BioProject

The genetic and phenotypic responses of Streptococcus mutans, an organism known to be strongly associated with the development of dental caries, to changes in carbohydrate availability were investigated. S. mutans UA159 or a derivative of UA159 lacking ManL, which is the EIIAB component (EIIABMan) of a glucose/mannose permease of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS) and a dominant effector of catabolite repression, were grown in continuous culture to steady-state in conditions of excess (100 mM) or limiting (10 mM) glucose. Microarrays using RNA from S. mutans UA159 revealed that 174 genes were differentially expressed in response to changes in carbohydrate availability (P < 0.001). Glucose-limited cells possessed higher PTS activity, could acidify the environment more rapidly and to a greater extent, and produced more ManL protein than cultures grown with excess glucose. Loss of ManL adversely affected carbohydrate transport and acid tolerance. Comp arison of the HPr protein in S. mutans UA159 and the manL deletion strain indicated that the differences in behaviors of the strains were not due to major differences in HPr pools or HPr phosphorylation status. Therefore, carbohydrate availability alone can dramatically influence the expression of physiologic and biochemical pathways that contribute directly to the virulence of S. mutans, and ManL has a profound influence on this behavior. Overall design: A two-condition experiment was performed. Cells of UA159 were grown in continuous culture using TV media supplemented with 10 mM or 100 mM glucose. Three biological replicates were generated per condition, and replicates were independently grown and harvested. One replicate was used per array.