The Campylobacter jejuni Cj0268c Protein Is Required for Adhesion and Invasion In Vitro
Figure 2
1. wild type strain NCTC 11168, 2. mutant strain NCTC 11168::cj0268c, 3. complemented mutant NCTC 11168::cj0268c-comp-cj0268c. Gentamicin protection assays with the strains under investigation using (a) Caco2 cells and (b) PCC-cells. The assays on Caco2 cells with the parental strain, the knockout mutant and the complemented knockout mutant confirmed the infection-deficient phenotype to be due to the functional loss of cj0268c. Four independent experiments have been carried out, respectively. The standard deviations are indicated. (a) Taking the number of C. jejuni wild type strain NCTC 11168 colonies recovered as 100%, the mean value of cj0268c-mutant colonies (NCTC 11168::cj0268c) accounted for 62% (±2.41), whereas the percentage of obtained colonies from the complemented strain (NCTC 11168::cj0268c-comp-cj0268c) was 93% (±2.04). Since the P-value for the mutant was less than 0.001, the reduced invasion capacity was significant. (b) The relevance of cj0268c for invasion is not restricted to human cells, since it could also be shown for the invasion of PCC-cells. Compared to the invasion capacity of parental strain NCTC 11168 (100%), the percentage of colonies obtained from mutant strain NCTC 11168::cj0268c was only 62% (±2.36, P<0.0007). However, complementation of the mutant strain with cj0268c restored the infectivity of NCTC 11168::cj0268c-comp-cj0268c which was similar to that of the parental strain (96%, ±4.96).