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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2007, p. 1005-1009, Vol. 73, No. 3
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.02100-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus Growth on Tellurite-Containing Media by Lactobacillus reuteri Is Dependent on CyuC and Thiol Production
Mark S. Turner,*
Raquel Lo, and
Philip M. Giffard
Infectious Diseases Program, Cells and Tissue Domain, Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Received 5 September 2006/
Accepted 18 November 2006

ABSTRACT
Lactobacillus reuteri inhibits
Staphylococcus aureus growth
on Baird-Parker agar. This activity required the presence of
tellurite and was not shared with other lactic acid bacteria
or an
L. reuteri mutant defective in cystine metabolism. Secreted
products generated from
L. reuteri cystine metabolism and thiols
were shown to augment tellurite toxicity.

INTRODUCTION
Tellurite (TeO
32)-containing Baird-Parker agar (BPA)
is used as a selective and differential medium for the isolation
and enumeration of
Staphylococcus aureus from foods (
2). Tellurite
is also used in media for the selection of pathogens, including
Corynebacterium diphtheriae,
Vibrio cholerae,
Shigella spp.,
and
Escherichia coli O157 (
14). In previous work,
Lactobacillus reuteri BR11 (formerly
Lactobacillus fermentum BR11) was engineered
to express the
S. aureus-killing bacteriocin lysostaphin (
18).
L. reuteri and
S. aureus coculture experiments were performed
to investigate the killing effect of secreted lysostaphin (
18).
In the course of that study, a result was obtained that was
not fully understood. It was found, using the methods described
in reference
18, that when an undiluted aliquot of an overnight
coculture in MRS (buffered with potassium phosphate, pH 7) containing
a non-lysostaphin-expressing
L. reuteri BR11 (9
x 10
8 CFU/ml)
and
S. aureus (9
x 10
8 CFU/ml) was plated onto BPA, no
S. aureus grew. Here we report the investigation of the basis of this
phenomenon.

L. reuteri (BR11 and ATCC 55730) but not other lactic acid bacteria inhibit the growth of S. aureus and Listeria monocytogenes on tellurite-containing media.
The first questions addressed in this study were whether the
L. reuteri-mediated
S. aureus growth inhibition or killing is
occurring in the coculture or on BPA and the extent of dependence
of the phenomenon on the number and species of
Lactobacillus cells. All strains used are shown in Table
1, and all growth
media and growth additives were obtained from Oxoid (Basingstoke,
United Kingdom). Culture conditions were as described previously
(
18) except for
L. reuteri BR11 (Mlp-His
6-CFTR) and
L. reuteri PNG201, which were grown in MRS containing 10 µg/ml erythromycin
at 40°C overnight and then diluted and grown to log phase
at 37°C. Dilution of the
L. reuteri-
S. aureus coculture
by 100-fold or greater resulted in
S. aureus growth on BPA,
indicating that
S. aureus is viable in the coculture (data not
shown). Growth inhibition was found to take place on BPA, since
adding aliquots of separately grown and washed
L. reuteri BR11
and
S. aureus ATCC 49476 resulted in a lack of
S. aureus growth
(Fig.
1). Inhibition of
S. aureus growth on BPA was less effective,
with reduced numbers of
L. reuteri BR11 cells, and did not occur
when
L. reuteri BR11 was replaced with
Lactobacillus plantarum,
Lactococcus lactis,
Lactobacillus delbrueckii, or
Lactobacillus rhamnosus (Fig.
1). Another
L. reuteri strain (ATCC 55730) was
also found to significantly inhibit
S. aureus growth (Fig.
1).
Growth inhibition caused by
L. reuteri BR11 was found to be
entirely dependent upon the presence of tellurite, since omission
of this compound from BPA resulted in a confluent lawn of
S. aureus growth (
L. reuteri BR11 is unable to grow on BPA with
or without tellurite).
L. reuteri BR11 was able to significantly
inhibit
S. aureus growth on other growth media supplemented
with tellurite, including Luria-Bertani agar (containing 0.2
mM tellurite) and brain heart infusion (BHI) agar (containing
0.4 mM tellurite).
L. reuteri BR11 was also found to inhibit
other
S. aureus strains (ATCC 35556 and SS21c) and
L. monocytogenes on tellurite-containing medium (Fig.
2).
Lactic acid bacteria can produce antimicrobial substances, including
bacteriocins, lactic acid, and hydrogen peroxide. It is likely
that the inhibitor is not lactic acid, since inhibition of
S. aureus growth by
L. reuteri BR11 also occurred on BHI agar containing
tellurite that was buffered with 0.2 M potassium phosphate (pH
7).
L. reuteri BR11 produces hydrogen peroxide in the presence
of oxygen but not under anaerobic conditions (
8). However, hydrogen
peroxide is not likely to be the inhibitor, since
S. aureus growth was inhibited by
L. reuteri BR11 in both the presence
and absence of oxygen and on medium containing catalase (500
U/ml; from bovine liver [Sigma-Aldrich]). Therefore, our model
at this point indicated that
L. reuteri secretes a substance
that potentiates tellurite toxicity.

