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Eukaryotic Cell, May 2009, p. 732-737, Vol. 8, No. 5
1535-9778/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/EC.00016-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114,1 Division of Infectious Diseases, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215,2 Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 022143
Received 11 January 2009/ Accepted 18 March 2009
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Recently the interactions between this important fungal pathogen and bacteria were described (11, 12, 18). These studies focus on the interaction between C. albicans and nonfermenting, gram-negative bacteria, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii, whose interactions are likely found in the clinical environment, especially in the respiratory tracts of critically ill patients and on wounds of patients with burn injuries (7, 20). Of interest, these bacteria show antagonistic properties toward C. albicans, with a predilection toward reducing the viability of C. albicans filaments. In order to study these prokaryote-eukaryote interactions, our laboratory developed a polymicrobial infection model system using Caenorhabditis elegans as a substitute host (18). Previously, we showed that C. albicans causes a persistent lethal infection of the C. elegans intestinal tract (6). This leads to overwhelming C. albicans intestinal proliferation with subsequent filamentation through the worm cuticle (6). Given these characteristics, we decided to use this model to study the interaction of C. albicans with another intestinal pathogen, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium.
S. Typhimurium is a gram-negative organism that belongs to the Enterobacteriaceae family. It is a gastrointestinal tract pathogen of humans, being responsible for approximately 2 million to 4 million cases of enterocolitis each year in the United States (4, 8, 21, 23). During infection, S. Typhimurium competes with normal intestinal flora (23). Its virulence pathways are well described, and it has been shown to cause a persistent and lethal gut infection of the nematode C. elegans, similar to infection seen with C. albicans (1, 14). Given this and the fact that C. albicans is a common inhabitant of the human gastrointestinal tract, we used the C. elegans polymicrobial infection model (18) to study the interactions between S. Typhimurium and C. albicans. Understanding the interactions between these diverse organisms within the complex milieu of an intestinal tract may provide important pathogenic and therapeutic insights.
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C. elegans coinfection assay for Filamentation.
The methodology for this assay was as described previously (18). In brief, C. elegans glp-4;sek-1 nematodes were propagated on E. coli strain OP50 using established procedures. Synchronized, young adult nematodes were preinfected for 4 h on lawns of C. albicans and were then transferred, after washing in M9 medium, into wells of a six-well microtiter dish (Corning) (
70 to 80 nematodes per well). Each well contained 2 ml of standard liquid medium containing 80% M9 medium and 20% brain heart infusion. Just prior to transferral of the C. albicans-preinfected worms, S. Typhimurium was inoculated into the liquid media at various cell densities. The plates were then incubated at 25°C and examined at 24-h intervals for 5 days for the formation of penetrative filamentation using a Nikon SMZ645 dissecting microscope (TCS NT; Leica Microsystems). Penetrative filamentation was defined as any breach in the worm cuticle by filamentous cells as seen at magnification x50. All experiments were repeated at least three times. Differences in worm filamentation on day 5 were compared by the Student t test. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Qualitative assessment of C. albicans filamentation in C. elegans was performed using confocal laser microscopy (TCS NT; Leica Microsystems).
In vitro coinfection assay under planktonic conditions. In vitro coculture assays were performed in 2 ml of LB broth and were incubated in a roller drum at 30°C or 37°C, as appropriate. A starting inoculum of 106 CFU/ml of S. Typhimurium strain SL1344 and 5 x 105 CFU/ml of C. albicans was used for all experiments. YPD agar plates containing kanamycin (45 µg/ml), ampicillin (100 µg/ml), and streptomycin (100 µg/ml) and LB agar plates containing fluconazole (32 µg/ml) were used to select for C. albicans strains and S. Typhimurium, respectively. YPD and LB agar plates were incubated for 48 h at 30°C and 24 h at 37°C, respectively, before colonies were counted. Results were obtained from three independent experiments.
The viability of C. albicans when cocultured with S. Typhimurium was further assessed by using the Live/Dead staining system (Molecular Probes) according to the manufacturer's protocol.
