Genetic Elements Orchestrating Lactobacillus crispatus Glycogen Metabolism in the Vagina

Rosanne Hertzberger, Ali May, Gertjan Kramer, Isabelle van Vondelen, Douwe Molenaar, Remco Kort*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Glycogen in the female lower reproductive tract is a major carbon source for colonization and acidification by common vaginal Lactobacillus species, such as Lactobacillus crispatus. Previously, we identified the amylopullulanase encoding gene pulA of Lactobacillus crispatus to correlate with the ability to autonomously utilize glycogen for growth. Here, we further characterize genetic variation and differential regulation of pulA affecting the presence of its gene product on the outer surface layer. We show that alpha-glucan degrading activity dissipates when Lactobacillus crispatus is grown on glucose, maltose and maltotriose, in agreement with carbon catabolite repression elements flanking the pulA gene. Proteome analysis of the S-layer confirmed that the amylopullulanase protein is highly abundant in an S-layer enriched fraction, but not in a strain with a defective amylopullulanase variant or in an amylopullulanase-sufficient strain grown on glucose. In addition, we provide evidence that Lactobacillus crispatus pulA mutants are relevant in vivo, as they are commonly observed in metagenome datasets of human vaginal microbial communities. Analysis of the largest publicly available dataset of 1507 human vaginal metagenomes indicates that among the 270 samples that contain a Lactobacillus crispatus pulA gene, 62 samples (23%) had a defective variant of this gene. Taken together, these results demonstrate that both environmental, as well as genetic factors explain the variation of Lactobacillus crispatus alpha-glucosidases in the vaginal environment.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5590
Pages (from-to)1-16
Number of pages16
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume23
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 May 2022

Bibliographical note

Special Issue: The Role of Commensal Microbiota in Human Health.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • amylopullulanase
  • glycogen
  • Lactobacillus crispatus

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