scholarly journals The Metalloprotease Mpl Supports Listeria monocytogenes Dissemination through Resolution of Membrane Protrusions into Vacuoles

2016 ◽  
Vol 84 (6) ◽  
pp. 1806-1814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego E. Alvarez ◽  
Hervé Agaisse

Listeria monocytogenesis an intracellular pathogen that disseminates within the intestinal epithelium through acquisition of actin-based motility and formation of plasma membrane protrusions that project into adjacent cells. The resolution of membrane protrusions into vacuoles from which the pathogen escapes results in bacterial spread from cell to cell. This dissemination process relies on themlp-actA-plcBoperon, which encodes ActA, a bacterial nucleation-promoting factor that mediates actin-based motility, and PlcB, a phospholipase that mediates vacuole escape. Here we investigated the role of the metalloprotease Mpl in the dissemination process. In agreement with previous findings showing that Mpl is required for PlcB activation, infection of epithelial cells with the ΔplcBor Δmplstrains resulted in the formation of small infection foci. As expected, the ΔplcBstrain displayed a strong defect in vacuole escape. However, the Δmplstrain showed an unexpected defect in the resolution of protrusions into vacuoles, in addition to the expected but mild defect in vacuole escape. The Δmplstrain displayed increased levels of ActA on the bacterial surface in protrusions. We mapped an Mpl-dependent processing site in ActA between amino acid residues 207 to 238. Similar to the Δmplstrain, the ΔactA207–238strain displayed increased levels of ActA on the bacterial surface in protrusions. Although the ΔactA207–238strain displayed wild-type actin-based motility, it formed small infection foci and failed to resolve protrusions into vacuoles. We propose that, in addition to its role in PlcB processing and vacuole escape, the metalloprotease Mpl is required for ActA processing and protrusion resolution.

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (9) ◽  
pp. 5420-5426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florencia Leonardelli ◽  
Daiana Macedo ◽  
Catiana Dudiuk ◽  
Matias S. Cabeza ◽  
Soledad Gamarra ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTAspergillus fumigatusintrinsic fluconazole resistance has been demonstrated to be linked to theCYP51Agene, although the precise molecular mechanism has not been elucidated yet. Comparisons betweenA. fumigatusCyp51Ap andCandida albicansErg11p sequences showed differences in amino acid residues already associated with fluconazole resistance inC. albicans. The aim of this study was to analyze the role of the natural polymorphism I301 inAspergillus fumigatusCyp51Ap in the intrinsic fluconazole resistance phenotype of this pathogen. The I301 residue inA. fumigatusCyp51Ap was replaced with a threonine (analogue to T315 atCandida albicansfluconazole-susceptible Erg11p) by changing one single nucleotide in theCYP51Agene. Also, aCYP51Aknockout strain was obtained using the same parental strain. Both mutants' antifungal susceptibilities were tested. The I301T mutant exhibited a lower level of resistance to fluconazole (MIC, 20 μg/ml) than the parental strain (MIC, 640 μg/ml), while no changes in MIC were observed for other azole- and non-azole-based drugs. These data strongly implicate theA. fumigatusCyp51Ap I301 residue in the intrinsic resistance to fluconazole.


2018 ◽  
Vol 86 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Weddle ◽  
Hervé Agaisse

ABSTRACTShigella flexneridisseminates within the colonic mucosa by displaying actin-based motility in the cytosol of epithelial cells. Motile bacteria form membrane protrusions that project into adjacent cells and resolve into double-membrane vacuoles (DMVs) from which the bacteria escape, thereby achieving cell-to-cell spread. During dissemination,S. flexneriis targeted by LC3-dependent autophagy, a host cell defense mechanism against intracellular pathogens. TheS. flexneritype III secretion system effector protein IcsB was initially proposed to counteract the recruitment of the LC3-dependent autophagy machinery to cytosolic bacteria. However, a recent study proposed that LC3 was recruited to bacteria in DMVs formed during cell-to-cell spread. To resolve the controversy and clarify the role of autophagy inS. flexneriinfection, we tracked dissemination using live confocal microscopy and determined the spatial and temporal recruitment of LC3 to bacteria. This approach demonstrated that (i) LC3 was exclusively recruited to wild-type oricsBbacteria located in DMVs and (ii) theicsBmutant was defective in cell-to-cell spread due to failure to escape LC3-positive as well as LC3-negative DMVs. Failure ofS. flexnerito escape DMVs correlated with late LC3 recruitment, suggesting that LC3 recruitment is the consequence and not the cause of DMV escape failure. Inhibition of autophagy had no positive impact on the spreading of wild-type oricsBmutant bacteria. Our results unambiguously demonstrate that IcsB is required for DMV escape during cell-to-cell spread, regardless of LC3 recruitment, and do not support the previously proposed notion that autophagy countersS. flexneridissemination.