An L. reuteri cystine uptake-deficient mutant does not inhibit S. aureus growth on tellurite-containing media.
In the case of
S. aureus, it is known that cysteine metabolism
is important for tellurite resistance (
12). It has also been
shown that tellurium compounds interact with thiols (
1), and
tellurite decreases the level of reduced thiols in
E. coli and
Pseudomonas spp. (
15,
20). It was hypothesized that
L. reuteri BR11 inhibits the growth of
S. aureus on tellurite-containing
media by modifying the extracellular thiol or disulfide levels.
L. reuteri and close relatives possess a unique operon whose
products are devoted to the uptake and conversion of the disulfide
amino acid cystine (
9). One of the products of this operon is
a very abundant high-affinity cystine binding protein, CyuC,
which is essential for cystine uptake (
9,
17,
19). A mutant
(
L. reuteri PNG201) defective in CyuC expression is unable to
import cystine or generate extracellular thiol from cystine
(
19).
It was found that L. reuteri PNG201 is unable to inhibit S. aureus or L. monocytogenes growth on tellurite-containing medium (Fig. 2). This suggests that the tellurite-mediated S. aureus growth-inhibiting activity of L. reuteri BR11 is either due to the depletion of cystine in the growth medium or the production of a compound derived from cystine. To test this, we investigated whether cystine potentiates or lessens the S. aureus-inhibitory activity of L. reuteri. L. reuteri cells were washed and resuspended in potassium phosphate magnesium (KPM) buffer (19), and 1.5 ml of a suspension with an optical density (OD) of
1.5 was incubated with 0.4 mM cystine and 21 mM glucose at 37°C for 75 min. Five microliters of this suspension was spotted onto filter paper disks on BPA inoculated with S. aureus (Fig. 3). L. reuteri BR11 cells, but not L. reuteri PNG201 (CyuC mutant) cells, incubated with cystine plus glucose inhibited growth of S. aureus on tellurite-containing medium (Fig. 3). Also, L. reuteri ATCC 55730, L. plantarum, and L. rhamnosus cells that were incubated with cystine and glucose were able to inhibit growth of S. aureus (Fig. 3). L. lactis and L. delbrueckii cells incubated with cystine and glucose had no significant S. aureus-inhibiting activity (Fig. 3). These experiments suggest that products of Lactobacillus cystine metabolism heighten the toxicity of tellurite to S. aureus.

Thiols inhibit the growth of S. aureus and L. monocytogenes in the presence of tellurite.
We hypothesized that cystine-derived thiol(s) heightens the
toxicity of tellurite. To test this, the products secreted by
L. reuteri BR11 (Mlp-His
6-CFTR) and
L. reuteri PNG201 (CyuC
mutant) during incubation with cystine and glucose (as described
above) were obtained following removal of the cells by centrifugation.
Under these conditions, the only difference between the strains
should be the amount of thiols secreted. One hundred microliters
of the supernatant (either filtered or not filtered) was spotted
onto disks on BPA inoculated with
S. aureus (Fig.
4). The products
secreted by
L. reuteri BR11 (Mlp-His
6-CFTR) but not
L. reuteri PNG201 (CyuC mutant) were found to inhibit
S. aureus growth
in the presence of tellurite (Fig.
4). Cystine is a likely substrate
for the
L. reuteri BR11 cystathionine

