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The Journal of Immunology, 2001, 166: 669-677.
Copyright © 2001 by The American Association of Immunologists

egc, A Highly Prevalent Operon of Enterotoxin Gene, Forms a Putative Nursery of Superantigens in Staphylococcus aureus

Sophie Jarraud*, Marie Alix Peyrat{dagger}, Annick Lim{ddagger}, Anne Tristan*, Michèle Bes*, Christophe Mougel§, Jerome Etienne*, François Vandenesch*, Marc Bonneville{dagger} and Gerard Lina1,*

* Centre Nationale des Toxémies à Staphylococques, Faculté de Médecine Laennec, Lyon, France; {dagger} Institute National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 463, Institut de Biologie, Nantes, France; {ddagger} Institute National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 277, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France; and § Unité Mixte de Recherche Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 5557, Laboratoire d’Ecologie Microbienne, Universite Claude Bernard, Villeurbanne, France


    Abstract
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 References
 
The recently described staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) G and I were originally identified in two separate strains of Staphylococcus aureus. We have previously shown that the corresponding genes seg and sei are present in S. aureus in tandem orientation, on a 3.2-kb DNA fragment (Jarraud, J. et al. 1999. J. Clin. Microbiol. 37:2446–2449). Sequence analysis of seg-sei intergenic DNA and flanking regions revealed three enterotoxin-like open reading frames related to seg and sei, designated sek, sel, and sem, and two pseudogenes, {psi} ent1 and {psi} ent2. RT-PCR analysis showed that all these genes, including seg and sei, belong to an operon, designated the enterotoxin gene cluster (egc). Recombinant SEG, SEI, SEK, SEL, and SEM showed superantigen activity, each with a specific V{beta} pattern. Distribution studies of genes encoding superantigens in clinical S. aureus isolates showed that most strains harbored such genes and in particular the enterotoxin gene cluster, whatever the disease they caused. Phylogenetic analysis of enterotoxin genes indicated that they all potentially derived from this cluster, identifying egc as a putative nursery of enterotoxin genes.


    Introduction
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 References
 
Staphylococcus aureus produces a wide variety of toxic proteins, including the staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs)2 A-E and G-J, the toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1), and the exfoliative toxins (ETs) A and B. These toxins were initially described as being responsible for specific acute staphylococcal toxemia syndromes, such as toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and staphylococcal scarlet fever (SSF) (both due to TSST-1, SEB, and SEC), scalded skin syndrome (SSSS, due to the ETs), and staphylococcal food poisoning (due to the SEs) (1, 2).

SEs and TSST-1 share common structural and biological properties, suggesting that they derived from a common ancestor (3). They display significant homology in their primary sequence and secondary and tertiary structures (3). Based on amino acid sequence comparisons, SEs have been divided into several groups; one includes SEA, SEE, SEJ, SED, and SEH, and another SEB and SEC, whereas SEG and SEI could not be clearly attributed to a specific group (4, 5). Biologically, SEs and TSST-1 exhibit superantigen activity, stimulating polyclonal T cell proliferation through coligation between MHC class II molecules on APCs and the variable portion of the T cell Ag receptor {beta}-chain (TCR V{beta}) (3). The pattern of V{beta} activation is specific for each of these superantigens (3). T cell/APC activation by these toxins leads to the release of various cytokines/lymphokines and IFN, enhances endotoxic shock, and causes T and B cell immunosuppression, all of which may hinder the immune response against bacterial infection (5, 6, 7, 8).

SEG and SEI are recently described SEs (4). We have previously reported the involvement of these toxins in TSS and SSF (9). The SEG and SEI genes (seg and sei) were originally identified in two separate strains (4), but we have shown that, when present, seg and sei coexist in all clinical isolates of S. aureus examined to date (9). Moreover, we found that the two genes were in tandem orientation on the same 3.2-kb DNA fragment. As Munson et al. (4) have found that the seg transcript is unusually large (~6.7 kb), we postulated that the seg transcript might encode additional genes, including sei. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the genes that are cotranscribed with seg.


