Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel pathology whose ethology is unknown. However,
it has been observed the presence of adherent-invasive strain of Escherichia coli (AIEC) in many
patients. This pathotype of E. coli can adhere and invade the intestinal epithelial cells besides is
capable to survive and replicate within macrophages, triggering the common chronic
inflammatory response of Crohn’s disease.
The interaction between AIEC and intestinal epithelial cells is mediated by a wide variety of
virulence factors regulated by two nucleotides, tetra- and pentaphosphate guanosine ((p)ppGpp).
These nucleotides regulate the transcription of wide range of genes involved in the stringent cell
response, which occurs in the presence of cellular stress and nutrient starvation, as well as in the
infective processes of pathogenic strains. The levels of (p)ppGpp are regulated by RelA and SpoT enzymes in Escherichia coli. The structure
of this enzymes is based in a synthetase domain and hydrolase domain, except for RelA, which
only has the functional synthetase domain. This project aims to characterize the RelA/SpoT
synthetases of (p)ppGpp in AIEC strain and compare them with those of commensal strain
MG1655, which is part of the intestinal microbiota. In this study, wild-type strains of MG1655 and LF82 (AIEC) were uses, along with their respective mutant, on deficient in the relA gene (ΔrelA) and another deficient in both relA and spoT (ppGpp0
). Characterization was carried out through an initial evaluation of the mutation’s effect on bacterial
physiology using a nutrient competition assay, growth curves, motility and biofilm formation
capability. It was also evaluated the role of ppGpp in the adherent-invasive capacity of AIEC and
finally the ppGpp levels were indirectly estimated by qPCR detection of the iraP gene.
The results suggest that mutations in relA and spoT do not affect nutrient fitness or specific growth
rate but do impact motility and biofilm formation capacity between MG1655 and LF82, suggesting
that the role of ppGpp could be determined whether the strain is pathogenic or not. Lastly, the
qPCR results indicate a difference in ppGpp levels, and therefore its regulation, between MG1655
and LF82
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