L-Arabinose inhibits Shiga toxin type 2-converting bacteriophage induction in Escherichia coli O157:H7

ABSTRACT

The pathogenicity of Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 is predominantly associated with Shiga toxin 2 (Stx2) that poses a huge threat to human and animal intestinal health. Production of Stx2 requires expression of stx2 gene, which is located in the genome of lambdoid Stx2 prophage. Growing evidence has implicated that many commonly consumed foods participate in the regulation of prophage induction. In this study, we aimed to explore whether specific dietary functional sugars could inhibit Stx2 prophage induction in E. coli O157:H7, thereby preventing Stx2 production and promoting intestinal health. We demonstrated that Stx2 prophage induction in E. coli O157:H7 was strongly inhibited by L-arabinose both in vitro and in a mouse model. Mechanistically, L-arabinose at doses of 9, 12, or 15 mM diminished RecA protein levels, a master mediator of the SOS response, contributing to reduced Stx2-converting phage induction. L-Arabinose inhibited quorum sensing and oxidative stress response, which are known as positive regulators of the SOS response and subsequent Stx2 phage production. Furthermore, L-arabinose impaired E. coli O157:H7 arginine transport and metabolism that were involved in producing Stx2 phage. Collectively, our results suggest that L-arabinose may be exploited as a novel Stx2 prophage induction inhibitor against E. coli O157:H7 infection.

KEYWORDS:

• L-Arabinose
• Escherichia coli O157:H7
• Shiga toxin type 2 phage
• arginine transport and metabolism
• intestinal health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The raw RNA-Seq transcriptome data of E. coli O157:H7 analyzed in this study is available in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under BioProject PRJNA884078 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA884078.

Author contributions

Conceptualization, J.H., J.W. and D.H. Visualization, J.H.,Y.P., X.L., J.W. and D.H. Methodology, J.H., X.Z., L.K., Y.L., J.W. and D.H. Investigation, J.H., X.Z., Y.W., J.W. and D.H. Funding acquisition, J.W., D.H. and J.H. Writing-original draft, J.H. Writing-review and editing, S.Z., D.H. and J.W.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2023.2221778.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2022YFA1304201 and 2021YFD1300201), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32172750, 32125036, 31972596, 31902170, and 31630074), the Open Project Program of Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology (KLFB-IFR-202201), the China Agricultural Research System (CARS-35), the 111 Project (B16044), and Postgraduate Innovation Funding Project of China Agricultural University (No. 2022TC173).