Silicone pad biofilm assay. The effect of S. Typhimurium on C. albicans biofilm growth was evaluated using a polymicrobial silicone pad assay as described previously (18). Spider medium (10 g of nutrient broth, 10 g of mannitol, and 2 g of K2HPO4 in 1 liter) (15) was used as the medium for C. albicans biofilm development. The quantitative biofilm mass was calculated by subtracting the original weight of the silicone pad from its postincubation (60-h) weight and adjusting for the weight of a control pad exposed to no cells. All experiments were performed at least twice in triplicate. Differences in weight were determined by Student's t test, and a P value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Confocal laser microscopy was performed on mature biofilms.
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FIG. 1. S. Typhimurium (ST) inhibits C. albicans (CA) filamentation in the C. elegans coinfection model. (A) The degree of inhibition of C. albicans filamentation was dependent on the initial inoculum of S. Typhimurium in the liquid medium of the assay. (B) S. Typhimurium supernatant taken from stationary-phase growth (16 h of growth) (SUP stat.) caused a significant inhibition of C. albicans filamentation in the C. elegans model, whereas that taken from exponential-phase growth (4 h of growth) (SUP exp.) did not. All images were taken at 24 h. Column bars represent the means, and error bars represent the standard deviations. Confocal microscopy showed the marked phenotypic differences between C. elegans infection with C. albicans alone (C) and infection with C. albicans and S. Typhimurium (D). (E) By using a green fluorescent protein-linked S. Typhimurium strain (SL1344-GFP), we observed not only bacteria and fungal cells within the gut of the worm (white arrow) but also bacteria associating with sparse filaments that had protruded through the worm cuticle (black arrow). Asterisks denote comparison of percentage filamentation with that for C. albicans strain DAY185 alone: ***, P 0.001; **, P 0.01; *, P 0.05 (two-tailed t test). Scale bar: 50 µm (C), 38 µm (D), or 18.6 µm (E).
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These data suggest that S. Typhimurium has an antagonistic interaction with C. albicans and that a bacterial secretory factor plays a significant role in this process. Given the growth-dependent antifungal activity of S. Typhimurium culture filtrate on C. albicans, one may hypothesize that a quorum-sensing molecule may be responsible. However, secretion of a quorum-sensing molecule by S. Typhimurium has not been described thus far (2). Despite this, S. Typhimurium has been shown to have a quorum sensor encoded by sdiA, which responds to quorum-sensing molecules produced by other bacteria and can influence S. Typhimurium virulence (2, 3). We tested the effect of the S. Typhimurium sdiA mutant and found that this mutant caused the same degree of inhibition of C. albicans filamentation in C. elegans as its parent strain, 14028 (data not shown). Thus, the observed antifungal activity of S. Typhimurium supernatant is likely due to a different type of growth-dependent secretory molecule.
S. Typhimurium reduces the viability of C. albicans in vitro. To further define the observed interaction between C. albicans and S. Typhimurium, we performed in vitro coinfection cultures under planktonic conditions. First, we coinfected the C. albicans reference strain DAY185 with the wild-type S. Typhimurium strain SL1344 in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium at temperatures closer to that used in the C. elegans model (30°C). As shown in Fig. 2A, after initial growth of C. albicans, the viability of the fungus declined in the presence of S. Typhimurium. Interestingly, when the coinfection culture was incubated at temperatures more consistent with those of the human body (37°C), the killing of C. albicans by S. Typhimurium was significantly more rapid, with undetectable levels by 48 h (Fig. 2A). Of note, the growth of C. albicans and that of S. Typhimurium when cultured alone were similar when incubated at 30°C and 37°C (data not shown).
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FIG. 2. S. Typhimurium (ST) reduces the viability of C. albicans (CA) in an in vitro environment. (A) The viability of the C. albicans DAY185 strain in the presence of S. Typhimurium is significantly lower at 37°C than at 30°C. The C. albicans suv3 mutant, which is in the yeast form at 30°C, was more resistant to killing by S. Typhimurium than the constitutively filamentous C. albicans tup1 mutant strain at 30°C (B). Error bars represent the standard deviations. In panel A, asterisks denote comparison of log CFU/ml of C. albicans DAY185 at 30°C and 37°C. In panel B, asterisks denote comparison of log CFU/ml of the C. albicans suv3 strain to the C. albicans tup1 strain at 30°C: ***, P 0.001; **, P 0.01 (two-tailed t test).
