The antibiotic activity and mechanisms of active metabolites (Streptomyces alboflavus TD-1) against Ralstonia solanacearum.

OBJECTIVES: In order to elucidate the antibacterial activity and mechanism of S. alboflavus TD-1 active metabolites, the minimal inhibitory concentration of R. solanacearum and other effects on cell wall, cell membrane, nucleic acid, protein and cell morphology were studied. Besides, based on LCMS-IT-TOF, the active metabolites of S. alboflavus TD-1 were preliminarily analyzed. RESULTS: In this study, We found that the active metabolites had obvious inhibitory effect on R. solanacearum, and the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of R. solanacearum was 3.125 mg/mL. And the treatment of 10 mg/mL active metabolites can increase the permeability of R. solanacearum membranes, destroy the cell wall integrity, inhibit the synthesis of bacterial nucleic acids and proteins, and cause leakage of bacterial nucleic acids and proteins, obstruct the normal expression of proteins and destroy their bacterial morphology. At the same time, We speculated the molecular weights corresponding to the six compounds were 618, 615, 615, 615, 646, 646, respectively among the active metabolites, and it was found that were highly unstable. CONCLUSIONS: The active metabolites produced by S. alboflavus TD-1 liquid fermentation contain components that can significant inhibitory effects on R. solanacearum. It had the potential to develop biocontrol agents against bacterial wilt and be a kind potential sources for the preparation of functional anti-pathogenic microbial agents.

A genome-wide scan for genes under balancing selection in the plant pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum.

BACKGROUND: Plant pathogens are under significant selective pressure by the plant host. Consequently, they are expected to have adapted to this condition or contribute to evading plant defenses. In order to acquire long-term fitness, plant bacterial pathogens are usually forced to maintain advantageous genetic diversity in populations. This strategy ensures that different alleles in the pathogen's gene pool are maintained in a population at frequencies larger than expected under neutral evolution. This selective process, known as balancing selection, is the subject of this work in the context of a common bacterial phytopathogen. We performed a genome-wide scan of Ralstonia solanacearum species complex, an aggressive plant bacterial pathogen that shows broad host range and causes a devastating disease called 'bacterial wilt'. RESULTS: Using a sliding window approach, we analyzed 57 genomes from three phylotypes of the R. solanacearum species complex to detect signatures of balancing selection. A total of 161 windows showed extreme values in three summary statistics of population genetics: Tajima's D, θw and Fu & Li's D*. We discarded any confounding effects due to demographic events by means of coalescent simulations of genetic data. The prospective windows correspond to 78 genes with known function that map in any of the two main replicons (1.7% of total number of genes). The candidate genes under balancing selection are related to primary metabolism and other basal activities (51.3%) or directly associated to virulence (48.7%), the latter being involved in key functions targeted to dismantle plant defenses or to participate in critical stages in the pathogenic process. CONCLUSIONS: We identified various genes under balancing selection that play a significant role in basic metabolism as well as in virulence of the R. solanacearum species complex. These genes are useful to understand and monitor the evolution of bacterial pathogen populations and emerge as potential candidates for future treatments to induce specific plant immune responses.

Design and synthesis of C10 modified and ring-truncated canthin-6-one analogues as effective membrane-active antibacterial agents.

A series of canthin-6-one analogues were designed and synthesized in order to study their antibacterial activity and structure-activity relationships. Compound 22 showed a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity and exhibited better bactericidal effect (8-fold superiority against Staphylococcus aureus and 2-fold superiority against Ralstonia solanacearum) than fosfomycin sodium and propineb with a minimum inhibitory concentration value of 2 µg/mL. Moreover, it showed low cytotoxicity, stimulation on germination rates and good "drug-like" properties. Membrane-active mechanism was further studied by fluorescent microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, cytoplasmic ß-galactosidase leakage assay and evaluation of the molecular docking. The results showed that 22 may exert its bactericidal effect by damaging bacterial cell membranes and influencing the membrane formation, both of which could lead to cell death. The in vivo antibacterial assay with a protective efficacy of 68% demonstrated the potential of C ring-truncated canthin-6-one 22 as a new bactericide.

The involvement of the PilQ secretin of type IV pili in phage infection in Ralstonia solanacearum.

PilQ is a member of the secretin family of outer membrane proteins and specifically involved in type IV secretion. Here we report the effects of pilQ mutation in Ralstonia solanacearum on the host physiology including susceptibility to several phage types (Inoviridae, Podoviridae and Myoviridae). With three lines of cells, namely wild type, ΔpilQ and pilQ-complemented cells, the cell surface proteins, twitching motility and sensitivity to phages were compared. SDS-PAGE analysis revealed that the major TFP pilin (PilA) was specifically lost in pilQ mutants and was recovered in the complemented cells. Drastically inactivated twitching motility in pilQ mutants was recovered to the wild type level in the complemented cells. Several phages of different types including those of Inoviridae, Podoviridae, and Myoviridae that infect wild type cells could not form plaques on pilQ mutants but showed infectivity to pilQ-complemented cells. These results indicate that PilQ function is generally required for phage infection in R. solanacearum.

