Polyamine production by natural Escherichia coli strains isolated from various sources

Background. The polyamines putrescine and cadaverine serve as raw materials for the synthesis of polyamides; their production by microbial synthesis is a current issue of biotechnology, the development of which requires a search for effective producers and aminoacyl decarboxylases. In addition, polyamines are considered as factors of bacterial adaptation to the biotopes of the host and are associated with pathogenicity.

The aim. Evaluating the ability of natural strains of Escherichia coli isolated from different sources to produce polyamines.

Materials and methods. The objects of the study were the following strains of E. coli: isolated from the urine of patients with urinary tract infection (UPEC); isolated from the organs of broiler chickens with signs of colisepticemia (APEC); commensal, isolated from the feces of healthy farm animals (FEC) and healthy people (HFEC). Bacteria were cultured under basal (LB broth, 120 rpm, 37°C) and inducing conditions (M9 medium supplemented with 0.4 % glucose and 10 g/l ornithine/arginine/lysine, 0 rpm, 37°C). Quantitative analysis of polyamines was performed by thin-layer chromatography with preliminary derivatization with dansyl chloride.

Results. The activity of the polyamine-synthesizing system of 121 strains of E. coli was studied. The strains that were capable of producing 3.5 mM putrescine from ornithine and 5 mM putrescine from arginine, as well as more than 5.5 mM cadaverine from lysine, which significantly exceeded the production of polyamines by the E. coli K12 strain (0.3,0.03, and 3 mM, respectively) were found. The mean value of putrescine production from ornithine of the APEC and UPEC strains was more than 2-fold higher as compared with HFEC and FEC strains. Under non-inducing conditions, the ability to produce cadaverine in strains isolated from humans (UPEC, HFEC) was 2-3 times lower compared to strains isolated from animals (APEC, FEC).

Conclusion. A dependence of the ability of E. coli to produce polyamines on the source of isolation has been revealed.

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