scholarly journals CapA, an Autotransporter Protein of Campylobacter jejuni, Mediates Association with Human Epithelial Cells and Colonization of the Chicken Gut

2006 ◽  
Vol 189 (5) ◽  
pp. 1856-1865 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami S. A. Ashgar ◽  
Neil J. Oldfield ◽  
Karl G. Wooldridge ◽  
Michael A. Jones ◽  
Greg J. Irving ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Two putative autotransporter proteins, CapA and CapB, were identified in silico from the genome sequence of Campylobacter jejuni NCTC11168. The genes encoding each protein contain homopolymeric tracts, suggestive of phase variation mediated by a slipped-strand mispairing mechanism; in each case the gene sequence contained frameshifts at these positions. The C-terminal two-thirds of the two genes, as well as a portion of the predicted signal peptides, were identical; the remaining N-terminal portions were gene specific. Both genes were cloned and expressed; recombinant polypeptides were purified and used to raise rabbit polyclonal monospecific antisera. Using immunoblotting, expression of the ca.116-kDa CapA protein was demonstrated for in vitro-grown cells of strain NCTC11168, for 4 out of 11 recent human fecal isolates, and for 2 out of 8 sequence-typed strains examined. Expression of CapB was not detected for any of the strains tested. Surface localization of CapA was demonstrated by subcellular fractionation and immunogold electron microscopy. Export of CapA was inhibited by globomycin, reinforcing the bioinformatic prediction that the protein is a lipoprotein. A capA insertion mutant had a significantly reduced capacity for association with and invasion of Caco-2 cells and failed to colonize and persist in chickens, indicating that CapA plays a role in host association and colonization by Campylobacter. In view of this demonstrated role, we propose that CapA stands for Campylobacter adhesion protein A.

2002 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 787-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Guerry ◽  
Christine M. Szymanski ◽  
Martina M. Prendergast ◽  
Thomas E. Hickey ◽  
Cheryl P. Ewing ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The outer cores of the lipooligosaccharides (LOS) of many strains of Campylobacter jejuni mimic human gangliosides in structure. A population of cells of C. jejuni strain 81-176 produced a mixture of LOS cores which consisted primarily of structures mimicking GM2 and GM3 gangliosides, with minor amounts of structures mimicking GD1b and GD2. Genetic analyses of genes involved in the biosynthesis of the outer core of C. jejuni 81-176 revealed the presence of a homopolymeric tract of G residues within a gene encoding CgtA, an N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase. Variation in the number of G residues within cgtA affected the length of the open reading frame, and these changes in cgtA corresponded to a change in LOS structure from GM2 to GM3 ganglioside mimicry. Site-specific mutation of cgtA in 81-176 resulted in a major LOS core structure that lacked GalNAc and resembled GM3 ganglioside. Compared to wild-type 81-176, the cgtA mutant showed a significant increase in invasion of INT407 cells. In comparison, a site-specific mutation of the neuC1 gene resulted in the loss of sialic acid in the LOS core and reduced resistance to normal human serum but had no affect on invasion of INT407 cells.


1991 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-122
Author(s):  
X. Wang ◽  
P. Traub

The karyo-cytoskeleton of cells cultured in vitro was investigated employing resinless section immunogold electron microscopy. Cells were entrapped in low-melting agarose, sequentially extracted with various buffers and digested with nucleases to obtain karyo-cytoskeletal frameworks and reacted with specific primary and gold-conjugated secondary antibodies or gold-conjugated protein A to decorate structural elements of these frameworks. Following embedment of the gold-labeled residual cell structures in diethylene glycol distearate and their sectioning, the embedding material was removed with organic solvent and the sections were finally subjected to CO2 critical point drying. When this technique was applied to mouse skin fibroblasts (MSF), it revealed a dense and salt-stable intranuclear network of fibrogranular material. Antibodies directed against vimentin and lamin B detected a cytoplasmic meshwork of intermediate filaments (IFs) and a nuclear lamina, respectively; the latter, however, only after removal of chromatin from nuclei by nuclease digestion of DNA. Intranuclear filaments free of adhering globular material were morphologically very similar to cytoplasmic vimentin filaments. By contrast, mouse plasmacytoma MPC-11 cells lacking detectable amounts of cytoplasmic IF proteins and lamins A and C were devoid of a salt-stable internal nuclear matrix. The same holds true for MPC-11 cells that had been treated with the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate to induce vimentin synthesis and establish a cytoplasmically extended IF network. These findings were in accordance with the biochemical behavior of Triton X-100-treated MSF and MPC-11 cells and their appearance in immunofluorescence microscopy upon extraction with high ionic strength buffer. While the chromatin was quantitatively retained in the residual cell structures derived from MSF cells, in those obtained from MPC-11 cells the nuclear lamina was disrupted and the chromatin was released from the nuclei, suggesting that MPC-11 cells lack the salt-stable nuclear scaffold to which chromatin is normally anchored.