Rapid differentiation of Ralstonia solanacearum avirulent and virulent strains by cell fractioning of an isolate using high performance liquid chromatography.

Ralstonia solanacearum is one of the most destructive plant bacterial pathogens worldwide. The population dynamics and genetic stability are important issues, especially when an avirulent strain is used for biocontrol. In this study, we developed a rapid method to differentiate the virulent and avirulent strains of R. solanacearum and to predict the biocontrol efficiency of an avirulent strain using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Three chromatographic peaks P1, P2 and P3 were observed on the HPLC spectra among 68 avirulent and 28 virulent R. solanacearum strains. Based on the HPLC peaks, 96 strains total were assigned to three categories. For avirulent strains, the intense peak is P1, while for virulent strains, P3 is the majority. Based on the HLPC spectra of R. solanacearum strains, a chromatography titer index (CTI) was established as CTIi = Si/(S1+S2+S3) × 100% (i represents an individual HPLC peak; S1, S2 and S3 represent peak areas of P1, P2 and P3, respectively). The avirulent strains had high values of CTI1 ranging from 63.6 to 100.0%, while the virulent strains displayed high values of CTI3 ranging from 90.2 to 100.0%. Biological inoculation studies of 68 avirulent strains revealed that the biocontrol efficacy was the best when CTI1 = 100%. The purity and genetic stability of R. solanacearum strains were confirmed in the P1 fraction of avirulent strain FJAT-1957 and P3 fraction of virulent strain FJAT-1925 after 30 generations of consecutive subculture. These results confirmed that fractioning by HPLC and their deduced CTI can be used for rapid and efficient evaluation and prediction of an isolate of R. solanacearum. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that HPLC fractioning can be used for rapid differentiation of virulent and avirulent strains of R. solanacearum.

Reduction of lectin valency drastically changes glycolipid dynamics in membranes but not surface avidity.

Multivalency is proposed to play a role in the strong avidity of lectins for glycosylated cell surfaces and also in their ability to affect membrane dynamics by clustering glycosphingolipids. Lectins with modified valency were designed from the ß-propeller fold of Ralstonia solanacearum lectin (RSL) that presents six fucose binding sites. After identification of key amino acids by molecular dynamics calculations, two mutants with reduced valency were produced. Isothermal titration calorimetry confirmed the loss of three high affinity binding sites for both mutants. Crystal structures indicated that residual low affinity binding occurred in W76A but not in R17A. The trivalent R17A mutant presented unchanged avidity toward fucosylated surfaces, when compared to hexavalent RSL. However, R17A is not able anymore to induce formation of membrane invaginations on giant unilamellar vesicules, indicating the crucial role of number of binding sites for clustering of glycolipids. In the human lung epithelial cell line H1299, wt-RSL is internalized within seconds whereas the kinetics of R17A uptake is largely delayed. Neolectins with tailored valency are promising tools to study membrane dynamics.

Evaluation of antibacterial effects of carbon nanomaterials against copper-resistant Ralstonia solanacearum.

In this paper, we investigated the antibacterial activity and the action mode of carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) against the copper-resistant plant pathogenic bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum (R. solanacearum). Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) dispersion was found to show the strongest antibacterial activity, sequentially followed by graphene oxide (GO), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and fullerene (C(60)). Our investigation of the antibacterial mechanism of SWCNTs and GO indicated that the damage to the cell membrane leads to the release of cytoplasm materials from the bacterium, which is the causative factor for the inactivation of R. solanacearum bacterial cells. The superior antibacterial effect, and the novel antibacterial mode of SWCNTs and GO suggest that those carbon nanomaterials may have important applications in the control of plant bacterial diseases.

Characterization of biofumigated Ralstonia solanacearum cells using micro-Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopy.

Essential oils of palmarosa, lemongrass, and eucalyptus have shown promise as biofumigants for control of the bacterial wilt disease of edible ginger (Zingiber officinale) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum race 4 in previous potting medium studies. Biochemical changes in R. solanacearum cells were evaluated with micro-Raman spectroscopy following treatment with essential oils at different concentrations (0.04, 0.07, and 0.14% [vol/vol] of culture medium) and changes in cell structure were observed using electron microscopy. All treatments except palmarosa oil at 0.04% caused significant reductions in levels of amino acids, purine and pyrimidine bases of nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids, as indicated by significant reduction in Raman peak heights at 621, 1,003, and 1,031 inverse centimeters (cm(-1)) (phenylalanine); 643, 827, 852, 1,158, and 1,172 cm(-1) (tyrosine); 758 cm(-1) (tryptophan); 725, 782, 1,337, and 1,578 cm(-1) (adenine, cytosine plus uracil, adenine, and adenine plus guanine, respectively); 1,097 cm(-1) (carbohydrates); and 1,127, 1,450, and 2,932 cm(-1) (lipids) compared with untreated controls. Lemongrass oil treatments were the most effective in degrading cellular components. Scanning electron microscopy of palmarosa and lemongrass-oil-treated cells showed rupture of cell walls and cell debris but no degradation was noted for eucalyptus-oil-treated cells. Palmarosa- and lemongrass-oil-treated cells were positively stained with uranyl acetate when viewed by transmission electron microscopy whereas controls and eucalyptus-oil-treated cells were negatively stained, indicating that the cell membranes were intact. The viability of eucalyptus-oil-treated cells was confirmed by cell culture following treatment. Micro-Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool which can be further employed to better understand effects of fumigants and other bactericides on bacterial cells.

