scholarly journals Think zinc: Role of zinc poisoning in the intraphagosomal killing of bacteria by the amoeba Dictyostelium

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Barisch ◽  
Vera Kalinina ◽  
Louise H. Lefrançois ◽  
Joddy Appiah ◽  
Thierry Soldati

AbstractProfessional phagocytes have developed an extensive repertoire of autonomous immunity strategies to ensure killing of bacteria. Besides phagosome acidification and the generation of reactive oxygen species, deprivation of nutrients and the lumenal accumulation of toxic metals are essential to kill ingested bacteria or inhibit growth of intracellular pathogens. We use the soil amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, a professional phagocyte that digests bacteria for nutritional purposes, to decipher the role of zinc poisoning during phagocytosis of non-pathogenic bacteria and visualize the temporal and spatial dynamics of compartmentalized, free zinc using fluorescent probes. Immediately after particle uptake, zinc is delivered to phagosomes by fusion with “zincosomes” of endosomal origin, but also by the action of one or more zinc transporters. We localize the four Dictyostelium ZnT transporters to endosomes, the contractile vacuole and the Golgi apparatus, and study the impact of znt knockouts on zinc homeostasis. Finally, we show that zinc is delivered into the lumen of Mycobacterium smegmatis-containing vacuoles, and that Escherichia coli deficient in the zinc efflux P1B-type ATPase ZntA is killed faster than wild type bacteria.Summary statementMetal poisoning is one of the bactericidal strategies of macrophages. Here, we describe the dynamics of free Zn and the role of Zn transporters during phagocytosis in Dictyostelium.

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-602
Author(s):  
Malik Asif Hussain ◽  
Flavia Huygens

Chronic wounds, particularly infected wounds are clinically very important due to their significant impact on health budgets as well as patients` health worldwide. Patients with diabetes mellitus, vascular diseases especially peripheral vascular disease and pressure ulcers are major categories of patients presenting with chronic wounds. It is known that there are multiple factors determining chronic wound prognosis. The presence of multiple types of pathogenic bacteria, with specific virulence and adherent (biofilm) properties, contribute a significant role to the development of chronic wounds. This review article is based on the research project entitled” An investigation of the impact of bacterial diversity, pathogenic determinants and biofilms on chronic wounds”. The research findings have been published in form of research papers as well as conference posters. The aim of this article is to highlight various important aspects of bacterial impact on wound healing. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.19(4) 2020 p.598-602


2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinyu Wu ◽  
Tonghai Yu ◽  
Qiyu Bao ◽  
Fangqing Zhao

The important role of homologous recombination has been extensively demonstrated to be fundamental for genetic variation in bacterial genomes. In contrast to extracellular or facultative intracellular bacteria, obligate intracellular bacteria are considered to be less prone to recombination, especially for their core genomes. InRickettsia, only antigen-related genes were identified to have experienced homologous recombination. In this study, we employed evolutionary genomic approaches to investigate the impact of recombination on the core genome ofRickettsia. Phylogenetic network and phylogenetic compatibility matrix analyses are clearly consistent with the hypothesis that recombination has occurred frequently duringRickettsiaevolution. 28% ofRickettsiacore genes (194 out of 690) are found to present the evidence of recombination under four independent statistical methods. Further functional classification shows that these recombination events occur across all functional categories, with a significant overrepresentation in the cell wall/membrane/envelope biogenesis, which may provide a molecular basis for the parasite adaptation to host immunity. This evolutionary genomic analysis provides insight into the substantial role of recombination in the evolution of the intracellular pathogenic bacteriaRickettsia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lavinia Iancu ◽  
Iulia Roxana Angelescu ◽  
Victoria Ioana Paun ◽  
Carlos Henríquez-Castillo ◽  
Paris Lavin ◽  
...  

AbstractThe microbial diversity and quantitative dynamics during the insect’s development stages constitute recently developed putative tools in forensic and medical studies. Meanwhile, little is known on the role of insects in spreading foodborne pathogenic bacteria and on the impact of these pathogens on the overall insects and feeding substrate microbiome composition. Here, we provide the first characterization of the bacterial communities harbored in adult and immature stages of Lucilia sericata, one of the first colonizers of decomposed human remains, in the presence of the foodborne pathogen Salmonella enterica using 16S rRNA Illumina sequencing and qPCR. The pathogen transmission from the wild adults to the second generation was observed, with a 101.25× quantitative increase. The microbial patterns from both insect and liver samples were not influenced by the artificial introduction of this pathogenic foodborne bacteria, being dominated by Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Overall, our results provided a first detailed overview of the insect and decomposed substrate microbiome in the presence of a human pathogen, advancing the knowledge on the role of microbes as postmortem interval estimators and the transmission of pathogenic bacteria.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keigo Nishida ◽  
Ryota Uchida