    Materials and Methods
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 References
 
Strains

S. aureus A900322, isolated from a patient with TSS, was shown to have the genotype sea-, seb-, sec-, sed-, see-, seg+, seh-, sei+ (9), and was used as a seg and sei reference strain. S. aureus RN450 (sea-, seb-, sec-, sed-, see-, seg-, seh-, sei-) was used as a negative control for SE genes. S. aureus MJB1316 (a gift from Sibyl Munson, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI), an RN450 derivative that contains the cloned seg gene on the staphylococcal expression vector pRN5548 (4), was used as seg positive control. The following S. aureus strains were used to check the specificity of PCR amplification: FDA-S6 (ATCC 13566 (sea+ seb+)), FRI-137 (ATCC 19095 (sec+ seg+ seh+ sei+)), FRI-1151 m (sed+), FRI-326 (ATCC 27664 (see+)), FRI-569 (ATCC 51811 (seh+)), FRI-1169 (tst+), TC-7 (eta+ seg+ sei+), and TC-146 (etb+ seg+ sei+) (9). Two hundred thirty S. aureus clinical isolates were collected by the Center National de Référence des Toxémies à Staphylocoques (Lyon, France) between January 1998 and December 1999. They were isolated from 58 patients with S. aureus infection (arthritis, skin infection, pneumonia, or infective endocarditis), 102 patients with acute toxemia (TSS, SSF, or SSSS), and 70 asymptomatic nasal carriers. All strains were collected from hospitals located throughout France and were identified as S. aureus by their ability to coagulate citrated rabbit plasma (bioMérieux, Marcy-l’Etoile, France) and to produce a clumping factor (Staphyslide Test; bioMérieux). Escherichia coli TG1 was used for plasmid amplification and genetic manipulations.

DNA amplification and sequencing

DNA was extracted from A900322 cultures and used as a template for amplification with primers sei-1 and seg-2 (Table IGo) in conditions described in detail elsewhere (9). Primers wsei and wseg (Table IGo) were designed following identification of suitable hybridization sites in the sei and seg genes and were compatible with the Clontech Genome Walker kit (Ozyme; Montigny-Le Bretonneux, France), which is suitable for cloning unknown DNA sequences adjacent to a known sequence. This kit was used, according to the supplier’s instructions, to identify sei and seg flanking regions using primers hindIII and wsei (Table IGo) on a HindIII chromosomal digest for the amplification of the sei-upstream region; and primers hpaI and wseg (Table IGo) on an HpaI chromosomal digest for the amplification of the seg-downstream region. PCR products were analyzed by electrophoresis through 0.8% agarose gels (Sigma, St. Louis, MO), purified using the High Pure PCR Product Purification kit (Boehringer Mannheim, Meylan, France), and sequenced (Genome Express, Grenoble, France). Sequences were compiled, analyzed, and compared using Blast (http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/BLAST), GeneJokey, and ClustalX software (European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, U.K., http://www.ebi.ac.uk) (10).


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Table I. Sequences of primers used in this study1

 
Phylogenic reconstruction

The sequences of SE-related genes were obtained from GenBank: sea accession number M18970; seb accession number M11118; sec1 accession number X05815; sed accession number M28521; see accession number M21319; seh accession number U11702; and ent accession number U93688. Nucleotide sequences of these genes and open reading frames (ORFs) encoded by egc were aligned using the multiple alignment ClustalX software (10). The evolutionary distances were determined by the method of Kimura, and these values were used to construct a dendrogram by means of the neighbor-joining method using the Phylip package (European Bioinformatics Institute). At least 1000 bootstrap trees were generated for each data set to investigate the stability of phylogenic relationships using the Seqboot module of Phylip package. Similar phylogenic analysis was conducted using the corresponding amino acids sequences.

Toxin-gene detection

Sequences specific for sea-e, seg-i, tst, eta, and etb, encoding SEA-E, SEG-I, TSST-1, ETA, and ETB, respectively, were detected by PCR, as previously described (9). DNA from clinical isolates was extracted from cultures and used as a template for amplification with the primers described in Table IGo (Eurogentec, Seraing, Belgium). Amplification of gyrA was used as a control to confirm the quality of each DNA extract and the absence of PCR inhibitors (9). All PCR products were analyzed by electrophoresis through 1% agarose gels (Sigma).

