is the causative agent of a severe pneumonia called Legionnaires' disease. A single strain of encodes a repertoire of over 300 different effector proteins that are delivered into host cells by the Dot/Icm type IV secretion system during infection. The large number of effectors has been a limiting factor in assessing the importance of individual effectors for virulence. Here, a transposon insertion sequencing technology called INSeq was used to analyze replication of a pool of effector mutants in parallel both in a mouse model of infection and in cultured host cells. Loss-of-function mutations in genes encoding effector proteins resulted in host-specific or broad virulence phenotypes. Screen results were validated for several effector mutants displaying different virulence phenotypes using genetic complementation studies and infection assays. Specifically, loss-of-function mutations in the gene encoding LegC4 resulted in enhanced in the lungs of infected mice but not within cultured host cells, which indicates LegC4 augments bacterial clearance by the host immune system. The effector proteins RavY and Lpg2505 were important for efficient replication within both mammalian and protozoan hosts. Further analysis of Lpg2505 revealed that this protein functions as a metaeffector that counteracts host cytotoxicity displayed by the effector protein SidI. Thus, this study identified a large cohort of effectors that contribute to virulence positively or negatively and has demonstrated regulation of effector protein activities by cognate metaeffectors as being critical for host pathogenesis.

Intracellular bacteria use a variety of strategies to evade degradation and create a replicative niche. Legionella pneumophila is an intravacuolar pathogen that establishes a replicative niche through the secretion of more than 300 effector proteins. The function of most effectors remains to be determined. Toxicity in yeast has been used to identify functional domains and elucidate the biochemical function of effectors. A library of L. pneumophila effectors was screened using an expression plasmid that produces low levels of each protein. This screen identified the effector SdeA as a protein that confers a strong toxic phenotype that inhibits yeast replication. The toxicity of SdeA was suppressed in cells producing the effector SidJ. The effector SdeA is a member of the SidE family of L. pneumophila effector proteins. All SidE orthologs encoded by the Philadelphia isolate of Legionella pneumophila were toxic to yeast, and SidJ suppressed the toxicity of each. We identified a conserved central region in the SidE proteins that was sufficient to mediate yeast toxicity. Surprisingly, SidJ did not suppress toxicity when this central region was produced in yeast. We determined that the amino-terminal region of SidE was essential for SidJ-mediated suppression of toxicity. Thus, there is a genetic interaction that links the activity of SidJ and the amino-terminal region of SidE, which is required to modulate the toxic activity displayed by the central region of the SidE protein. This suggests a complex mechanism by which the L. pneumophila effector SidJ modulates the function of the SidE proteins after translocation into host cells.L egionella pneumophila is a Gram-negative, facultative intravacuolar pathogen that is the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease in humans (1-3). L. pneumophila is phagocytosed by host cells and creates a vacuole that supports replication by inhibiting the fusion of host endocytic vesicles and subverting the transport of secretory vesicles (4-7). The bacterially encoded Dot/Icm type IV secretion system (T4SS) is essential for the creation of this Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV) (8, 9). Proteins secreted by the T4SS, known as effectors, have been shown to both decorate the LCV and modify the location and function of host proteins, especially Rab GTPases (8,10,11). Determining the function of these effector proteins has been complicated by the observation that deletion of a single effector or groups of effectors does not typically result in a strong replication defect within host cells (12)(13)(14).The use of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a system to study L. pneumophila effector proteins has been successful in previous studies (15)(16)(17)(18)(19). Examples include studies on the effector protein RalF, which was shown to inhibit yeast replication when overproduced, and the effector proteins YlfA and YlfB were both identified in an early yeast toxicity screen (16). Effector toxicity in yeast has also been used to study effector activities. The L. pneumophila effector AnkX is capa...

Localization of the P1 plasmid requires two proteins, ParA and ParB, which act on the plasmid partition site, parS. ParB is a site-specific DNA-binding protein and ParA is a Walker-type ATPase with non-specific DNA-binding activity. In vivo ParA binds the bacterial nucleoid and forms dynamic patterns that are governed by the ParB–parS partition complex on the plasmid. How these interactions drive plasmid movement and localization is not well understood. Here we have identified a large protein–DNA complex in vitro that requires ParA, ParB and ATP, and have characterized its assembly by sucrose gradient sedimentation and light scattering assays. ATP binding and hydrolysis mediated the assembly and disassembly of this complex, while ADP antagonized complex formation. The complex was not dependent on, but was stabilized by, parS. The properties indicate that ParA and ParB are binding and bridging multiple DNA molecules to create a large meshwork of protein–DNA molecules that involves both specific and non-specific DNA. We propose that this complex represents a dynamic adaptor complex between the plasmid and nucleoid, and further, that this interaction drives the redistribution of partition proteins and the plasmid over the nucleoid during partition.

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