Role of narL gene in the pathogenesis of Salmonella Typhimurium

Salmonella Typhimurium (STM) is a facultative anaerobe and one of the causative agents of nontyphoidal salmonellosis (NTS). Its anaerobic metabolism is enabled under the hypoxic environment that is encountered inside macrophages and the gut lumen of the host. In both of these niches, free radicals and oxidative intermediates are released by neutrophils as an inflammatory response. These chemical species further undergo reactions to produce nitrate, which is preferably taken up by STM as an electron acceptor in the absence of oxygen. NarL, the response regulator of the two‐component regulatory system NarX/L, and a transcription factor, gets activated under anaerobic nitrate‐rich conditions and upregulates the nitrate reduction during anaerobic respiration of STM. To understand the role of NarL in the pathogenesis of STM, we generated a narL‐knockout (STM:ΔnarL) as well as a narL‐complemented strain of STM. Anaerobically, the mutant displayed no growth defect but a significant attenuation in the swimming (26%) and swarming (61%) motility, and biofilm‐forming ability (73%) in vitro, while these morphotypes got rescued upon genetic complementation. We also observed a downregulation in the expression of genes associated with nitrate reduction (narG) and biofilm formation (csgA and csgD) in anaerobically grown STM:ΔnarL. As compared with wild STM, narL mutant exhibited a threefold reduction in the intracellular replication in both intestinal epithelial cells (INT‐ 407) and monocyte‐derived macrophages of poultry origin. Further, in vivo competitive assay in the liver and spleen of the murine model showed a competitive index of 0.48 ± 0.58 and 0.403668 ± 0.32, respectively, for STM:ΔnarL.