scholarly journals Coxiella burnetii inhibits host immunity by a protein phosphatase adapted from glycolysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. e2110877119
Author(s):  
Yong Zhang ◽  
Jiaqi Fu ◽  
Shuxin Liu ◽  
Lidong Wang ◽  
Jiazhang Qiu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phosphatase Activity ◽  
Coxiella Burnetii ◽  
Protein Phosphatase ◽  
Bacterial Pathogen ◽  
Sugar Metabolism ◽  
Host Immunity ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Functional Screening ◽  
Type Iv ◽  
Fructose 1,6 Bisphosphate

Coxiella burnetii is a bacterial pathogen that replicates within host cells by establishing a membrane-bound niche called the Coxiella-containing vacuole. Biogenesis of this compartment requires effectors of its Dot/Icm type IV secretion system. A large cohort of such effectors has been identified, but the function of most of them remain elusive. Here, by a cell-based functional screening, we identified the effector Cbu0513 (designated as CinF) as an inhibitor of NF-κB signaling. CinF is highly similar to a fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP) aldolase/phosphatase present in diverse bacteria. Further study reveals that unlike its ortholog from Sulfolobus tokodaii, CinF does not exhibit FBP phosphatase activity. Instead, it functions as a protein phosphatase that specifically dephosphorylates and stabilizes IκBα. The IκBα phosphatase activity is essential for the role of CinF in C. burnetii virulence. Our results establish that C. burnetii utilizes a protein adapted from sugar metabolism to subvert host immunity.

scholarly journals Legionella pneumophila targets autophagosomes and promotes host autophagy during late infection

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca R. Noll ◽  
Colleen M. Pike ◽  
Stephanie S. Lehman ◽  
Chad Williamson ◽  
Ramona Neunuebel
Keyword(s):  
Legionella Pneumophila ◽  
Bacterial Pathogen ◽  
Nutrient Release ◽  
Effector Proteins ◽  
Type Iv Secretion ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Effector Protein ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Type Iv

Autophagy is a fundamental eukaryotic process that mediates clearance of unwanted molecules and facilitates nutrient release. The bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila establishes an intracellular niche within phagocytes by manipulating host cellular processes, such as autophagy. Effector proteins translocated by L. pneumophila's Dot/Icm type IV secretion system have been shown to suppress autophagy. However evidence suggests that overall inhibition of autophagy may be detrimental to the bacterium. As autophagy contributes to cellular homeostasis and nutrient acquisition, L. pneumophila may translocate effectors that promote autophagy for these benefits. Here, we show that effector protein Lpg2411 binds phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate lipids and preferentially binds autophagosomes. Translocated Lpg2411 accumulates late during infection and co-localizes with the autophagy receptor p62 and ubiquitin. Furthermore, autophagy is inhibited to a greater extent in host cells infected with a mutant strain lacking Lpg2411 compared to those infected with wild-type L. pneumophila, indicating that Lpg2411 stimulates autophagy to support the bacterium's intracellular lifestyle.

scholarly journals MptpB, a virulence factor from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, exhibits triple-specificity phosphatase activity

2007 ◽  
Vol 406 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Beresford ◽  
Sumayya Patel ◽  
Jane Armstrong ◽  
Balázs Szöor ◽  
Anthony P. Fordham-Skelton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis ◽  
Substrate Specificity ◽  
Phosphatase Activity ◽  
Virulence Factor ◽  
Protein Phosphatase ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Lipid Phosphatases ◽  
Phosphoinositide Phosphatase ◽  
Dual Specificity Protein Phosphatase

Bacterial pathogens have developed sophisticated mechanisms of evading the immune system to survive in infected host cells. Central to the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the arrest of phagosome maturation, partly through interference with PtdIns signalling. The protein phosphatase MptpB is an essential secreted virulence factor in M. tuberculosis. A combination of bioinformatics analysis, enzyme kinetics and substrate-specificity characterization revealed that MptpB exhibits both dual-specificity protein phosphatase activity and, importantly, phosphoinositide phosphatase activity. Mutagenesis of conserved residues in the active site signature indicates a cysteine-based mechanism of dephosphorylation and identifies two new catalytic residues, Asp165, essential in catalysis, and Lys164, apparently involved in substrate specificity. Sequence similarities with mammalian lipid phosphatases and a preference for phosphoinositide substrates suggests a potential novel role of MptpB in PtdIns metabolism in the host and reveals new perspectives for the role of this phosphatase in mycobacteria pathogenicity.