Detection of bacterial RNA by RT-PCR

Total RNA was extracted from staphylococcal cultures by using RNeasy spin columns (Qiagen, Courtaboeuf, France). cDNA was synthesized using Ready-To-Go RT-PCR beads (Pharmacia Biotech, Orsay, France) by incubating 0.1 µg of total RNA with the following pairs of primers (primer 5', sel3), (sel-4, sel-5), (sel1, sel2), (invsel2, invsem1), (sem1, invsei1), (sei1, sei2), (invsei2, {psi}ent2), ({psi}ent1, invsek1), (sek1, sek2), (invsek2, invseg1), (seg1, seg2), (invseg2, primer 3') (Table IGo). The reaction mixtures were incubated with each primer pair described above, at 42°C for 30 min for reverse transcription, followed by 30 cycles of amplification (1-min denaturation at 94°C, 1-min annealing at 55°C, and 1-min extension at 72°C). The RT-PCR products were then analyzed by electrophoresis through 1% agarose gel. RNA extracts were tested for DNA contamination by preincubating the reaction mixtures at 95°C for 10 min to inactivate reverse transcriptase before the RT-PCR.

Production and purification of recombinant enterotoxins

Primers were designed following identification of suitable hybridization sites in sel, sem, sei, sek, and seg (Table IGo). The 5' primers were chosen within the coding sequence of each gene, omitting the region predicted to encode the signal peptide, as determined by hydrophobicity analysis according to Kyte and Doolitttle (11) with GeneJockey software and SignalP V1.1 World Wide Web Prediction Server (http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/SignalP/) (12); the 3' primers were chosen to overlap the stop codon of each gene. A restriction site was included in each primer (Table IGo). DNA was extracted from A900322 or MJB1316 and used as a template for PCR amplification. PCR products and plasmid DNA were prepared using the Qiagen plasmid kit. PCR fragments were digested with EcoRI and PstI (Boehringer Mannheim) and ligated (T4 DNA ligase; Boehringer Mannheim) with the pMAL-c2 expression vector from New England Biolabs (Ozyme) digested with the same restriction enzymes. The resulting plasmids were transformed into E. coli TG1. The integrity of the ORF of each construct was verified by DNA sequencing of the junction between pMAL-c2 and the different inserts. The fusion proteins were purified from cell lysates of transfected E. coli by affinity chromatography on an amylose column according to the supplier’s instructions (New England Biolabs).

T cell proliferation assays

PBL from healthy donors were cultured in 24-well plates (106 cells/well) in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 8% pooled human serum and 10 µg/ml recombinant staphylococcal toxin. rIL-2 (50 IU/ml) was added on day 5. When necessary, T cell cultures were diluted in IL-2-supplemented medium until TCR analysis. We used as controls T cells from the same donors that were stimulated with 0.5 µg/ml Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin (PHAL) (Sigma).

Flow cytometry

The following mAb (mAb; specificity indicated in brackets) were used for flow cytometry: E2.2E7.2 (V{beta}2), LE89 (V{beta}3), IMMU157 (V{beta}5.1), 3D11 (V{beta}5.3), CRI304.3 (V{beta}6.2), 3G5D15 (V{beta}7), 56C5.2 (V{beta}8.1/8.2), FIN9 (V{beta}9), C21 (V{beta}11), S511 (V{beta}12), IMMU1222 (V{beta}13.1), JU74 (V{beta}13.6), CAS1.1.13 (V{beta}14), Tamaya1.2 (V{beta}16), E17.5F3 (V{beta}17), BA62.6 (V{beta}18), ELL1.4 (V{beta}20), IG125 (V{beta}21.3), IMMU546 (V{beta}22), and HUT78.1 (V{beta}23). These mAb, and CD4- and CD8-specific mAb, were purchased from Beckman/Coulter/Immunotech (Marseille, France). Cells were phenotyped by indirect immunofluorescence, as described previously (13). Briefly, cells were incubated with unconjugated mAb for 30 min at room temperature, then washed and incubated with FITC-conjugated rabbit anti-mouse Ig antiserum (BioAtlantic, Nantes, France) for 30 min on ice. After washing, cells were analyzed by flow cytometry on a FACScan apparatus (Becton Dickinson, Mountain View, CA) using the LYSYS II software package on a FACstation.

Immunoscope analysis

Total RNA was extracted using the Trizol reagent (Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD). TCR {beta}-chain-specific primers were as described previously (14), and reverse transcription, PCR amplification, and run-off steps were performed as reported previously (15). Fluorescent DNA products were loaded on a sequencing gel and analyzed with the Immunoscope software (16).

