coli ArgDC mutant in an acid shock assay. selleck Active AaxB was detected in four additional species: Chlamydia caviae, Chlamydia pecorum, Chlamydia psittaci, and Chlamydia muridarum. Of the C. trachomatis

serovars, only E appears to encode active enzyme. To determine when functional enzyme is present during the chlamydial developmental cycle, we utilized an anti-AaxB antibody to detect both uncleaved and cleaved enzyme throughout infection. Uncleaved enzyme production peaked around 20 h postinfection, with optimal cleavage around 44 h. While the role ArgDC plays in Chlamydia survival or virulence is unclear, our data suggest a niche-specific function. Infection with Chlamydia, a genus of Gram-negative obligate intracellular

bacteria, may result in ocular, genital, or pneumonic disease, depending on the route of entry and bacterial species/serovar. While the majority of Chlamydia species are zoonotic, infecting a wide range of mammalian and avian hosts, the Chlamydia trachomatis serovars are human-specific pathogens (Carlson et al., 2005; Rohde et al., 2010). All species undergo a unique biphasic developmental cycle transitioning between the extracellular, infectious elementary body (EB) and the intracellular, replicative form known as the reticulate body (RB; AbdelRahman & Belland, 2005). Arginine decarboxylases www.selleckchem.com/pharmacological_MAPK.html (ArgDCs), which catalyze the conversion of arginine into agmatine, are conserved in bacteria and play dual roles in acid resistance and the metabolism of polyamines such as putrescine (Tabor & Tabor, 1984; Lin et al., 1995). In bacteria such as Yersinia, functional ArgDC is required to produce biofilms, making this enzyme essential for virulence (Patel et al., 2006). Two ArgDC are encoded by Escherichia coli: the acid-inducible adiA and a constitutive speA that functions in polyamine biosynthesis (Stim & Bennett, 1993). In Chlamydia, the only known ArgDC is encoded by aaxB, which resides in an operon between the putative porin aaxA and the characterized arginine–agmatine antiporter, aaxC (Giles & Graham,

2007; Fig. 1a). Although AaxB is Galeterone functionally equivalent to E. coli AdiA, the enzyme itself is actually a member of the pyruvoyl-dependent ArgDC (PvlArgDC) and shares more similarities with ArgDC from organisms such as Methanococcus jannaschii (Graham et al., 2002). The AaxB proteins of Chlamydia pneumoniae and C. trachomatis serovars D and L2 were previously characterized (Giles & Graham, 2007; Giles et al., 2009). All sequenced C. pneumoniae encode a 25 kDa proenzyme, which requires autocleavage between the conserved Thr52Ser53residues to produce 16 kDa α and 9 kDa β subunits. The cleaved subunits are then free to assemble into the active (αβ)3 complex. In contrast, C. trachomatis serovars D and L2 have inactivated AaxB through one of two independent mutations (Giles et al., 2009).