Two predicted chemoreceptors of Helicobacter pylori promote stomach infection

Helicobacter pylori must be motile or display chemotaxis to be able to fully infect mammals, but it is not known how this chemotaxis is directed. We disrupted two genes encoding predicted chemoreceptors, tlpA and tlpC. H. pylori mutants lacking either of these genes are fully motile and chemotactic in vitro and are as able as the wild type to infect mice when they are the sole infecting strains. In contrast, when mice are coinfected with the H. pylori SS1 tlpA or tlpC mutant and the wild type, we find more wild type than mutant after 2 weeks of colonization. Neither strain has an in vitro growth defect. These results suggest that the tlpA- and tlpC-encoded proteins assist colonization of the stomach environment.