Pyruvate carboxylase and carbon metabolism in Listeria monocytogenes. Listeria monocytogenes

Transcriptional profile of wild type L. monocytogenes (EGDe) and a pycA mutant strain was compared on growth in BHI. The human pathogen L. monocytogenes is a facultatively intracellular bacterium that survives and replicates in the cytosol of many mammalian cells. The listerial metabolism, especially under intracellular conditions , is still poorly understood. Recent studies analyzed the carbon metabolism of L. monocytogenes by the 13C-isotopologue perturbation method in a defined minimal medium containing [U-13C6]glucose. It was shown that these bacteria produce oxaloacetate mainly by carboxylation of pyruvate due to an incomplete tricarboxylic acid cycle. Here we report that a pycA insertion mutant defective in pyruvate carboxylase (PYC) still grows, albeit at a reduced rate, in BHI medium, but is unable to multiply in a defined minimal medium with glucose or glycerol 36 as carbon source. Transcriptional profiling was performed on the pycA mutant and the wild type strain grown in BHI to get a closer insight into the effect of the pycA mutation in Listeria monocytogenes. Overall design: RNA from the two strains were isolated after growth in BHI and and compared using whole genome oligonucleotide microarrays