The Assembly of Flagella in Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Requires the Presence of a Functional Type III Secretion System.

In enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), the production of flagella and the type III secretion system (T3SS) is activated in the presence of host cultured epithelial cells. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between expression of flagella and the T3SS. Mutants deficient in assembling T3SS basal and translocon components (Δ espA , Δ espB , Δ espD , Δ escC , Δ escN , and Δ escV ), and in secreting effector molecules (Δ sepD and Δ sepL ) were tested for flagella production under several growth conditions. The Δ espA mutant did not produce flagella in any condition tested, although fliC was transcribed. The remaining mutants produced different levels of flagella upon growth in LB or in the presence of cells but were significantly diminished in flagella production after growth in Dulbecco's minimal essential medium. We also investigated the role of virulence and global regulator genes in expression of flagella. The Δ qseB and Δ qseC mutants produced abundant flagella only when growing in LB and in the presence of HeLa cells, indicating that QseB and QseC act as negative regulators of fliC transcription. The Δ grlR , Δ perA , Δ ler , Δ hns , and Δ fis mutants produced low levels of flagella, suggesting these regulators are activators of fliC expression. These data suggest that the presence of an intact T3SS is required for assembly of flagella highlighting the existence in EPEC of a cross-talk between these two virulence-associated T3SSs.