1887

Abstract

Summary

has emerged as one of the most important organisms of the viridans streptococcus group in terms of infections and is recognised as an agent of infective endocarditis and, in immunocompromised patients, septicaemia. The mechanisms by which this organism proliferates are unknown. However, host-derived sialic acids - including N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuNAc) which is present in serum and cell-associated glycoproteins - are a potential source of fermentable carbohydrate for bacterial proliferation, especially for sialidase-producing bacteria, including . To further elucidate the role of NeuNAc in supporting growth, this study determined the ability of strain AR3 (isolated from a patient with infective endocarditis) to transport NeuNAc and characterised the transport system. The transport of [C]-labelled NeuNAc into was monitored and this transport system was induced by growth of the bacteria in the presence of the N-acetylated sugars NeuNAc, N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylmannosamine. The transport system followed typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics, with a K of 21.0 μm and a V of 2.65 nmoles of NeuNAc transported/min/mg of dry cell mass. NeuNAc transport was inhibited by the presence of exogenous N-glycolylneuraminic acid, a related sialic acid. Chlorhexidine, NaF and 2,4-dinitrophenol were potent inhibitors of the transport system, suggesting that the uptake of NeuNAc occurs a proton motive force-dependent permease system. This is the first report of the mechanism by which NeuNAc transport occurs in pathogenic streptococci. This transport process may have relevance to the acquisition of a source of fermentable carbohydrate and thus bacterial proliferation .

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-48-4-375
1999-04-01
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-48-4-375
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error