Listeriolysin O is essential for virulence of Listeria monocytogenes: direct evidence obtained by gene complementation.

The role of listeriolysin O in the intracellular multiplication of Listeria monocytogenes and, therefore, its pathogenicity was questioned through a genetic complementation study. A nonhemolytic mutant was generated by inserting a single copy of transposon Tn917 in the bacterial chromosome. This insertion was localized by DNA sequence analysis in hlyA, the gene coding for listeriolysin O. As was another mutant that we previously characterized, this mutant was avirulent in the mouse. It was transformed with a plasmid carrying only hlyA, able to replicate in L. monocytogenes, and stably maintained in vitro and in vivo. The complemented strain displayed a hemolytic phenotype identical to that of the wild-type strain and was fully virulent, therefore attributing a crucial role to listeriolysin O in virulence and excluding the hypothesis of a polar effect of the transposon insertion on genes adjacent to hlyA and possibly involved in virulence.