2011 ◽  
Vol 79 (9) ◽  
pp. 3596-3606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris S. Rae ◽  
Aimee Geissler ◽  
Paul C. Adamson ◽  
Daniel A. Portnoy

ABSTRACTListeria monocytogenesis a Gram-positive intracellular pathogen that is naturally resistant to lysozyme. Recently, it was shown that peptidoglycan modification by N-deacetylation or O-acetylation confers resistance to lysozyme in various Gram-positive bacteria, includingL. monocytogenes.L. monocytogenespeptidoglycan is deacetylated by the action ofN-acetylglucosamine deacetylase (Pgd) and acetylated byO-acetylmuramic acid transferase (Oat). We characterized Pgd−, Oat−, and double mutants to determine the specific role ofL. monocytogenespeptidoglycan acetylation in conferring lysozyme sensitivity during infection of macrophages and mice. Pgd−and Pgd−Oat−double mutants were attenuated approximately 2 and 3.5 logs, respectively,in vivo. In bone-marrow derived macrophages, the mutants demonstrated intracellular growth defects and increased induction of cytokine transcriptional responses that emanated from a phagosome and the cytosol. Lysozyme-sensitive mutants underwent bacteriolysis in the macrophage cytosol, resulting in AIM2-dependent pyroptosis. Each of thein vitrophenotypes was rescued upon infection of LysM−macrophages. The addition of extracellular lysozyme to LysM−macrophages restored cytokine induction, host cell death, andL. monocytogenesgrowth inhibition. This surprising observation suggests that extracellular lysozyme can access the macrophage cytosol and act on intracellular lysozyme-sensitive bacteria.


2015 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 939-953 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jovana Kovacevic ◽  
Jennifer Ziegler ◽  
Ewa Wałecka-Zacharska ◽  
Aleisha Reimer ◽  
David D. Kitts ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTA novel genomic island (LGI1) was discovered inListeria monocytogenesisolates responsible for the deadliest listeriosis outbreak in Canada, in 2008. To investigate the functional role of LGI1, the outbreak strain 08-5578 was exposed to food chain-relevant stresses, and the expression of 16 LGI1 genes was measured. LGI1 genes with putative efflux (L. monocytogenesemrE[emrELm]), regulatory (lmo1851), and adhesion (sel1) functions were deleted, and the mutants were exposed to acid (HCl), cold (4°C), salt (10 to 20% NaCl), and quaternary ammonium-based sanitizers (QACs). Deletion oflmo1851had no effect on theL. monocytogenesstress response, and deletion ofsel1did not influence Caco-2 and HeLa cell adherence/invasion, whereas deletion ofemrEresulted in increased susceptibility to QACs (P< 0.05) but had no effect on the MICs of gentamicin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, tetracycline, acriflavine, and triclosan. In the presence of the QAC benzalkonium chloride (BAC; 5 μg/ml), 14/16 LGI1 genes were induced, andlmo1861(putative repressor gene) was constitutively expressed at 4°C, 37°C, and 52°C and in the presence of UV exposure (0 to 30 min). Following 1 h of exposure to BAC (10 μg/ml), upregulation ofemrE(49.6-fold),lmo1851(2.3-fold),lmo1861(82.4-fold), andsigB(4.1-fold) occurred. Reserpine visibly suppressed the growth of the ΔemrELmstrain, indicating that QAC tolerance is due at least partially to efflux activity. These data suggest that a minimal function of LGI1 is to increase the tolerance ofL. monocytogenesto QACs viaemrELm. Since QACs are commonly used in the food industry, there is a concern thatL. monocytogenesstrains possessingemrEwill have an increased ability to survive this stress and thus to persist in food processing environments.


