The Salmonella tdc operon encodes enzymes belonging to a metabolic pathway that degrades L-serine and L-threonine. The upregulation of the tdc operon and in-creased virulence of Salmonella grown under oxygen-limiting conditions prompted us to investigate the role of the tdc operon in the pathogenesis of Salmonella Typhi-murium. A Salmonella strain carrying a null mutation in tdcA, which encodes the transcriptional activator of the tdc operon, was impaired in mice infected intraperitoneally with the bacterium. In addition, the Salmonella tdcA mutant showed reduced replication compared with the parental strain in cultured animal cells, although their growth rates were similar in various culture media. To understand the function of TdcA in pathogenesis, we performed two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and found that flagellar and PhoP-regulated proteins were affected by the tdcA mutation. The results of β-galactosidase assays and FACS analysis showed that, among the four PhoP-dependent genes tested, the expression of ssaG, which is located in Sal-monella pathogenicity island 2 (SPI2), was reduced in the tdcA mutant, especially in the intracellular environment of macrophages. Taken together, our data suggest that tdcA plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Sal-monella.

Keywords: Salmonella pathogenicity island 2 (SPI2), ssaG, tdcA, virulence attenuation