Statistical analysis

{chi}2 test was used to determine whether the distribution of egc, sea, seb, sec, sed, see, seh, tst, eta, and etb was significantly different in isolates from asymptomatic nasal carriers and patients with S. aureus infection or acute toxemia; p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.


    Results and Discussion
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 References
 
Identification of the seg and sei flanking regions

When this work was initiated, the coding regions of only seg and sei were available, and the two genes were known to be in tandem orientation, separated by a 1.9-kb DNA fragment in S. aureus strain A900322 (4, 9). A 3.2-kb fragment was thus amplified by PCR with primers sei1 and seg2 and was then sequenced. The intergenic 1.9-kb DNA sequence contained three open reading frames (ORF1, 2, and 3) of 399, 327, and 777 bp, respectively. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences of these ORFs with translated sequences from GenBank showed that the putative proteins corresponding to these ORFs had substantial sequence similarities to known SEs: ORF1 exhibited homology to the N-terminal region of SEB; ORF2 to the C-terminal region of SEC; and ORF3 to SEA (Table IIGo). The PCR "walking" strategy was chosen to identify the seg and sei flanking regions. The use of primers wsei and hindIII on HindIII digests allowed us to amplify and sequence the 3.2 kb of DNA upstream of sei. Analysis of this sequence showed two significant ORFs (ORF4 and ORF5) of 783 and 720 bp, respectively. ORF4 exhibited homology with SEJ, and ORF5 with SEI (Table IIGo). The use of primers wseg and hpaI on HpaI digests amplified a 0.8-kb fragment downstream of seg. Sequence analysis of this fragment revealed no other significant ORFs. The concatenated sequence of seg-sei-intergenic, -upstream and -downstream regions was validated by sequencing a 6.189-kb PCR fragment encompassing the whole region (Fig. 1Go). Although sei in strain A900322 was 100% homologous with the sequence deposited in GenBank (accession number AF064774), seg in strain A900322 showed one mutation, corresponding to a Leu->Pro substitution at position 29. This new variant was designated SEGL29P.


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Table II. Percentage of amino acid sequence identity among the staphylococcal superantigenic toxins1

 


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FIGURE 1. Complete egc nucleotide sequence. The deduced amino acid sequence of each ORF, with its putative signal peptide (underlined) and its stop codon (asterix), is indicated below. The putative SD sequence (underlined), the proposed -10 and -35 consensus sequences (bold characters), and the inverted repeats representing the putative transcription terminator (horizontal arrows) are also indicated. These sequence data are available from GenBank under accession number AF285760.

 
As ORFs 1–5 were homologous but not identical with any known enterotoxins, we speculated that they corresponded to new enterotoxins. However, ORF1 and 2 were at least 50% shorter than any of the known enterotoxins. ORF-1 possesses a satisfactory Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequence (TGGAGT-N7-AUG, consensus AGGAGG-N6/10-AUG) but, in comparison with SEB, to which it is highly related, shows a large deletion of its 3' end, which corresponds to a region that is essential for biological (superantigenic) activity (17). ORF2 has neither an SD sequence nor a signal peptide, and resembles an N-terminal-truncated SEC. Accordingly, ORF1 and 2 were designated {psi} ent1 and 2, respectively, meaning they represent pseudogenes with no likely biological function. In contrast, ORFs 3, 4, and 5 had sizes consistent with active enterotoxin-like molecules. ORF5 possesses a satisfactory SD sequence and translation start site, whereas ORF3 and ORF4 have an adequate SD sequence in front of a noncanonical, although suitable (18), translation start site (ATT) coding thethionine (Fig. 1Go). Thus, ORF3, ORF4, and ORF5 were designated sek, sel, and sem, respectively. Thus, the 6301-bp DNA region identified in this study contains seg and sei plus three potential enterotoxin genes (sek, sel, and sem) and two pseudogenes ({Psi}ent1, {Psi}ent2), all in the same orientation (Fig. 1Go). We designated this region egc for "enterotoxin gene cluster." With the exception of plasmid pIB485, which contains sed and sej in opposite orientations separated by 895 nucleotides, and the staphylococcal pathogenicity island, which contains tst and ent separated by 10.234 kb (19), no such gene cluster organization has ever been described for enterotoxin genes. It is likely that this organization was generated through gene duplication and variation from an ancestral gene. The proposed molecular mechanism involved in egc formation is unequal crossing-over, which can be generated when recombination occurs between nonallelic regions by misalignment (20). This hypothesis is supported by the presence of homologous genes and pseudogenes in the same DNA region.