Avoidance of the NLRP3 Inflammasome by the Stealth Pathogen, Coxiella burnetii

2020 ◽  
pp. 030098582098136
Author(s):  
Martha A. Delaney ◽  
Andreas den Hartigh ◽  
Samuel J. Carpentier ◽  
Timothy P. Birkland ◽  
Donald P. Knowles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coxiella Burnetii ◽  
Q Fever ◽  
Bacterial Pathogen ◽  
In Vivo Model ◽  
Caspase 1 ◽  
Type Iv ◽  
Clinical Resistance ◽  
Nlrp3 Inflammasomes

Coxiella burnetii, a highly adapted obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen and the cause of the zoonosis Q fever, is a reemerging public health threat. C. burnetii employs a Type IV secretion system (T4SS) to establish and maintain its intracellular niche and modulate host immune responses including the inhibition of apoptosis. Interactions between C. burnetii and caspase-1-mediated inflammasomes are not fully elucidated. This study confirms that C. burnetii does not activate caspase-1 during infection of mouse macrophages in vitro. C. burnetii–infected cells did not develop NLRP3 and ASC foci indicating its ability to avoid cytosolic detection. C. burnetii is unable to inhibit the pyroptosis and IL-1β secretion that is induced by potent inflammasome stimuli but rather enhances these caspase-1-mediated effects. We found that C. burnetii upregulates pro-IL-1β and robustly primes NLRP3 inflammasomes via TLR2 and MyD88 signaling. As for wildtype C. burnetii, T4SS-deficient mutants primed and potentiated NLRP3 inflammasomes. An in vivo model of pulmonary infection in C57BL/6 mice was developed. Mice deficient in NLRP3 or caspase-1 were like wildtype mice in the development and resolution of splenomegaly due to red pulp hyperplasia, and histologic lesions and macrophage kinetics, but had slightly higher pulmonary bacterial burdens at the greatest measured time point. Together these findings indicate that C. burnetii primes but avoids cytosolic detection by NLRP3 inflammasomes, which are not required for the clinical resistance of C57BL/6 mice. Determining mechanisms employed by C. burnetii to avoid cytosolic detection via NLRP3 inflammasomes will be beneficial to the development of preventative and interventional therapies for Q fever.

scholarly journals Two Systems for Targeted Gene Deletion in Coxiella burnetii

2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (13) ◽  
pp. 4580-4589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Beare ◽  
Charles L. Larson ◽  
Stacey D. Gilk ◽  
Robert A. Heinzen
Keyword(s):  
Coxiella Burnetii ◽  
Gene Deletion ◽  
Q Fever ◽  
Shuttle Vector ◽  
Bacterial Pathogen ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Suicide Plasmid ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Targeted Gene Deletion ◽  
Flanking Regions

ABSTRACTCoxiella burnetiiis a ubiquitous zoonotic bacterial pathogen and the cause of human acute Q fever, a disabling influenza-like illness.C. burnetii's former obligate intracellular nature significantly impeded the genetic characterization of putative virulence factors. However, recent host cell-free (axenic) growth of the organism has enabled development of shuttle vector, transposon, and inducible gene expression technologies, with targeted gene inactivation remaining an important challenge. In the present study, we describe two methods for generating targeted gene deletions inC. burnetiithat exploit pUC/ColE1ori-based suicide plasmids encodingsacBfor positive selection of mutants. As proof of concept,C. burnetiidotA anddotB, encoding structural components of the type IVB secretion system (T4BSS), were selected for deletion. The first method exploited Cre-lox-mediated recombination. Two suicide plasmids carrying different antibiotic resistance markers and aloxPsite were integrated into 5′ and 3′ flanking regions ofdotA. Transformation of this strain with a third suicide plasmid encoding Cre recombinase resulted in the deletion ofdotAunder sucrose counterselection. The second method utilized a loop-in/loop-out strategy to deletedotAanddotB.A single suicide plasmid was first integrated into 5′ or 3′ target gene flanking regions. Resolution of the plasmid cointegrant by a second crossover event under sucrose counterselection resulted in gene deletion that was confirmed by PCR and Southern blot. ΔdotAand ΔdotBmutants failed to secrete T4BSS substrates and to productively infect host cells. The repertoire ofC. burnetiigenetic tools now allows ready fulfillment of molecular Koch's postulates for suspected virulence genes.

