Loss of the lac operon contributes to Salmonella invasion of epithelial cells through derepression of flagellar synthesis.

Salmonella, a genus that is closely related to Escherichia coli, includes many pathogens of humans and other animals. A notable feature that distinguishes Salmonella from E. coli is lactose negativity, because the lac operon is lost in most Salmonella genomes. Here, we expressed the lac operon in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and compared the virulence of the Lac(+) strain to that of the wild-type strain in a murine model, invasion assays, and macrophage replication assays. We showed that the Lac(+) strain is attenuated in vivo and the attenuation of virulence is caused by its defect in epithelial cell invasion. However, the invasion-defective phenotype is unrelated to lactose utilization. Through sequencing and the comparison of the transcriptome profile between the Lac(+) and wild-type strains during invasion, we found that most flagellar genes were markedly downregulated in the Lac(+) strain, while other genes associated with invasion, such as the majority of genes encoded in Salmonella pathogenicity island 1, were not differentially expressed. Moreover, we discovered that lacA is the major repressor of flagellar gene expression in the lac operon. In conclusion, these data demonstrate that the lac operon decreases Salmonella invasion of epithelial cells through repression of flagellar biosynthesis. As the ability to invade epithelial cells is a critical virulence determinant of Salmonella, our results provide important evidence that the loss of the lac operon contributes to the evolution of Salmonella pathogenicity.