Transcriptional analysis

As mentioned above, Munson et al. (4) reported an unusually large (6.7-kb) seg transcript. To investigate whether this transcript was polycistronic, i.e., encoded one or more of the ORFs identified in egc, c-DNA was generated from strain A900322 total RNA by reverse transcription and amplified by PCR using primer pairs located within each gene and bracketing adjacent genes. Abundant RT-PCR products (B to K) of the expected size were obtained using the corresponding primer pairs (Fig. 2Go). In contrast, no RT-PCR product A (primer 5', sel3) nor L (primer invseg2 and primer 3') was obtained (Fig. 2Go). These results suggest that the seven genes and pseudogenes composing egc are cotranscribed, and that the 5' and 3' ends of the transcript must be close to the beginning of sel and to the end of seg, respectively. Sequence analysis revealed putative -10 and -35 promotor sequences (TTGTCT-N15-TAATTT-N134-ATT) upstream of the sel start codon. The 3' end may lie at an inverted repeat at position 6018–6067, which is a potential transcription termination signal, 5830 nucleotides downstream of the putative transcription start site. These results suggest that egc is an operon. However, we could not rule out the coexistence of alternative transcription start sites and/or termination sites resulting in partial egc transcription. The size of the egc transcript was slightly shorter than that previously estimated by means of Northern blot analysis (6.7 kb) by Munson et al. This discrepancy is most probably due to technical reasons, as Northern blot analysis permits only a rough estimate of RNA size.



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FIGURE 2. Analysis of egc transcripts by RT-PCR. cDNA was prepared from S. aureus A900322 total RNA and subjected to PCR using the primer pairs A to K (schematically represented in the upper part of the figure, and described in Materials and Methods). A–K, Correspond to the results obtained using the corresponding primer pairs. Lane 1, Molecular size marker; lane 2, RT-PCR negative control (RT-PCR with heat-inactivated reverse transcriptase); lane 3, RT-PCR from extract of A900322; lane 4, PCR positive control (A900322 DNA as template).

 
Superantigen activity

The association of related genes that are cotranscribed suggested that the resulting peptides might have complementary effects on the host’s immune response. One hypothesis was that gene recombination had created new variants of toxins differing by their superantigen profiles. Purified recombinant SEL, SEM, SEI, SEK, and SEGL29P expressed in E. coli were studied for their ability to induce selective expansion of T cells bearing particular TCR V{beta} regions in short-term PBL culture. As shown in Tables IIIGo and IVGo, recombinant SEL SEM, SEI, and SEK consistently induced selective expansion of distinct sets of V{beta} subpopulations. By contrast, SEGL29P failed to trigger expansion of any of the 23 V{beta} subsets. The sum of results obtained with each of these recombinant toxins globally corresponded to the selective expansion of V{beta} subpopulations induced by crude supernatant of staphylococcal culture of strains that harbored egc (data not shown). This suggested that the maltose-binding protein portion of the fusion toxins did not significantly influence the V{beta} specificity of these superantigens. To investigate whether the L29P mutation could explain the lack of superantigen activity, a rSEG with an L29 codon was constructed from S. aureus strain MJB1316 (which contains the cloned seg on a plasmid) and then expressed in E. coli, and the superantigen activity of this toxin was tested. SEGL29.induced selective expansion of V{beta}14 and, to a lesser extent, V{beta}13.6,0T cells (Table IIIGo). The L29P mutation thus accounts for the complete loss of superantigen activity. Computer modeling of the two-dimensional structure (21) of the wild-type and mutated proteins revealed no major conformational differences between the two proteins (not shown). It is likely that L29 is located at a position crucial for proper superantigen/MHC II interaction. In addition to the selective expansion of TCR V{beta} subsets observed with the different toxins, flow cytometry revealed preferential expansion of CD4 T cells in SEI and SEM cultures (Table IIIGo). By contrast, the CD4/CD8 ratios in SEK-, SEL-, and SEG-stimulated T cell lines were close to those in fresh PBL. This phenomenon, which was observed with cells from several donors, may reflect a variable contribution of the CD4 coreceptor to the T cell activation process, depending on the affinity of the TCR for the superantigen/MHC complex (22, 23).