scholarly journals Legionella pneumophila DotU and IcmF Are Required for Stability of the Dot/Icm Complex

2004 ◽  
Vol 72 (10) ◽  
pp. 5983-5992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica A. Sexton ◽  
Jennifer L. Miller ◽  
Aki Yoneda ◽  
Thomas E. Kehl-Fie ◽  
Joseph P. Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Cell Surface ◽  
Legionella Pneumophila ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Growth Defect ◽  
Intracellular Growth ◽  
Homologous Proteins ◽  
Type Iv ◽  
Cell Surface Structure

ABSTRACT Legionella pneumophila utilizes a type IV secretion system (T4SS) encoded by 26 dot/icm genes to replicate inside host cells and cause disease. In contrast to all other L. pneumophila dot/icm genes, dotU and icmF have homologs in a wide variety of gram-negative bacteria, none of which possess a T4SS. Instead, dotU and icmF orthologs are linked to a locus encoding a conserved cluster of proteins designated IcmF-associated homologous proteins, which has been proposed to constitute a novel cell surface structure. We show here that dotU is partially required for L. pneumophila intracellular growth, similar to the known requirement for icmF. In addition, we show that dotU and icmF are necessary for optimal plasmid transfer and sodium sensitivity, two additional phenotypes associated with a functional Dot/Icm complex. We found that these effects are due to the destabilization of the T4SS at the transition into the stationary phase, the point at which L. pneumophila becomes virulent. Specifically, three Dot proteins (DotH, DotG, and DotF) exhibit decreased stability in a ΔdotU ΔicmF strain. Furthermore, overexpression of just one of these proteins, DotH, is sufficient to suppress the intracellular growth defect of the ΔdotU ΔicmF mutant. This suggests a model where the DotU and IcmF proteins serve to prevent DotH degradation and therefore function to stabilize the L. pneumophila T4SS. Due to their wide distribution among bacterial species and their genetic linkage to known or predicted cell surface structures, we propose that this function in complex stabilization may be broadly conserved.

scholarly journals Functional Genomic Identification of Cadmium Resistance Genes from a High GC Clone Library by Coupling the Sanger and PacBio Sequencing Strategies

Genes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Jinghao Chen ◽  
Chao Xing ◽  
Xin Zheng ◽  
Xiaofang Li
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
Resistance Genes ◽  
Sanger Sequencing ◽  
Genomic Library ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Full Genome Sequence ◽  
Functional Screening ◽  
Functional Genomic ◽  
Pacbio Sequencing

Functional (meta) genomics allows the high-throughput identification of functional genes in a premise-free way. However, it is still difficult to perform Sanger sequencing for high GC DNA templates, which hinders the functional genomic exploration of a high GC genomic library. Here, we developed a procedure to resolve this problem by coupling the Sanger and PacBio sequencing strategies. Identification of cadmium (Cd) resistance genes from a small-insert high GC genomic library was performed to test the procedure. The library was generated from a high GC (75.35%) bacterial genome. Nineteen clones that conferred Cd resistance to Escherichia coli subject to Sanger sequencing directly. The positive clones were in parallel subject to in vivo amplification in host cells, from which recombinant plasmids were extracted and linearized by selected restriction endonucleases. PacBio sequencing was performed to obtain the full-length sequences. As the identities, partial sequences from Sanger sequencing were aligned to the full-length sequences from PacBio sequencing, which led to the identification of seven unique full-length sequences. The unique sequences were further aligned to the full genome sequence of the source strain. Functional screening showed that the identified positive clones were all able to improve Cd resistance of the host cells. The functional genomic procedure developed here couples the Sanger and PacBio sequencing methods and overcomes the difficulties in PCR approaches for high GC DNA. The procedure can be a promising option for the high-throughput sequencing of functional genomic libraries, and realize a cost-effective and time-efficient identification of the positive clones, particularly for high GC genetic materials.

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