-lyase (which is encoded
in the same operon as
cyuC [
17]), and the predicted products
of such a reaction would be thiocysteine, pyruvate, and ammonia
(
4). Thiocysteine is unstable and can spontaneously degrade
to form cysteine and elemental sulfur (
7) and can react nonenzymatically
with thiols to generate H
2S. Previously, H
2S was found to be
produced by
L. reuteri BR11 cells when incubated with cystine
and glucose (
8). Here, a significant quantity of cysteine was
found to be secreted by
L. reuteri BR11, but not
L. reuteri PNG201 (CyuC mutant), during incubation with cystine and glucose
(data not shown) as determined using the cysteine-specific acid
ninhydrin assay (
5). Therefore, at least two different thiols
(H
2S and cysteine) are secreted by
L. reuteri BR11 following
incubation with cystine and glucose, and it was concluded that
either or both of these increase the toxicity of tellurite.
Next, we determined if specific thiols can inhibit the growth
of
S. aureus on tellurite-containing medium. Cysteine and dithiothreitol,
but not reduced glutathione, were found to inhibit the growth
of
S. aureus on BHI medium containing 0.4 mM tellurite but did
not inhibit growth on BHI alone (Fig.
5). To quantify thiol
concentrations needed for this inhibitory effect, growth of
S. aureus and
L. monocytogenes in liquid BHI containing 0.4
mM tellurite and various concentrations of cysteine was investigated
(Table
2). Ten microliters of exponential-phase-grown
S. aureus cells (OD at 600 nm [OD
600],

0.01) or
L. monocytogenes (OD
600,

0.8) was inoculated into 5 ml liquid medium, incubated overnight
at 37°C without shaking, and then examined for growth. Concentrations
of cysteine between 1 mM and 0.25 mM prevented growth of both
S. aureus and
L. monocytogenes in the presence of tellurite.
Addition of higher concentrations of cysteine (5 mM and 10 mM)
to BHI containing tellurite caused a rapid reduction of tellurite
to black elemental tellurium.
S. aureus and
L. monocytogenes growth occurred under these high concentrations of cysteine
(Table
2).
View this table:
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TABLE 2. Growth of S. aureus ATCC 49476 and L. monocytogenes in BHI containing 0.4 mM potassium tellurite and various concentrations of supplemented cysteine
|
The results presented here clearly demonstrate that thiols,
including those produced by cystine metabolism of
L. reuteri,
can augment the toxicity of tellurite. This was unexpected,
since it was predicted that thiol-mediated reduction of tellurite
would lead to detoxification. This was the case with higher
thiol levels, which caused the abiotic production of nontoxic
black elemental tellurium. However, in the presence of lower
levels of thiols, little or no abiotic production of tellurium
occurred, and tellurite toxicity was increased. It is possible
that the increase is due to
S. aureus having heightened thiol
levels, which result in an increase in reactive oxygen species
generated during intracellular tellurite reduction. It has recently
been shown that intracellular tellurite reduction causes production
of reactive oxygen species and that this is linked to its mechanism
of toxicity (
15). Selenite toxicity appears to have a similar
basis (
10). Glutathione- and thioredoxin-deficient mutants of
E. coli or
Salmonella are hyper-resistant to selenite, which
suggests that the intracellular interaction of selenite with
thiol results in toxic oxidative by-products (
3,
11). Also,
selenite mutagenicity is the result of an intracellular but
not an extracellular reaction with thiols, possibly due to proximity
with DNA (
11).
The results of the current study have clear implications in the development and application of tellurite-containing selective media for the isolation of pathogens and provide insight into the role of thiols in tellurite detoxification and toxicity.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Graeme Nimmo and Flavia Huygens for
Staphylococcus strains. We also thank Terry Walsh for his helpful comments
during this work.
This research was supported by grants from ARC (grant no. DP0665546) and NHMRC (grant no. 290526).

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Infectious Diseases Program, Cells and Tissue Domain, Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Cnr Blamey Street & Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, Queensland 4059, Australia. Phone: (61-7) 3138-6000. Fax: (61-7) 3864-6030. E-mail:
ms.turner{at}qut.edu.au.

Published ahead of print on 1 December 2006. 

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2007, p. 1005-1009, Vol. 73, No. 3
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.02100-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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