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Table III. Flow cytometry analysis of PBL from donor A and B, cultured for 12 days with 10 µg/ml of SEI or SEK1

 

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Table IV. Flow cytometry analysis of PBL from donor C and D, cultured for 12 days with 10 µg/ml of SEG, SEI, SEL, or SEM1

 
To document the TCR V{beta} composition of superantigen-stimulated T cell lines and the clonal diversity of the expanded TCR V{beta} subsets, the size distribution of PCR-amplified TCR {beta}-chain junctional products was studied using the Immunoscope technique (14, 15, 16). Results of this molecular analysis were in good overall agreement with those obtained by flow cytometry, as similar dominant TCR V{beta} subsets were identified with the two approaches (Fig. 3Go, Tables IIIGo and IVGo, and data not shown for rSEK). Slight discrepancies observed in some instances may have been due to selective expansion of particular members of a given V{beta} subfamily not recognized by available mAb (e.g., V{beta}6 or V{beta}13), and to the fact that TCR V{beta} frequencies were estimated with a semiquantitative PCR technique, which might have led to slight over- or underestimation of particular V{beta} subsets. Additionally, Immunoscope analysis showed that the complementarity-determining region 3 size distribution of TCR {beta}-chain junctional transcripts within expanded V{beta} subsets was pseudogaussian in all superantigen-stimulated cultures, reflecting a high level of polyclonality (data not shown). This was further confirmed by sequence analysis of TCR {beta} junctional transcripts derived from some expanded TCR V{beta} subsets (e.g., V{beta}5+ cells in SEL and SEI cultures) (not shown). Taken together, these TCR repertoire studies confirmed the superantigenic nature of the new toxins identified in this study.



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FIGURE 3. Analysis of the TCR V{beta} repertoire of superantigen-stimulated cultured PBL by semiquantitative immunoscopy. The results shown are those obtained with T cell lines derived from donor D (Table IIIGo). In all cases, junctional transcripts derived from amplified V{beta} segments showed diverse lengths with a pseudogaussian distribution (14 16 ) (data not shown). Similar results were obtained with superantigen-stimulated cells from donor C.

 
Distribution of egc in human S. aureus isolates

We then analyzed the distribution of egc (by PCR amplification encompassing sei to seg) and that of all known enterotoxins (by selective PCR (9)) in 230 S. aureus strains isolated in various clinical settings (nasal carriage, suppurative infection, and toxemia). As shown in Table VGo, the majority of the isolates harbored gene(s) encoding superantigenic toxins, whatever the clinical setting. seg-sei (and thus egc) were present in most toxemia strains (59% in TSS, 48% in SSF, and 92% in SSSS), and also in most strains associated with suppurative infections (67%) and nasal carriage (57%). Moreover, egc appeared to be the most frequent superantigens in S. aureus, whatever the clinical setting. The prevalence of egc in strains associated with SSSS, a disease caused by ETs, was significantly higher than that in nasal carriage strains ({chi}2 test, p = 0.03) (Table VGo). This could reflect the clonal origin of the strains associated with SSSS, as previously suggested by phage typing, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and amplified fragment length polymorphism (24 , G. Lina, manuscript in preparation). The strains associated with TSS were significantly more frequently TSST-1 producers than were nasal carriage strains ({chi}2 test, p = 0.04) (Table VGo), whereas no significant difference was observed between the two groups of strains regarding the presence of egc. Thus, the superantigens produced by egc must have a role other than the induction of toxemia. As each toxin encoded by egc was associated with a complementary pattern of V{beta} subset usage, a bacterium that produces such a panel of superantigens theoretically has a marked capacity for stimulating polyclonal T cell proliferation and thus for inducing several deleterious effects, including immune anergy by T cell suppressor activity, B cell depletion, and inhibition of Ab responses (6, 7, 8). We speculate that the apparent redundancy of these superantigens confers a selective advantage toward colonization and/or invasion of human and not only for toxemia.


