Coaggregation of human oral bacteria is thought to occur by specific interactions between complementary surface molecules on the partner cells (
64). Cell-surface adhesins on one cell type may recognize and bind to complementary receptors on the partner cell type. Most of the interactions are among members of different genera, for example
Streptococcus spp. and
Actinomyces spp., and are termed intergeneric coaggregations. Streptococci also participate in intrageneric coaggregations, which occur among the human oral viridans streptococci, and these coaggregations are galactoside inhibitable (
38). A 100-kDa putative adhesin on the surface of
Streptococcus gordonii DL1 was proposed to mediate specifically these galactoside-inhibitable intrageneric coaggregations, because streptococcal insertional mutants as well as spontaneous coaggregation-defective mutants lost specifically the intrageneric coaggregation capability and lack this protein (
9,
10,
63).
A potential role of lipoteichoic acid (LTA) in coaggregation is the proper presentation of adhesins and receptors on partner cells. LTAs are macroamphiphiles that contain alditolphosphates as integral parts of the hydrophilic chain (
17). Most glycerol LTAs are substituted with
d-alanyl ester residues (
18). Because LTA is polyanionic, it binds Ca
++ ions (
53) and may contribute to the proper environment for coaggregation, which requires divalent cations, especially Ca
++ (
38,
46). Out of a total of 86 strains examined, LTA was found in all viridans streptococci except
Streptococcus mitis and
Streptococcus oralis(
28). Since LTA inhibits the attachment of
S. gordonii to substratum-located glucan polymer, the adhesion is thought to be mediated by LTA (
60). LTA is reported to mediate binding of group A streptococci to fibronectin receptors on pharyngeal epithelial cells (
4), and it inhibits binding of human oral viridans streptococci to fibronectin-coated spheroidal hydroxyapatite beads (
27). LTA is thought to be important in the first of two steps of adhesion to human cells; the second step is postulated to occur by a specific adhesin(s) that determines tissue tropism (
24). LTA exhibits properties of an enterococcal binding substance that is recognized by a mating cell-expressing aggregation substance (
16), and the resulting union of the two cell types is part of the well-studied pheromone-inducible conjugation system in
Enterococcus faecalis (
12,
14).
The
dlt operon involved in the synthesis of the
d-alanyl esters of LTA was discovered in
Lactobacillus rhamnosus (
25,
26,
47) and subsequently identified in
Bacillus subtilis (
21,
50). The operons encode, respectively, four and five genes in these organisms. The first gene,
dltA, encodes the
d-alanine–
d-alanyl carrier protein ligase (Dcl), which catalyzes the
d-alanylation of the
d-alanyl carrier protein (Dcp) encoded by
dltC. Dcp in turn transfers the
d-alanine to a membrane acceptor for the
d-alanylation of LTA. There is a coding sequence overlap between
dltA and -
B and between
dltC and -
D with putative ribosome binding sites preceding
dltA and
dltC (
47). On the basis of the hydropathy profile of the putative DltB, it is hypothesized that DltB is located in the cytoplasmic membrane and displays 12 membrane-spanning domains. DltB is hypothesized to be involved in the efflux of activated
d-alanine to the site of LTA acylation (
47).
The function of the
d-alanine esters has been a point of recent investigation for several genera of gram-positive bacteria. In
Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 7469 they appear to play a role in determining cell shape and cell septation (
48), whereas in
B. subtilis, the absence of
d-alanine esters has no effect on ultrastructure or cell septation but does enhance autolytic and beta-lactam-induced cell lysis (
62).
d-Alanine esters provide limited protection to
B. subtilis JH642 against methicillin but do not protect against phagocytosis and degradation of the bacterium in macrophages (
61). In
Staphylococcus aureus mutant strains defective in formation of
d-alanine esters, the cells exhibited reduced autolysis and enhanced expression of methicillin resistance (
49). Increased resistance to vancomycin in
Enterococcus faecium D366 was accompanied by a doubling of the
d-alanyl ester content of LTA (
22). It was proposed that this event would reduce the ability of autolysins to bind to the heavily
d-alanylated LTA, which may affect a later step in the pathway that triggers autolytic and beta-lactam-induced cell lysis. Insertion of IS S1 into
dltD resulted in
Lactococcus lactis MG1363 becoming UV-sensitive suggesting that cell envelope integrity and the ability to repair DNA are related (
15). The
L. lactis dltD mutant also grew more slowly and formed longer chains than the parent strain. Thus, the
d-alanyl esters of LTA would appear to play a variety of roles in gram-positive organisms.
DISCUSSION
This is the first report of a mutation in the
dltoperon resulting in altered adherence properties. The
dltAmutants, PK3241 and PK3242, of
S. gordonii DL1 specifically lost the ability to participate in intrageneric coaggregations while maintaining intergeneric coaggregations. The concomitant loss of the 100-kDa putative adhesin suggests that this protein binds to
d-alanyl LTA. LTA has been implicated in the adhesion of a number of gram-positive bacteria to a variety of target cells and surfaces (
6,
24,
58). In these examples, the participation of LTA as a direct mediator of adhesion has been postulated. In contrast, the present report describes the function of a putative adhesin which binds to
d-alanyl-LTA and is presented to its partner cell. Thus, the
d-alanyl esters would appear to play a role in determining the binding and presentation of this adhesin.