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Interestingly, when we performed confocal microscopy of the in vitro coinfection culture with the reference strain of C. albicans (DAY185) (Fig. 3C) and the C. albicans tup1 mutant (Fig. 3G), we did not see significant cell-cell association as has been shown previously with A. baumannii and P. aeruginosa (11, 18). However, after the coculture was stained at 24 h (incubation at 37°C) with the Live/Dead staining system (Molecular Probes), whereby live cells stain green (SYTO9) and dead cells stain red (propidium iodide), the viability of the filaments was reduced from that of the yeast form (Fig. 3D and H). These data suggest that a secretory molecule may be the predominant mechanism by which S. Typhimurium kills C. albicans.
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FIG. 3. Confocal laser microscopy of in vitro cultures after staining with the Live/Dead staining system, whereby dead cells stain red and live cells stain green. C. albicans strain DAY185 cultured alone (A and B) or in the presence of S. Typhimurium (C and D), showing a nonviable filamentous cell when cocultured with S. Typhimurium (D) despite an absence of pronounced cell-cell association. (E and F) The constitutively filamentous C. albicans tup1 mutant cultured alone (E and F) or in the presence of S. Typhimurium (G and H), showing a similar finding of reduced viability (red stain) when cocultured with S. Typhimurium (H). Images were taken after 24 h of incubation in LB broth at 37°C. Scale bar: 17.65 µm (A and B), 10 µm (C and D), 20 µm (E and F), or 11.7 µm (G and H).
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FIG. 4. S. Typhimurium supernatant (SUP) isolated at 37°C inhibits C. albicans strain DAY185 (CA) in a growth-dependent fashion (A). Inhibition of C. albicans DAY185 (CA) and suv3 mutant growth was not observed until they were exposed to supernatant taken from S. Typhimurium grown to late stationary phase (16 h, optical density at 600 nm [OD600] of 1.7) (A and B, respectively). tup1 mutant growth was inhibited in S. Typhimurium supernatant (SUP) isolated from early stationary phase (12 h, OD600 of 1) (C). When C. albicans strains DAY185 (CA) and suv3 were grown in S. Typhimurium supernatant taken from a 24-h growth (OD600 of 1.9), the density of C. albicans was more than 7 log CFU/ml lower than that with growth in fresh LB medium (A and B). In the same supernatant, there was almost no growth for the tup1 strain (C). All determinations of C. albicans CFU/ml were performed after 24 h of growth at 37°C. Column bars represent the means and error bars represent the standard deviations. Asterisks denote comparison of log CFU/ml with that of C. albicans in LB medium: ***, P 0.001; **, P 0.01 (two-tailed t test).
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FIG. 5. S. Typhimurium (ST) inhibits the development of C. albicans (CA) biofilm on silicone pads. (A) The degree of inhibition of C. albicans (CA) biofilm formation was dependent on the density of S. Typhimurium (ST) inoculated into the biofilm environment. (B) S. Typhimurium supernatant (ST SUP) isolated at 37°C, when taken from a bacterial growth with an optical density (OD) at 600 nm of at least 1.2, led to a significant reduction in C. albicans biofilm mass compared to its development in fresh spider medium. (C and D) Fluorescent images of mature C. albicans biofilms (48 h of growth) when grown in the absence (C) or presence (D) of S. Typhimurium. with use of the Live/Dead staining system, nonviable (red stain) filaments are observed with incubation in the presence of S. Typhimurium. Column bars represent the means, and error bars represent the standard deviations. Asterisks denote comparison of C. albicans biofilm mass (mg) to C. albicans alone (A) or to C. albicans grown in spider medium (B): ***, P 0.001; **, P 0.01 (two-tailed t test). Scale bar: 42.86 µm (C) or 26.72 µm (D).
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We thank Brian Ahmer for the S. Typhimurium sdiA mutant and the parent strain, 14028.
Published ahead of print on 27 March 2009. ![]()
¶ These authors contributed equally to this work. ![]()
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