Serratia‐based toxin cluster elements are associated with a type I fimbria

• Published in: MicrobiologyOpen (Weinheim) Vol. 13; no. 1
• Main Authors: Sitter, Lesley, Schoof, Marion, Glare, Travis R., Cox, Murray P., Fineran, Peter C., Gardner, Paul P., Hurst, Mark R. H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bognor Regis John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.02.2024; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Beetles; Biological activity; Biopesticides; Deficient mutant; E coli; fimbria; Genes; Genomics; grass grub; Original; Phenotypes; Pili; plasmid; Plasmids; Population control; repA; Salmonella; Serratia; Soil bacteria; Soil microorganisms; toxin complex; Toxins; Virulence; New Zealand
• ISSN: 2045-8827; 2045-8827
• DOI: 10.1002/mbo3.1395

A soil bacterium in the Serratia genus, carrying a 153 kb conjugative amber disease‐associated plasmid (pADAP), is commercially exploited for population control of the New Zealand endemic pest beetle Costelytra giveni (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). The main insecticidal elements are an anti‐feeding prophage and the Sep ABC toxin complex (Tc). Homologs of pADAP, encoding variant Tcs, convey different beetle disease phenotypes. To investigate the correlation between variable bioactivity and the Tc variant, 76 Serratia plasmids were sequenced, resulting in the identification of four additional tc variants. All Serratia tc variants were found to be colocated with a conserved type 1 sef fimbrial‐like operon, indicating a conserved sef‐tc genetic island not observed outside of the Serratia genus. The conserved co‐location of the fimbrial and tc genes suggests the fimbriae somehow contribute to the lifestyle of Tc‐producing cells. Expression of the sef operon in a fim‐null Escherichia coli strain revealed fimbriae presence while a constructed sef‐deficient mutant showed no reduction of virulence or host colonization. Although no detectable contribution of Sef to amber disease in C. giveni was observed, the Sef adhesin sequences clustered similarly to the Serratia species encoding it, suggesting Sef has a species‐specific function. This article characterizes Sef fimbrial elements that have been observed to be consistently colocated with an ABC toxin complex (Tc) found in pathogenic Serratia species that infect the beetle larvae of Costelytra giveni. This unique association between the fimbria and Tc has not been documented before in any known Tc system and raises questions about the high selective pressure for maintaining these fimbriae only in bacteria that encode Tcs. Our study also sought to characterize the structure and function of Sef fimbria using bioinformatics, cloning, and experimental approaches.