Some cell surface proteins of
S. gordonii may bind to
d-alanyl LTA in a way analogous to the binding of choline-binding proteins of
S. pneumoniae (
54,
65). Among the family of surface-located choline-binding proteins on
S. pneumoniae is CbpA, a 75-kDa adhesin and virulence determinant. The family of proteins is noncovalently bound to the phosphoryl-choline of the wall teichoic acid. By analogy, the 100-kDa putative adhesin that is lacking in the
S. gordonii DL1 mutants studied here may normally bind to the
d-alanine-substituted LTA. In support of a weakly bound protein is the observation that mild sonication of parent DL1 cells is sufficient to remove the 100-kDa protein and render them unable to participate in galactoside-inhibitable coaggregation with streptococci but still capable of other galactoside-noninhibitable coaggregations with actinomyces (data not shown). In this regard, the
d-alanyl LTA may act as a scaffolding for presenting the bound 100-kDa protein on
S. gordonii surface.
Another important class of protein ligands which bind to LTA are autolysins. These proteins are cell wall hydrolases, e.g. MurNAc
l-ala amidase, which the bacterium must regulate for growth (
11,
29). Gel-permeation chromatography demonstrated the binding of the amidase to LTA (
30). In
B. subtilis, insertional inactivation of the genes in the
dlt operon results in an increased rate of autolysis (
61,
62). The increased negative charge of LTA in the mutants resulting from a decrease in
d-alanylation appeared to increase the amount of autolysin (s) bound. While the mechanism of adhesin binding would appear to be different from that of autolysin binding, the conclusion is made that
d-alanylation of LTA provides a feature for regulating the ability of LTA to bind selected protein ligands.
Interestingly, many
S. gordonii and
S. sanguisstrains in biovars that are positive for LTA (the Lancefield group H antigen [
52]) also are positive for galactoside-sensitive adhesins detected by intrageneric coaggregation (
32,
38). The group H antigen occurs in most strains of
S. gordonii and
S. sanguis and not at all in strains of
S. oralis and
S. mitis(
35). These latter species include strains with GalNAc-containing cell wall polysaccharides, which are the receptors for the galactoside-sensitive adhesins, including the putative 100-kDa adhesin on
S. gordonii DL1 (
32,
38). Significantly, all streptococcal strains that are positive for the group H antigen are negative for GalNAc-containing cell wall polysaccharides and visa versa (
7,
32). These findings implicate an association between the galactoside-sensitive 100-kDa putative adhesin and the group H antigen on the streptococcal cell surface. Moreover, the anti-DL1 polyclonal serum absorbed with spontaneous Cog
− mutant PK1897 and used to detect the 100-kDa putative adhesin in DL1 (see Fig.
6) also identifies a 100-kDa protein in other streptococcal strains that also possess the group H antigen (
9,
63). This absorbed antiserum does not react with
S. oralis strains (
9). The correlation of the reactivity of both anti-adhesin and anti-LTA sera with the same strains strongly supports the association of 100-kDa putative adhesin with LTA.
Previous results with
d-alanine ester-deficient mutants of
L. rhamnosus showed aberrant morphology and defective cell separation (
48). However, these mutants may have resulted from multiple mutations or single mutations with pleiotropic effects. The results with the
S. gordonii mutants show a correlation between
d-alanine ester deficiency resulting from insertional inactivation of
dltA and aberrant cell morphology, slower growth rate, and defective cell separation. Inactivation of the
dltD of
L. lactis also results in a mutant that grows more slowly and forms longer chains than the wild-type strain (
15). In contrast to these results, mutations in
dltA-dltD of
B. subtilis did not result in changes in cellular morphology, cell growth, basic metabolism, and formation of flagella (
61,
62). The only changes correlated with
d-alanine ester deficiency in this organism were an enhanced rate of autolysis and a higher susceptibility to methicillin (
61). Thus, at this time it cannot be concluded that
d-alanine ester deficiency will have the same effect in each gram-positive organism.
A wide range of species exhibited
dltA-reactive fragments in Southern blots (data not shown). Out of 23 strains tested, all but one strain of
S. sanguis and one strain of
S. oraliswere positive for
dltA. The surprising finding was that
S. pneumoniae,
S. oralis, and
S. mitispossess
dltA but do not have
d-alanine esters of LTA. In fact,
S. pneumoniae has the entire
dltoperon (
3). The expression of the
dlt operon may be silent or may occur under environmental conditions that have not been tested in the laboratory.
S. oralis and
S. mitis do not express detectable amounts of glycerol LTA (
28,
35), but
S. oralis can incorporate radiolabelled choline into membrane components, suggesting that it may produce a choline-containing macroamphiphile similar to that of
S. pneumoniae (
31). Alternatively, these three species may use the
dlt operon for
d-alanylation of a different molecule or macroamphiphile than LTA (
8). One possibility has been suggested for the DltA-DltD homologs of
S. mutans (accession no. AF049357 ): mutants in genes encoding these proteins accumulate elevated levels of intracellular polysaccharide in the presence of fructose or sucrose (
55). When grown in continuous culture,
S. mutans Ingbritt produced two to six times as much LTA during growth on fructose compared to glucose, depending on the generation times of the cells (
33). And, the LTA content of strain Ingbritt increased four- to fivefold when the pH of the culture medium was raised from 5.0 to 7.5, irrespective of the carbon source (
33). Thus, environmental factors can greatly influence the amounts of LTA in streptococcal cells. A recent entry into GenBank, accession no. AF051356, reports a potential relationship of defects in the
dlt operon to acid sensitivity in
S. mutans (
59). Taken collectively, the properties of adherence, intracellular polysaccharide accumulation, and acid sensitivity all being affected by mutations in the
dlt operon suggest that the LTA macroamphiphile may act as a supporting matrix or scaffolding for binding of a family of proteins with specific functions for sensing the streptococcal environment.