Pyruvate carboxylase and carbon metabolism in 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. RNA from the two strains were isolated after growth in BHI and and compared using whole genome oligonucleotide microarrays