Bioinformatic and Molecular Analysis of Inverse Autotransporters from Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli is one of the most prevalent facultative anaerobes of the human gut. E. coli normally exists as a harmless commensal but can also cause disease following the acquisition of genes that enhance its pathogenicity. Adhesion is an important first step in colonization of the host and is mediated by an array of cell surface components. In E. coli, these include a family of adhesins secreted by the type V secretion system. Here, we identified and characterized new proteins from an emerging subclass of the type V secretion system known as the inverse autotransporters (IATs). We found that IAT-encoding genes are present in a wide range of strains and showed that three novel IATs were localized on the E. coli cell surface and mediated biofilm formation. Overall, this study provides new insight into the prevalence, function, and regulation of IATs in E. coli. ABSTRACT Proteins secreted by the type V secretion system possess multiple functions, including the capacity to mediate adhesion, aggregation, and biolfilm formation. The type V secretion system can be divided into five subclasses, one of which is the type Ve system. Proteins of the type Ve secretion system are also referred to as inverse autotransporters (IATs). In this study, we performed an in silico analysis of 126 completely sequenced Escherichia coli genomes available in the NCBI database and identified several distinct IAT-encoding gene families whose distribution varied throughout the E. coli phylogeny. The genes included three characterized IATs (intimin, fdeC, and yeeJ) and four uncharacterized IATs (here named iatA, iatB, iatC, and iatD). The four iat genes were cloned from the completely sequenced environmental E. coli strain SMS-3-5 and characterized. Three of these IAT proteins (IatB, IatC, and IatD) were expressed at the cell surface and possessed the capacity to mediate biofilm formation in a recombinant E. coli K-12 strain. Further analysis of the iatB gene, which showed a unique association with extraintestinal E. coli strains, suggested that its regulation is controlled by the LeuO global regulator. Overall, this study provides new data describing the prevalence, sequence variation, domain structure, function, and regulation of IATs found in E. coli. IMPORTANCE Escherichia coli is one of the most prevalent facultative anaerobes of the human gut. E. coli normally exists as a harmless commensal but can also cause disease following the acquisition of genes that enhance its pathogenicity. Adhesion is an important first step in colonization of the host and is mediated by an array of cell surface components. In E. coli, these include a family of adhesins secreted by the type V secretion system. Here, we identified and characterized new proteins from an emerging subclass of the type V secretion system known as the inverse autotransporters (IATs). We found that IAT-encoding genes are present in a wide range of strains and showed that three novel IATs were localized on the E. coli cell surface and mediated biofilm formation. Overall, this study provides new insight into the prevalence, function, and regulation of IATs in E. coli.