Isolation and characterization of hypertoxinogenic (htx) mutants of Escherichia coli KL320(pCG86)

The structural genes for heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) are present on plasmid pCG86. Escherichia coli KL320(pCG86), LT was found to be cell associated. LT was present as a soluble protein in sonic lysates of KL320(pCG86). Thirty-one mutants of KL320(pCG86) that produced increased amounts of extracellular LT were isolated. These hypertoxinogenic (htx) mutants were assigned to four phenotypically distinct classes based on the amounts of cell-associated and extracellular LT in early-stationary-phase cultures. Type 1 and type 2 htx mutants produced significantly increased amounts of cell-associated LT. Type 3 and type 4 htx mutants produced normal or decreased amounts of cell-associated LT was similar to that of the wild type. In the mutants of types 1, 3, and 4, the ratios of extracellular to cell-associated LT were higher than that of the wild type and were characteristic for each strain. Cell lysis or leakage of macromolecular cytoplasmic constituents appeared to be significant for release of LT by mutants of types 1, 3, and 4, because supernatants from cultures of these mutants also contained increased amounts of protein and of the cytoplasmic enzyme glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. In all four representative htx mutants, the hypertoxinogenic phenotypes were dependent on chromosomal mutations. The resident pCG86 plasmids were eliminated from the htx mutants of types 2 and 3. After wild-type plasmid pCG86 was introduced into the cured strains by conjugation, their hypertoxinogenic phenotypes were restored. We conclude that chromosomal loci in E. coli KL320 are important in regulating expression of the LT structural genes of plasmid pCG86.