Fibronectin-/fibrinogen-binding protein (FBPS) is not a critical virulence factor for the Streptococcus suis serotype...

Fibronectin-/fibrinogen-binding protein (FBPS) of Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (SS2) is an atypical anchorless microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules (MSCRAMM) for which the role in bacterial infection are not clearly established. To investigate the biological functions of FBPS, an fbps knockout mutant was constructed in SS2 strain ZY05719 to explore the phenotypic changes between the wild-type and mutant strains. Cell morphology analyses combined with the basic growth curves showed that deletion of fbps does not significantly influence neither the thickness of the capsule of SS2 nor the cell growth characteristic. In addition to three previously identified host components fibronectin (FN), factor H (FH) and fibrinogen (FG), we also found that both laminin (LN) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) could bind specifically to FBPS. Furthermore, we confirmed that FBPS play an important role in adherence of SS2 to host cells. The in vitro assays demonstrated that an inactivation of fbps does not inhibit the intracellular survival of SS2 in RAW246.7 macrophages, attenuate the ability of invasion of host cells or the growth ability in pig blood. Additionally, the fbps mutation failed to decrease the virulence of SS2 in both BALB/c mice and zebrafish. Finally, immunization with recombinant FBPS showed no significant difference from the control groups in terms of murine viability after SS2 challenge. Taken together, we concluded that FBPS is not a critical virulence factor for the SS2 strain ZY05719.