Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli through Pfs Affects the Tran-Scription of Membrane Proteins to Resist beta-Lactam Antibiotics

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) is a causative agent of colibacillosis, one of the principal causes of morbidity and mortality in poultry worldwide. Nowadays, antibiotics are mainly used to prevent and control poultry colibacillosis, but the situation of drug resistance is serious. 5'-methylthioadenosine/S-adenosylhomocysteine nucleosidase (Pfs) is involved in methylation reactions, polyamine synthesis, vitamin synthesis, and quorum sensing (QS) pathways. In this study, compared with the APEC wild-type strain DE17, the pfs deletion strain DE17 Delta pfs was more susceptible to beta-lactam antibiotics (amoxicillin, ceftazidime, cefuroxime) by drug sensitivity test and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), and the MIC of the DE17 Delta pfs was half that of the DE17. Quorum sensing signal molecule AI-2 is involved in antibiotic resistance. In the case of pfs inactivation, the DE17 Delta pfs cannot synthesize AI-2, so it is necessary to add AI-2 to study whether it affects APEC resistance. When the exogenous AI-2 was added, the MIC of all APEC did not change. Transcriptome sequencing indicated that the transcription levels of a lot of outer membrane protein genes and metabolic genes had changed due to the deletion of pfs. Moreover, the transcription levels of the efflux pump gene to/C and penicillin binding protein (fstl and mrcA) were significantly reduced (p < 0.05), while the transcription levels of the porin protein genes (ompF, ompC, and ompD) were significantly increased (p < 0.05). In addition, it was also found that the outer membrane permeability of the DE17 Delta pfs was significantly increased (p < 0.05). The results indicated that pfs does not affect APEC strain DE17 resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics through AI-2, but pfs affects the sensitivity of APEC to beta-lactam antibiotics by affecting antibiotic-related genes. This study can provide a reference for screening new drug targets.