Interactions with hosts at cool temperatures, not cold tolerance, explain the unique epidemiology of Ralstonia solanacearum race 3 biovar 2.

Most strains of the bacterial wilt pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum are tropical, but race 3 biovar 2 (R3bv2) strains can attack plants in temperate zones and tropical highlands. The basis of this distinctive ecological trait is not understood. We compared the survival of tropical, R3bv2, and warm-temperate North American strains of R. solanacearum under different conditions. In water at 4 degrees C, North American strains remained culturable the longest (up to 90 days), whereas tropical strains remained culturable for the shortest time (approximately 40 days). However, live/dead staining indicated that cells of representative strains remained viable for >160 days. In contrast, inside potato tubers, R3bv2 strain UW551 survived >4 months at 4 degrees C, whereas North American strain K60 and tropical strain GMI1000 were undetectable after <70 days in tubers. GMI1000 and UW551 grew similarly in minimal medium at 20 and 28 degrees C and, although both strains wilted tomato plants rapidly at 28 degrees C, UW551 was much more virulent at 20 degrees C, killing all inoculated plants under conditions where GMI100 killed just over half. Thus, differences among the strains in the absence of a plant host were not predictive of their behavior in planta at cooler temperatures. These data indicate that interaction with plants is required for expression of the temperate epidemiological trait of R3bv2.

Survival strategies and pathogenicity of Ralstonia solanacearum phylotype II subjected to prolonged starvation in environmental water microcosms.

Survival strategies exhibited over 4 years by Ralstonia solanacearum phylotype (ph) II biovar (bv) 2 in environmental water microcosms were examined. The bacterium is a devastating phytopathogen whose ph II bv 2 causes bacterial wilt in solanaceous crops and ornamental plants. Outbreaks of the disease may originate from dissemination of the pathogen in watercourses, where it has to cope with prolonged nutrient limitation. To ascertain the effect of long-term starvation on survival and pathogenicity of R. solanacearum in natural water microcosms, survival experiments were conducted. Microcosms were prepared from different sterile river water samples, inoculated separately with two European strains of ph II at 10(6) c.f.u. ml(-1) and maintained at 24 degrees C for 4 years. In all assayed waters, starved R. solanacearum remained in a non-growing but culturable state during the first year, maintaining approximately the initial numbers. Thereafter, part of the population of R. solanacearum progressively lost the ability to form colonies, and non-culturable but metabolically active cells appeared. During the whole period, the bacterium remained pathogenic on host plants and underwent a transition from typical bacilli to small cocci which tended to aggregate. Some starved R. solanacearum cells filamented and formed buds. Starvation response, viable but non-culturable state, morphological changes and aggregation have not previously been reported for this pathogen as survival mechanisms induced in oligotrophic conditions. The potential existence of long-starved pathogenic cells in environmental waters may raise new concerns about the epidemiology of bacterial wilt disease.

Flagellin is not a major defense elicitor in Ralstonia solanacearum cells or extracts applied to Arabidopsis thaliana.

The phytopathogenic bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum requires motility for full virulence, and its flagellin is a candidate pathogen-associated molecular pattern that may elicit plant defenses. Boiled extracts from R. solanacearum contained a strong elicitor of defense-associated responses. However, R. solanacearum flagellin is not this elicitor, because extracts from wild-type bacteria and fliC or flhDC mutants defective in flagellin production all elicited similar plant responses. Equally important, live R. solanacearum caused similar disease on Arabidopsis ecotype Col-0, regardless of the presence of flagellin in the bacterium or the FLS2-mediated flagellin recognition system in the plant. Unlike the previously studied flg22 flagellin peptide, a peptide based on the corresponding conserved N-terminal segment of R. solanacearum, flagellin did not elicit any response from Arabidopsis seedlings. Thus recognition of flagellin plays no readily apparent role in this pathosystem. Flagellin also was not the primary elicitor of responses in tobacco. The primary eliciting activity in boiled R. solanacearum extracts applied to Arabidopsis was attributable to one or more proteins other than flagellin, including species purifying at approximately 5 to 10 kDa and also at larger molecular masses, possibly due to aggregation. Production of this eliciting activity did not require hrpB (positive regulator of type III secretion), pehR (positive regulator of polygalacturonase production and motility), gspM (general secretion pathway), or phcA (LysR-type global virulence regulator). Wild-type R. solanacearum was virulent on Arabidopsis despite the presence of this elicitor in pathogen extracts.