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Anaerobic nitrate reduction divergently governs population expansion of the enteropathogen Vibrio cholerae

Nature Microbiology volume 3, pages 1346–1353 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

To survive and proliferate in the absence of oxygen, many enteric pathogens can undergo anaerobic respiration within the host by using nitrate (NO3−) as an electron acceptor1,2. In these bacteria, NO3− is typically reduced by a nitrate reductase to nitrite (NO2−), a toxic intermediate that is further reduced by a nitrite reductase3. However, Vibrio cholerae, the intestinal pathogen that causes cholera, lacks a nitrite reductase, leading to NO2− accumulation during nitrate reduction4. Thus, V. cholerae is thought to be unable to undergo NO3−-dependent anaerobic respiration4. Here, we show that during hypoxic growth, NO3− reduction in V. cholerae divergently affects bacterial fitness in a manner dependent on environmental pH. Remarkably, in alkaline conditions, V. cholerae can reduce NO3− to support population growth. Conversely, in acidic conditions, accumulation of NO2− from NO3− reduction simultaneously limits population expansion and preserves cell viability by lowering fermentative acid production. Interestingly, other bacterial species such as Salmonella typhimurium, enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) and Citrobacter rodentium also reproduced this pH-dependent response, suggesting that this mechanism might be conserved within enteric pathogens. Our findings explain how a bacterial pathogen can use a single redox reaction to divergently regulate population expansion depending on the fluctuating environmental pH.

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Fig. 1: NO2− accumulation preserves V. cholerae viability at the cost of population expansion during anaerobic growth.
Fig. 2: NO2− production during anaerobic growth slows toxic fermentative acidification of V. cholerae.
Fig. 3: V. cholerae undergoes anaerobic NO3− respiration under alkaline conditions.
Fig. 4: Disruption of NO3− respiration in V. cholerae negatively affects fitness.

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Data availability

Raw metabolomic data from V. cholerae samples grown anaerobically in the presence or absence of nitrate and nitrite have been included as Supplementary Information (see Supplementary Dataset).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW), The Laboratory of Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), the Swedish Research Council and the Kempe Foundation. The Waldor Lab is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH R01-AI-O42347). B.S. was supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC PSGD3-487259). We thank C. Patthey for help with the cell sorting experiments and J. J. Mekalanos for the V. cholerae C6706 Tn-mutant library.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden, Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå Centre for Microbial Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Emilio Bueno & Felipe Cava

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Brandon Sit & Matthew K. Waldor

  3. Division of Infectious Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Brandon Sit & Matthew K. Waldor

  4. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    Matthew K. Waldor

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Contributions

E.B. performed the bacterial in vitro experiments and analysed the results. B.S. performed the animal experiments. E.B. and F.C. were responsible for the overall design of the study. E.B., B.S., M.K.W. and F.C. were responsible for the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Felipe Cava.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 1–15, Supplementary Tables 1–4 and Supplementary References.

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Supplementary Dataset

Vibrio cholerae metabolomics under anaerobic conditions supplemented with nitrate or nitrite.

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Bueno, E., Sit, B., Waldor, M.K. et al. Anaerobic nitrate reduction divergently governs population expansion of the enteropathogen Vibrio cholerae. Nat Microbiol 3, 1346–1353 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0253-0

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