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Table V. Toxin production by 160 S. aureus strains associated with various clinical syndromes

 
Phylogenic analysis of enterotoxin genes

The high prevalence of egc among staphylococcal isolates raises the possibility that this locus acts as a reservoir of enterotoxin genes. Phylogenic analysis was conducted, including all known enterotoxins and enterotoxin-like toxins in S. aureus. Phylogenetic trees, constructed from the nucleic acid sequences of these genes and from the amino acid sequences of the corresponding toxins by using the neighbor-joining method, were superimposable. The position of {Psi}ent1 and its products was unstable, as reflected by the low bootstrap value at the node from which they branched (52.5% and 62%, respectively). As the Phylip package was not able to confidently branch {psi} ent2, this gene is not presented in the tree. All other nodes were well supported (>70% bootstrap values) (Fig. 4Go). We identified three monophyletic groups within the tree: one composed of sea, see, sej, sed, sek, sel, and seh; another including seb, sec, {psi} ent2, seg, and probably {psi} ent1; and a third including sei, sem, and ent (a putative enterotoxin identified in the staphylococcal pathogenicity island (19)). Each of these clusters contained one or more genes encoded in egc. Remarkably, each of the predicted egc products showed the strongest homology with one of the known enterotoxins encoded outside egc on monocistronic loci. This phylogenic organization could be interpreted as suggesting that gene ancestors of enterotoxin genes encoded outside egc derive from egc. Thus, egc would appear to be an enterotoxin gene nursery. The mechanism by which gene diversity has been generated in egc and then exported on the mode of a single gene to other regions of the chromosome remains to be elucidated.



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FIGURE 4. Reconstruction of phylogenic tree of SE genes (A) and toxins (B). The nucleic, and peptidic, sequences of all SE-related genes and toxins were obtained from GenBank. They were aligned using the multisequence alignment program ClustalX. Phylogenic relationships were inferred using the Phylip software package. The evolutionary distances were determined by the method of Kimura, and these values were used to construct a dendrogram by means of the neighbor-joining method. As the Phylip package was not able to confidently branch {psi}ent2, this gene is not presented in the tree. The numbers at the nodes are the proportion of 1000 bootstrap resamplings that support the topology shown. Only bootstrap values >70% are indicated. Genes belonging to egc and toxins encoded by egc are indicated by an asterisk. Monophyletic groups of genes and toxins are circled.

 
In conclusion, we have identified an enterotoxin gene cluster in S. aureus, which was probably generated from an ancestral gene through gene duplication and variation. This cluster is an operon, encoding SEG, SEI, and three new enterotoxins designated SEL, SEM, and SEK. All these toxins exhibit superantigenic properties associated with specific V{beta} subsets. The wide distribution of egc in clinical isolates suggests that it is beneficial for S. aureus. Finally, phylogenetic analysis of all known enterotoxins indicates that they all potentially derived from this cluster, inferring that egc is in an enterotoxin gene nursery.

Note added in proof. While the present article was under review, Williams et al. 25 reported the discovery of a novel genetic locus within S. aureus that encodes a cluster of at least five exotoxin-like proteins designated the staphylococcal exotoxin-like genes 1 to 5 (set1 to set5). Comparison of the nucleotide sequences of set1-5 with that of egc revealed that the two clusters are distinct.


    Acknowledgments
 
We thank Gregoire Cozon (Unité d’Immunologie, Hôpital de la Croix-Rousse, Lyon, France), Patrick Blanco (Baylor Institute, Dallas, Texas), and Mohamed Hamidou (Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital, Nantes, France) for preliminary characterization of staphylococcal superantigens; Philippe Kourilsky (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 277, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France) for scientific advises; and Nicole Viollant, Christine Courtier, and Christine Gardon for technical assistance.


    Footnotes
 
1 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Gerard Lina, Centre Nationale des Toxémies à Staphylococques, EA1655, Faculté de Médecine Laennec, Rue G Parradin, 69372 Lyon Cedex 08, France. Back

2 Abbreviations used in this paper: SE, staphylococcal enterotoxin; ET, exfoliative toxin; ORF, open reading frame; SD, Shine-Dalgarno; SSF, staphylococcal scarlet fever; SSSS, scalded skin syndrome; TSS, toxic shock syndrome; TSST, TSS toxin. Back

Received for publication July 26, 2000. Accepted for publication October 4, 2000.


