Conserved bacterial de novo guanine biosynthesis pathway enables microbial survival and colonization in the environmental niche of the urinary tract
Author(s)
Ipe, Deepak S
Sullivan, Matthew J
Goh, Kelvin GK
Hashimi, Saeed M
Munn, Alan L
Ulett, Glen C
Year published
2021
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In bacteria, guaA encodes guanosine monophosphate synthetase that confers an ability to biosynthesize guanine nucleotides de novo. This enables bacterial colonization in different environments and, while guaA is widely distributed among Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, its contribution to the inhabitation of the human microbiome by commensal bacteria is unclear. We studied Streptococcus as a commensal urogenital tract bacterium and opportunistic pathogen, and explored the role of guaA in bacterial survival and colonization of urine. Analysis of guaA-deficient Streptococcus revealed guanine utilization is essential for bacterial ...
View more >In bacteria, guaA encodes guanosine monophosphate synthetase that confers an ability to biosynthesize guanine nucleotides de novo. This enables bacterial colonization in different environments and, while guaA is widely distributed among Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, its contribution to the inhabitation of the human microbiome by commensal bacteria is unclear. We studied Streptococcus as a commensal urogenital tract bacterium and opportunistic pathogen, and explored the role of guaA in bacterial survival and colonization of urine. Analysis of guaA-deficient Streptococcus revealed guanine utilization is essential for bacterial colonization of this niche. The genomic location of guaA in other commensals of the human urogenital tract revealed substantial cross-phyla diversity and organizational structures of guaA that are divergent across phyla. Essentiality of guaA for Streptococcus colonization in the urinary tract establishes that purine biosynthesis is a critical element of the ability of this bacterium to survive and colonize in the host as part of the resident human microbiome.
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View more >In bacteria, guaA encodes guanosine monophosphate synthetase that confers an ability to biosynthesize guanine nucleotides de novo. This enables bacterial colonization in different environments and, while guaA is widely distributed among Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, its contribution to the inhabitation of the human microbiome by commensal bacteria is unclear. We studied Streptococcus as a commensal urogenital tract bacterium and opportunistic pathogen, and explored the role of guaA in bacterial survival and colonization of urine. Analysis of guaA-deficient Streptococcus revealed guanine utilization is essential for bacterial colonization of this niche. The genomic location of guaA in other commensals of the human urogenital tract revealed substantial cross-phyla diversity and organizational structures of guaA that are divergent across phyla. Essentiality of guaA for Streptococcus colonization in the urinary tract establishes that purine biosynthesis is a critical element of the ability of this bacterium to survive and colonize in the host as part of the resident human microbiome.
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Journal Title
The ISME Journal
Volume
15
Issue
7
Subject
Environmental sciences
Biological sciences
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Ecology
Microbiology