Transcriptomic analysis of triclosan-susceptible and -tolerant Escherichia coli O157:H19 in response to triclosan exposure

Abstract

Triclosan is an active agent that is commonly found in biocide formulations which are used by the food industry to control microbial contamination. The aim of this study was to use microarray analysis to compare gene expression between a triclosan-susceptible Escherichia coli O157:H19 isolate (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC] 6.25 μg/ml) and its in vitro generated triclosan-tolerant mutant (MIC >8,000 μg/ml). Gene expression profiling was performed on the wild-type and mutant isogenic pairs after 30 min exposure to the parent MIC for triclosan and an untreated control. Microarray analysis was carried out using the Affymetrix GeneChip E. coli Genome 2.0 Array, and differential expression of genes was analyzed using the pumaDE method in Bioconductor R software. Wild-type gene expression was found to be significantly different from the triclosan-tolerant mutant for a large number of genes, even in the absence of triclosan exposure. Significant differences were observed in the expression of a number of pathway genes involved in metabolism, transport, and chemotaxis. In particular, gene expression in the triclosan-tolerant mutant was highly up-regulated for 33 of 38 genes belonging to the flagellar assembly pathway. The presence of extended flagella in the mutant isolate was confirmed visually by transmission electron microscopy, although no significant difference was observed in the motility of the parent and mutant at low levels of triclosan. Data from this study show that at a transcriptomic level, a triclosan-tolerant E. coli O157:H19 mutant is significantly different from the wild-type strain in a number of different pathways, providing an increased understanding of triclosan tolerance.