2012 ◽  
Vol 194 (23) ◽  
pp. 6498-6506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel R. Eugster ◽  
Martin J. Loessner

ABSTRACTThe C-terminal cell wall binding domains (CBDs) of phage endolysins direct the enzymes to their binding ligands on the bacterial cell wall with high affinity and specificity. TheListeria monocytogenesPly118, Ply511, and PlyP40 endolysins feature related CBDs which recognize the directly cross-linked peptidoglycan backbone structure ofListeria. However, decoration with fluorescently labeled CBDs primarily occurs at the poles and septal regions of the rod-shaped cells. To elucidate the potential role of secondary cell wall-associated carbohydrates such as the abundant wall teichoic acid (WTA) on this phenomenon, we investigated CBD binding usingL. monocytogenesserovar 1/2 and 4 cells deficient in WTA. Mutants were obtained by deletion of two redundanttagOhomologues, whose products catalyze synthesis of the WTA linkage unit. While inactivation of eithertagO1(EGDelmo0959) ortagO2(EGDelmo2519) alone did not affect WTA content, removal of both alleles following conditional complementation yielded WTA-deficientListeriacells. Substitution oftagOfrom an isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside-inducible single-copy integration vector restored the original phenotype. Although WTA-deficient cells are viable, they featured severe growth inhibition and an unusual coccoid morphology. In contrast to CBDs from otherListeriaphage endolysins which directly utilize WTA as binding ligand, the data presented here show that WTAs are not required for attachment of CBD118, CBD511, and CBDP40. Instead, lack of the cell wall polymers enables unrestricted spatial access of CBDs to the cell wall surface, indicating that the abundant WTA can negatively regulate sidewall localization of the cell wall binding domains.


2015 ◽  
Vol 83 (9) ◽  
pp. 3740-3748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiahui Wang ◽  
Jane E. King ◽  
Marie Goldrick ◽  
Martin Lowe ◽  
Frank B. Gertler ◽  
...  

Listeria monocytogenesis a foodborne pathogen capable of invading a broad range of cell types and replicating within the host cell cytoplasm. This paper describes the colocalization of host cell lamellipodin (Lpd) with intracellularL. monocytogenesdetectable 6 h postinfection of epithelial cells. The association was mediated via interactions between both the peckstrin homology (PH) domain in Lpd and phosphatidylinositol (3,4)-bisphosphate [PI(3,4)P2] on the bacterial surface and by interactions between the C-terminal EVH1 (Ena/VASP [vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein] homology domain 1) binding domains of Lpd and the host VASP (vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein) recruited to the bacterial cell surface by the listerial ActA protein. Depletion of Lpd by short interfering RNA (siRNA) resulted in reduced plaque size and number, indicating a role for Lpd in cell-to-cell spread. In contrast, overexpression of Lpd resulted in an increase in the number ofL. monocytogenes-containing protrusions (listeriopods). Manipulation of the levels of Lpd within the cell also affected the intracellular velocity ofL. monocytogenes, with a reduction in Lpd corresponding to an increase in intracellular velocity. These data, together with the observation that Lpd accumulated at the interface between the bacteria and the developing actin tail at the initiation of actin-based movement, indicate a possible role for Lpd in the actin-based movement and the cell-to-cell spread ofL. monocytogenes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (9) ◽  
pp. 3059-3066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Ricardo Dell'Armelina Rocha ◽  
Sara Lomonaco ◽  
Maria Teresa Bottero ◽  
Alessandra Dalmasso ◽  
Alessandro Dondo ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTListeriosis is a disease that causes significant economic losses at the farm level because of high morbidity and mortality in ruminants. This study was performed to investigate the role of ruminants in the epidemiology of listeriosis in northern Italy and the possible association of animal-adapted strains ofListeria monocytogeneswith strains associated with human disease. Twenty ruminant rhombencephalitis isolates previously confirmed asL. monocytogenesby bacteriology and PCR were characterized by serotyping, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, multi-virulence-locus sequence typing (MVLST), and multiplex single nucleotide polymorphism (mSNP) typing for the detection of epidemic clones. Subtyping results were subsequently compared with those obtained from human, food, and environmental isolates ofL. monocytogenes, including 311 isolates from the University of Turin, Grugliasco, Italy, and 165 isolates representing major human listeriosis outbreaks worldwide, in addition to other unrelated isolates. Both mSNP typing and MVLST showed that 60% of the isolates analyzed belonged to epidemic clone I (ECI), which has been epidemiologically linked to several human outbreaks of listeriosis. In particular, the 1981 Canada outbreak was linked to the use of sheep manure and the 1985 California outbreak was linked to the use of raw cow's milk. In our study, ECI isolates were collected from different ruminant species on geographically and temporally distinct occasions for the last 13 years. Our results support the hypothesis that ruminants represent possible natural reservoirs ofL. monocytogenesstrains capable of causing epidemics of listeriosis in humans.


