Flexible Metabolism and Suppression of Latent Enzymes Are Important for Escherichia coli Adaptation to Diverse Environments within the Host.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial metabolism is necessary for adaptation to the host microenvironment. Flexible metabolic pathways allow uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) to harmlessly reside in the human intestinal tract and cause disease upon extraintestinal colonization. E. coli intestinal colonization requires carbohydrates as a carbon source, while UPEC extraintestinal colonization requires gluconeogenesis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. UPEC containing disruptions in two irreversible glycolytic steps involving 6-carbon (6-phosphofructokinase; pfkA) and 3-carbon (pyruvate kinase; pykA) substrates have no fitness defect during urinary tract infection (UTI); however, both reactions are catalyzed by isozymes: 6-phosphofructokinases Pfk1 and Pfk2, encoded by pfkA and pfkB, and pyruvate kinases Pyk II and P

SUBMITTER: Alteri CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6657593 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature