating protein A) led to failure of gastrointestinal colonization in mice. These findings contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms by which maintains proliferation under anaerobic conditions and establishes colonization in the gut.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11152105PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2024.2359665DOI Listing

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