2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 3289-3298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfram Antonin ◽  
Claudia Holroyd ◽  
Ritva Tikkanen ◽  
Stefan Höning ◽  
Reinhard Jahn

Endobrevin/VAMP-8 is an R-SNARE localized to endosomes, but it is unknown in which intracellular fusion step it operates. Using subcellular fractionation and quantitative immunogold electron microscopy, we found that endobrevin/VAMP-8 is present on all membranes known to communicate with early endosomes, including the plasma membrane, clathrin-coated pits, late endosomes, and membranes of thetrans-Golgi network. Affinity-purified antibodies that block the ability of endobrevin/VAMP-8 to form SNARE core complexes potently inhibit homotypic fusion of both early and late endosomes in vitro. Fab fragments were as active as intact immunoglobulin Gs. Recombinant endobrevin/VAMP-8 inhibited both fusion reactions with similar potency. We conclude that endobrevin/VAMP-8 operates as an R-SNARE in the homotypic fusion of early and late endosomes.


2009 ◽  
Vol 77 (6) ◽  
pp. 2399-2407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca C. Flanagan ◽  
Jason M. Neal-McKinney ◽  
A. Singh Dhillon ◽  
William G. Miller ◽  
Michael E. Konkel

ABSTRACT Campylobacter jejuni colonization of chickens is presumably dependent upon multiple surface-exposed proteins termed adhesins. Putative C. jejuni adhesins include CadF, CapA, JlpA, major outer membrane protein, PEB1, Cj1279c, and Cj1349c. We examined the genetic relatedness of 97 C. jejuni isolates recovered from human, poultry, bovine, porcine, ovine, and canine sources by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and examined their profile of putative adhesin-encoding genes by dot blot hybridization. To assess the individual contribution of each protein in bacterium-host cell adherence, the C. jejuni genes encoding the putative adhesins were disrupted by insertional mutagenesis. The phenotype of each mutant was judged by performing in vitro cell adherence assays with chicken LMH hepatocellular carcinoma epithelial cells and in vivo colonization assays with broiler chicks. MLST analysis indicated that the C. jejuni isolates utilized in this study were genetically diverse. Dot blot hybridization revealed that the C. jejuni genes encoding the putative adhesins, with the exception of capA, were conserved among the isolates. The C. jejuni CadF, CapA, Cj1279c, and Cj1349c proteins were found to play a significant role in the bacterium's in vitro adherence to chicken epithelial cells, while CadF, PEB1, and Cj1279c were determined to play a significant role in the bacterium's in vivo colonization of broiler chicks. Collectively, the data indicate that Cj1279c is a novel adhesin. Because Cj1279c harbors fibronectin type III domains, we designated the protein FlpA, for fibronectin-like protein A.


1989 ◽  
Vol 238 (1290) ◽  
pp. 89-102 ◽  

RNA from Cyanophora paradoxa was separated into cytoplasmic and cyanellar fractions by using a combination of subcellular fractionation and oligo-dT chromatography. In vitro translation of the separated cyto­plasmic and cyanellar RNAs in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate system in the presence of [ 35 S]methionine resulted in the incorporation of radiolabel into electrophoretically distinct sets of polypeptides. Monospecific and polyspecific antibodies that react with cyanellar polypeptides were used to probe the in vitro translation products by indirect immunoprecipitation by using Staphylococcus protein A conjugated to Sepharose beads. The results indicate that linker polypeptide L1 of the phycobilisome, the γ subunit of coupling factor CF1, and subunit II of PS I are syn­thesized in the cytoplasm as precursor molecules that are 5–8 kDa larger than their mature sizes. Antibodies directed against the psb A gene prod­uct (the D1 protein) precipitated a polypeptide found in the translation products of the cyanellar RNA-directed reactions, which is about 1.5 kDa larger than the mature protein.