Author(s):  
Ahmed Gaballa ◽  
Veronica Guariglia-Oropeza ◽  
Martin Wiedmann ◽  
Kathryn J. Boor

SUMMARY The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes can modulate its transcriptome and proteome to ensure its survival during transmission through vastly differing environmental conditions. While L. monocytogenes utilizes a large array of regulators to achieve survival and growth in different intra- and extrahost environments, the alternative sigma factor σB and the transcriptional activator of virulence genes protein PrfA are two key transcriptional regulators essential for responding to environmental stress conditions and for host infection. Importantly, emerging evidence suggests that the shift from extrahost environments to the host gastrointestinal tract and, subsequently, to intracellular environments requires regulatory interplay between σB and PrfA at transcriptional, posttranscriptional, and protein activity levels. Here, we review the current evidence for cross talk and interplay between σB and PrfA and their respective regulons and highlight the plasticity of σB and PrfA cross talk and the role of this cross talk in facilitating successful transition of L. monocytogenes from diverse extrahost to diverse extra- and intracellular host environments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neslihan Kayraklioglu ◽  
Begum Horuluoglu ◽  
Madhivanan Elango ◽  
Dennis M. Klinman

ABSTRACT Toll-like receptors (TLR) trigger the immune system to mount a rapid innate response capable of protecting the host from a wide variety of bacterial and viral pathogens. There is interest in harnessing TLR agonists to reduce the susceptibility of at-risk populations to infection. However, the widespread prophylactic use of TLR agonists has been compromised by the need to administer them by parenteral injection. An exception is the TLR7/8 agonist R848, which can boost gastrointestinal and systemic immunity when administered orally. This work examines the effect of R848 on host susceptibility to Listeria monocytogenes in a murine challenge model and describes the underlying mechanisms. Results show that prophylactic administration of R848 significantly reduces susceptibility to infection of BALB/c mice, an effect that lasts 1 week. Oral R848 directly stimulated B cells to produce cytokines and Ig. In the absence of B cells, R848-mediated protection was lost. These findings support the use of oral R848 to reduce the susceptibility of at-risk individuals to infection and identify the critical role of B cells in TLR7-mediated resistance to bacterial infection.


2012 ◽  
Vol 80 (12) ◽  
pp. 4078-4088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianwu Chen ◽  
James R. Theoret ◽  
Archana Shrestha ◽  
James G. Smedley ◽  
Bruce A. McClane

ABSTRACTClostridium perfringensenterotoxin (CPE) causes the gastrointestinal symptoms of the second most common bacterial food-borne illness. Previous studies suggested that a region named TM1, which has amphipathic characteristics and spans from amino acids 81 to 106 of the native CPE protein, forms a β-hairpin involved in β-barrel pore formation. To further explore the potential role of TM1 in pore formation, the single Cys naturally present in CPE at residue 186 was first altered to alanine by mutagenesis; the resultant rCPE variant, named C186A, was shown to retain cytotoxic properties. Cys-scanning mutagenesis was then performed in which individual Cys mutations were introduced into each TM1 residue of the C186A variant. When those Cys variants were characterized, three variants were identified that exhibit reduced cytotoxicity despite possessing binding and oligomerization abilities similar to those of the C186A variant from which they were derived. Pronase challenge experiments suggested that the reduced cytotoxicity of those two Cys variants, i.e., the F91C and F95C variants, which model to the tip of the β-hairpin, was attributable to a lessened ability of these variants to insert into membranes after oligomerization. In contrast, another Cys variant, i.e., the G103C variant, with impaired cytotoxicity apparently inserted into membranes after oligomerization but could not form a pore with a fully functional channel. Collectively, these results support the TM1 region forming a β-hairpin as an important step in CPE insertion and pore formation. Furthermore, this work identifies the first amino acid residues specifically involved in those two steps in CPE action.


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