Expression in Escherichia coli K-12 of the 76,000-dalton iron-regulated outer membrane protein of Shigella flexneri confers sensitivity to cloacin DF13 in the absence of Shigella O antigen.

One of the chromosomal segments associated with virulence in Shigella flexneri encodes the production of aerobactin and the synthesis of an iron-regulated 76-kilodalton outer membrane protein believed to be the ferric-aerobactin receptor. However, S. flexneri expressing this putative aerobactin receptor, which is slightly larger than that encoded by pColV, is insensitive to the killing action of cloacin DF13, a bacteriocin which binds to other aerobactin receptor proteins and kills the cells. In this paper we show that the conjugal transfer of DNA encoding the iron-regulated 76-kilodalton protein from S. flexneri to Escherichia coli K-12 conferred cloacin DF13 sensitivity on the recipients. However, E. coli K-12 which had also inherited genes specifying Shigella O-antigen biosynthesis remained cloacin insensitive. The data suggest that it is unwise to use cloacin DF13 sensitivity alone to screen transconjugants or clinical isolates for the expression of aerobactin receptor proteins.