Zinc is essential for maintaining normal structure and physiological function of cells. Its deficiency causes growth retardation, immunodeficiency, and neuronal degeneration. Zinc homeostasis is tightly regulated by zinc transporters and metallothioneins that control zinc concentration and its distribution in individual cells and contributes to zinc signaling. The intracellular zinc signaling regulates immune reactions. Although many molecules involved in these processes have zinc-binding motifs, the molecular mechanisms and the role of zinc in immune responses have not been elucidated. We and others have demonstrated that zinc signaling plays diverse and specific rolesin vivoandin vitroin studies using knockout mice lacking zinc transporter function and metallothionein function. In this review, we discuss the impact of zinc signaling focusing particularly on mast cell-, basophil-, and T cell-mediated inflammatory and allergic responses. We also describe zinc signaling dysregulation as a leading health problem in inflammatory disease and allergy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 401 (5) ◽  
pp. 547-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance Porrini ◽  
Nalini Ramarao ◽  
Seav-Ly Tran

AbstractNitric oxide (NO) is present in various organisms from humans, to plants, fungus and bacteria. NO is a fundamental signaling molecule implicated in major cellular functions. The role of NO ranges from an essential molecule to a potent mediator of cellular damages. The ability of NO to react with a broad range of biomolecules allows on one hand its regulation and a gradient concentration and on the other hand to exert physiological as well as pathological functions. In humans, NO is implicated in cardiovascular homeostasis, neurotransmission and immunity. However, NO can also contribute to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) or septic shock. For certain denitrifying bacteria, NO is part of their metabolism as a required intermediate of the nitrogen cycle. However, for other bacteria, NO is toxic and harmful. To survive, those bacteria have developed processes to resist this toxic effect and persist inside their host. NO also contributes to maintain the host/microbiota homeostasis. But little is known about the impact of NO produced during prolonged inflammation on microbiota integrity, and some pathogenic bacteria take advantage of the NO response to colonize the gut over the microbiota. Taken together, depending on the environmental context (prolonged production, gradient concentration, presence of partners for interaction, presence of oxygen, etc.), NO will exert its beneficial or detrimental function. In this review, we highlight the dual role of NO for humans, pathogenic bacteria and microbiota, and the mechanisms used by each organism to produce, use or resist NO.


Author(s):  
Ann LeFurgey ◽  
Peter Ingram ◽  
J.J. Blum ◽  
M.C. Carney ◽  
L.A. Hawkey ◽  
...  

Subcellular compartments commonly identified and analyzed by high resolution electron probe x-ray microanalysis (EPXMA) include mitochondria, cytoplasm and endoplasmic or sarcoplasmic reticulum. These organelles and cell regions are of primary importance in regulation of cell ionic homeostasis. Correlative structural-functional studies, based on the static probe method of EPXMA combined with biochemical and electrophysiological techniques, have focused on the role of these organelles, for example, in maintaining cell calcium homeostasis or in control of excitation-contraction coupling. New methods of real time quantitative x-ray imaging permit simultaneous examination of multiple cell compartments, especially those areas for which both membrane transport properties and element content are less well defined, e.g. nuclei including euchromatin and heterochromatin, lysosomes, mucous granules, storage vacuoles, microvilli. Investigations currently in progress have examined the role of Zn-containing polyphosphate vacuoles in the metabolism of Leishmania major, the distribution of Na, K, S and other elements during anoxia in kidney cell nuclel and lysosomes; the content and distribution of S and Ca in mucous granules of cystic fibrosis (CF) nasal epithelia; the uptake of cationic probes by mltochondria in cultured heart ceils; and the junctional sarcoplasmic retlculum (JSR) in frog skeletal muscle.


2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 311-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Brambilla ◽  
David A. Butz

Two studies examined the impact of macrolevel symbolic threat on intergroup attitudes. In Study 1 (N = 71), participants exposed to a macrosymbolic threat (vs. nonsymbolic threat and neutral topic) reported less support toward social policies concerning gay men, an outgroup whose stereotypes implies a threat to values, but not toward welfare recipients, a social group whose stereotypes do not imply a threat to values. Study 2 (N = 78) showed that, whereas macrolevel symbolic threat led to less favorable attitudes toward gay men, macroeconomic threat led to less favorable attitudes toward Asians, an outgroup whose stereotypes imply an economic threat. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the role of a general climate of threat in shaping intergroup attitudes.


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