The arginine deiminase system facilitates environmental adaptability of Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus through pH adjustment.

The arginine deiminase system (ADS) is a secondary metabolic system found in many different bacterial pathogens and it is often associated with virulence. Here, a systematic study of ADS functions in Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus (SEZ) was performed. Transcriptional levels of ADS operon genes were observed to be significantly increased when SEZ was grown under acidic conditions. We constructed arcA and arcD deletion mutants (SEZ ΔarcA and SEZ ΔarcD, respectively) and found that SEZ ΔarcA was unable to metabolize arginine and synthesize ammonia; however, arcD deletion resulted in an initial decrease in arginine consumption and ammonia production, followed by recovery to the levels of wild-type SEZ after 24 h of cultivation. Cell extracts of SEZ ΔarcA showed no arginine deiminase (AD) activity, whereas no difference in AD activity between SEZ ΔarcD and wild-type SEZ was observed. SEZ survival tests demonstrated a significant decrease in survival for SEZ ΔarcA, when compared with wild-type SEZ, under acidic conditions and in epithelial cells. These findings indicate that ADS in SEZ contributes to environmental adaptability via ammonia synthesis to reduce pH stress.