    References
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 References
 

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Prevalence of Genes Encoding Pyrogenic Toxin Superantigens and Exfoliative Toxins among Strains of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Blood and Nasal Specimens
J. Clin. Microbiol., April 1, 2003; 41(4): 1434 - 1439.
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Infect. Immun.Home page
T. Proft, P. D. Webb, V. Handley, and J. D. Fraser
Two Novel Superantigens Found in Both Group A and Group C Streptococcus
Infect. Immun., March 1, 2003; 71(3): 1361 - 1369.
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Infect. Immun.Home page
D.-L. Hu, K. Omoe, Y. Shimoda, A. Nakane, and K. Shinagawa
Induction of Emetic Response to Staphylococcal Enterotoxins in the House Musk Shrew (Suncus murinus)
Infect. Immun., January 1, 2003; 71(1): 567 - 570.
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J Med MicrobiolHome page
P.C. L. MOORE and J.A. LINDSAY
Molecular characterisation of the dominant UK methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains, EMRSA-15 and EMRSA-16
J. Med. Microbiol., June 1, 2002; 51(6): 516 - 521.
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Infect. Immun.Home page
J. W. Shupp, M. Jett, and C. H. Pontzer
Identification of a Transcytosis Epitope on Staphylococcal Enterotoxins
Infect. Immun., April 1, 2002; 70(4): 2178 - 2186.
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J. Clin. Microbiol.Home page
K. Omoe, M. Ishikawa, Y. Shimoda, D.-L. Hu, S. Ueda, and K. Shinagawa
Detection of seg, seh, and sei genes in Staphylococcus aureus Isolates and Determination of the Enterotoxin Productivities of S. aureus Isolates Harboring seg, seh, or sei Genes
J. Clin. Microbiol., March 1, 2002; 40(3): 857 - 862.
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Infect. Immun.Home page
S. Jarraud, C. Mougel, J. Thioulouse, G. Lina, H. Meugnier, F. Forey, X. Nesme, J. Etienne, and F. Vandenesch
Relationships between Staphylococcus aureus Genetic Background, Virulence Factors, agr Groups (Alleles), and Human Disease
Infect. Immun., February 1, 2002; 70(2): 631 - 641.
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Appl. Environ. Microbiol.Home page
K. Becker, B. Keller, C. von Eiff, M. Bruck, G. Lubritz, J. Etienne, and G. Peters
Enterotoxigenic Potential of Staphylococcus intermedius
Appl. Envir. Microbiol., December 1, 2001; 67(12): 5551 - 5557.
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J. Clin. Microbiol.Home page
A. Gravet, P. Couppie, O. Meunier, E. Clyti, B. Moreau, R. Pradinaud, H. Monteil, and G. Prevost
Staphylococcus aureus Isolated in Cases of Impetigo Produces Both Epidermolysin A or B and LukE-LukD in 78% of 131 Retrospective and Prospective Cases
J. Clin. Microbiol., December 1, 2001; 39(12): 4349 - 4356.
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Infect. Immun.Home page
S.-U. Lee, W. Ferens, W. C. Davis, M. J. Hamilton, Y.-H. Park, L. K. Fox, J. Naessens, and G. A. Bohach
Identity of Activation Molecule 3 on Superantigen-Stimulated Bovine Cells Is CD26
Infect. Immun., November 1, 2001; 69(11): 7190 - 7193.
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J. Clin. Microbiol.Home page
P. C. L. Moore and J. A. Lindsay
Genetic Variation among Hospital Isolates of Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus: Evidence for Horizontal Transfer of Virulence Genes
J. Clin. Microbiol., August 1, 2001; 39(8): 2760 - 2767.
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Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
J. R. Fitzgerald, D. E. Sturdevant, S. M. Mackie, S. R. Gill, and J. M. Musser
Evolutionary genomics of Staphylococcus aureus: Insights into the origin of methicillin-resistant strains and the toxic shock syndrome epidemic
PNAS, July 5, 2001; (2001) 161098098.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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J. Immunol.Home page
Correction
J. Immunol., March 15, 2001; 166(6): 4260 - 4260.
[Full Text] [PDF]


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Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
J. R. Fitzgerald, D. E. Sturdevant, S. M. Mackie, S. R. Gill, and J. M. Musser
Evolutionary genomics of Staphylococcus aureus: Insights into the origin of methicillin-resistant strains and the toxic shock syndrome epidemic
PNAS, July 17, 2001; 98(15): 8821 - 8826.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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