2000 ◽  
Vol 149 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Hausmann ◽  
Lorraine A. O'Reilly ◽  
Rosemary van Driel ◽  
Jennifer G. Beaumont ◽  
Andreas Strasser ◽  
...  

How Bcl-2 and its pro-survival relatives prevent activation of the caspases that mediate apoptosis is unknown, but they appear to act through the caspase activator apoptosis protease–activating factor 1 (Apaf-1). According to the apoptosome model, the Bcl-2–like proteins preclude Apaf-1 activity by sequestering the protein. To explore Apaf-1 function and to test this model, we generated monoclonal antibodies to Apaf-1 and used them to determine its localization within diverse cells by subcellular fractionation and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Whereas Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL were prominent on organelle membranes, endogenous Apaf-1 was cytosolic and did not colocalize with them, even when these pro-survival proteins were overexpressed or after apoptosis was induced. Immunogold electron microscopy confirmed that Apaf-1 was dispersed in the cytoplasm and not on mitochondria or other organelles. After the death stimuli, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL precluded the release of the Apaf-1 cofactor cytochrome c from mitochondria and the formation of larger Apaf-1 complexes, which are steps that presage apoptosis. However, neither Bcl-2 nor Bcl-xL could prevent the in vitro activation of Apaf-1 induced by the addition of exogenous cytochrome c. Hence, rather than sequestering Apaf-1 as proposed by the apoptosome model, Bcl-2–like proteins probably regulate Apaf-1 indirectly by controlling upstream events critical for its activation.


Microbiology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 157 (5) ◽  
pp. 1279-1289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doungjit Kanungpean ◽  
Tsutomu Kakuda ◽  
Shinji Takai

Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in humans and a commensal bacterium of the intestinal tracts of animals, especially poultry. Chemotaxis is an important determinant for chicken colonization of C. jejuni. Adaptation has a crucial role in the gradient-sensing mechanism that underlies chemotaxis. The genome sequence of C. jejuni reveals the presence of genes encoding putative adaptation proteins, CheB and CheR. In-frame deletions of cheB, cheR and cheBR were constructed and the chemosensory behaviour of the resultant mutants was examined on swarm plates. CheB and CheR proteins significantly influence chemotaxis but are not essential for this behaviour to occur. Increased mobility of two methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs), DocC and Tlp1, during SDS-PAGE was detected in the mutants lacking functional CheB in the presence of CheR, presumably resulting from stable methylation of receptors. In vitro studies using tissue culture revealed that deletion of cheR resulted in hyperadherent and hyperinvasive phenotypes, while deletion of cheB resulted in nonadherent, noninvasive phenotypes. Furthermore, the ΔcheBR mutant showed significantly reduced ability to colonize chick caeca. Our data suggest that modification of chemoreceptors by the CheBR system is involved in regulation of chemotaxis in C. jejuni although CheB is apparently not controlled by phosphorylation.


Author(s):  
M. Kraemer ◽  
J. Foucrier ◽  
J. Vassy ◽  
M.T. Chalumeau

Some authors using immunofluorescent techniques had already suggested that some hepatocytes are able to synthetize several plasma proteins. In vitro studies on normal cells or on cells issued of murine hepatomas raise the same conclusion. These works could be indications of an hepatocyte functionnal non-specialization, meanwhile the authors never give direct topographic proofs suitable with this hypothesis.The use of immunoenzymatic techniques after obtention of monospecific antisera had seemed to us useful to bring forward a better knowledge of this problem. We have studied three carrier proteins (transferrin = Tf, hemopexin = Hx, albumin = Alb) operating at different levels in iron metabolism by demonstrating and localizing the adult rat hepatocytes involved in their synthesis.Immunological, histological and ultrastructural methods have been described in a previous work.


1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (04) ◽  
pp. 151-153
Author(s):  
P. Thouvenot ◽  
F. Brunotte ◽  
J. Robert ◽  
L. J. Anghileri

In vitro uptake of 67Ga-citrate and 59Fe-citrate by DS sarcoma cells in the presence of tumor-bearing animal blood plasma showed a dramatic inhibition of both 67Ga and 59Fe uptakes: about ii/io of 67Ga and 1/5o of the 59Fe are taken up by the cells. Subcellular fractionation appears to indicate no specific binding to cell structures, and the difference of binding seems to be related to the transferrin chelation and transmembrane transport differences


1989 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 1069-1075 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Kuge ◽  
N Kawamura ◽  
A Nomoto

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