An S. marcescens ΔphlAB mutant carrying phlAB regained hemolytic and GW572016 phospholipase activities (Fig. 2A), confirming that PhlAB had both activities. Characterization of recombinant His-PhlA protein To investigate PhlA hemolytic and phospholipase activities, we purified a recombinant His-PhlA protein produced in E. coli (Fig. 2B). Purified His-PhlA had hemolytic activity human blood agar plates, but not on horse or sheep blood agar plates, and phospholipase activity on PCY agar plates (data not shown). These

data indicated that PhlA had hemolytic and phospholipase activities, indicating that PhlB was not required for the PhlA activities. We next studied the specificity of PhlA phospholipase. Phospholipase A (PLA) hydrolyzes the fatty acids of PLs at position PF-3084014 chemical structure sn-1 for phospholipase A1 (PLA1) and sn-2 for phospholipase A2 (PLA2), resulting

in the release of free fatty acids and production of lysophospholipid (LPL). We measured free fatty acids after incubation of PhlA with various PLs [phosphatidylcholine (PC), cardiolipin (CL), L-3-phosphatidylinositol selleckchem (PI), L-α-phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), and sphingomyelin (SPM)]. These experiments showed that PhlA cleaved ester bonds within PC, CL, PI, and PE and released fatty acids in a concentration-dependent manner, but did not hydrolyze SPM in our experimental conditions (Fig. 2C). Previous reports have shown that some bacterial PLA2 enzymes have hemolytic activity [5, 6, 31]. However, there is little information on hemolysis caused by bacterial PLA1 enzymes. To confirm that S. marcescens PhlA had PLA1 activity, we tried to identify the site that is hydrolyzed by PhlA using fluorescent PLs as substrates [31, 32]. As shown in Figure 3A, S.

marcescens PhlA and bovine pancreatic PLA2 released fluorescent fatty acids from bis-BODIPY FLC11-PC, indicating that PhlA had phospholipase A activity (Fig. 3A). PhlA released fluorescent fatty acids from PED-A1 in a concentration-dependent manner whereas control PLA2 did not produce fluorescence (Fig. 3B), indicating that PhlA was able to cleave ester bonds at PL sn-1 sites. Using Phloretin PED-6 as substrate, although fluorescence intensity increased after PhlA treatment, the maximum fluorescence was 6-fold lower than after PLA2 treatment (Fig. 3C). These results are in agreement with the proposal that His-PhlA has PLA1, but not PLA2, activity. Figure 3 PLA1 and PLA2 activities of PhlA. PhlA activity was evaluated in a fluorescence enhancement assay using the following PLA fluorescence substrates: (A) bis-BODIPYFLC11-PC, (B) PED-A1, and (C) PED6. Fluorescence intensity was measured at 485 nm excitation and 530 nm emission using a fluorescence microplate reader (Appliskan; Thermo Electron Corporation). Open circles show His-PhlA; filled circles show PLA2 from bovine pancreas as a control. Values are averages ± SE from three independent experiments.