Naturally occurring InlB variants that support intragastric Listeria monocytogenes infection in mice

Listeria monocytogenes is a causative agent of foodborne infection in humans and animals. The virulence factor InlB interacts with mammalian receptor c-Met via its internalin domain to provide L. monocytogenes invasion in non-professional phagocytes. Naturally occurring InlB internalin domain variants form four subclusters on the maximal likelihood tree. Four variants belonging to distinct subclusters were cloned into the vector carrying 3' and 5'-flanking sequences to restore full length inlB and expressed in the L. monocytogenes strain EGDe Delta inlB. The substitutions Val132Ile, Thr117Ala and Ile138Leu, Thr251Met/Ser were specific for variants 13, 14 and 1, respectively, the variant 9 carried Ser73Asn, Ile91Val, Leu164Pro, Met251Ser/Thr substitutions. All InlB variants improved invasion of the parental strain in murine colon carcinoma C26 cells with 4.6-fold difference between the most and least effective variants (variants 14 and 13, respectively, P < 0.05). Bacterial loads in livers of intragastrically infected mice were 258, 149 and 92 times higher for variant 14, 13 and 1 carrying strains, respectively, than for EGDe Delta inlB (P < 0.01). In contrast, the variant 9 did not noticeably improve infection comparatively to the parental strain. Overall, obtained results demonstrated that naturally occurred InlB internalin domain variants differed in their ability to support intragastric infection in mice.