The opportunistic intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes has become a paradigm for the study of host-pathogen interactions and bacterial adaptation to mammalian hosts. Analysis of L. monocytogenes infection has provided considerable insight into how bacteria invade cells, move intracellularly, and disseminate in tissues, as well as tools to address fundamental processes in cell biology. Moreover, the vast amount of knowledge that has been gathered through in-depth comparative genomic analyses and in vivo studies makes L. monocytogenes one of the most well-studied bacterial pathogens.

Biofilms are structured communities of cells encased in a polymeric matrix and adherent to a surface, interface or each other. We report here that the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis forms biofilms. By confocal scanning laser microscopy, we observed that B. subtilis adhered to abiotic surfaces and formed a three‐dimensional structure ≥ 30 µm in depth. These biofilms appeared to be at least partly encased in an extracellular polysaccharide matrix, as they could be stained with Calcofluor, a polysaccharide‐binding dye. To understand the molecular mechanism of biofilm formation, we screened previously characterized mutants for a defect in biofilm formation. We found that mutations in spo0A, which encodes the major early sporulation transcription factor, caused a defect in biofilm formation. spo0A mutant cells adhered to a surface in a monolayer of cells rather than a three‐dimensional biofilm. The requirement of Spo0A for biofilm development appears to result from its role in negatively regulating AbrB. Mutations in abrB suppressed the biofilm defect of a spo0A mutant, indicating that AbrB negatively regulates at least one gene that is required for the transition from a monolayer of attached cells to a mature biofilm. Implications of biofilm development for the ecology of B. subtilis are discussed.

Actin-based motility is used by various pathogens for dissemination within and between cells. Yet host factors restricting this process have not been identified. Septins are GTP-binding proteins that assemble as filaments and are essential for cell division. However, their role during interphase has remained elusive. Here, we report that septin assemblies are recruited to different bacteria that polymerize actin. We observed that intracytosolic Shigella either become compartmentalized in septin cage-like structures or form actin tails. Inactivation of septin caging increases the number of Shigella with actin tails and enhances cell-to-cell spread. TNF-α, a host cytokine produced upon Shigella infection, stimulates septin caging and restricts actin tail formation and cell-to-cell spread. Finally, we show that septin cages entrap bacteria targeted to autophagy. Together, these results reveal an unsuspected mechanism of host defense that restricts dissemination of invasive pathogens.

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Autophagy is an important mechanism of innate immune defense. We have recently shown that autophagy components are recruited with septins, a new and increasingly characterized cytoskeleton component, to intracytosolic Shigella that have started to polymerize actin. On the other hand, intracytosolic Listeria avoids autophagy recognition by expressing ActA, a bacterial effector required for actin polymerization. Here, we exploit Shigella and Listeria as intracytosolic tools to characterize different pathways of selective autophagy. We show that the ubiquitin-binding adaptor proteins p62 and NDP52 target Shigella to an autophagy pathway dependent upon septin and actin. In contrast, p62 or NDP52 targets the Listeria ActA mutant to an autophagy pathway independent of septin or actin. TNF-␣, a host cytokine produced upon bacterial infection, stimulates p62-mediated autophagic activity and restricts the survival of Shigella and the Listeria ActA mutant. These data provide a new molecular framework to understand the emerging complexity of autophagy and its ability to achieve specific clearance of intracytosolic bacteria.Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved catabolic pathway that allows eukaryotes to degrade and recycle intracellular components by sequestering proteins and organelles in specialized double-membrane vesicles named autophagosomes (1-3). Although autophagosomes can sequester cytosolic material nonspecifically, e.g. as a response to starvation, there is increasing evidence for selective autophagic degradation of various cellular structures, including protein aggregates, mitochondria, and microbes (4, 5). The mechanism of selective autophagy is not well understood, yet the role of ubiquitin in this process is critical (5, 6). By simultaneous binding to both ubiquitin and the autophagosome-associated ubiquitin-like proteins (i.e. LC3/GABARAP proteins) autophagy receptors can mediate docking of ubiquitinated cargo to the autophagosome, thereby ensuring their selective degradation (5, 6). Of the ubiquitinbinding proteins in selective autophagy, p62 (sequestosome 1; SQSTM1) has emerged as the prototype autophagy receptor (7). p62 is an LC3 interaction partner in vivo and is constantly degraded by autophagy, establishing it as a useful marker for autophagic vesicle turnover (8). NDP52 3 has more recently emerged as another autophagy receptor and shares with p62 the ability to bind LC3 and ubiquitinated cargo simultaneously (9). The respective roles of p62 and NDP52 are not understood. Whether these individual autophagy receptors recognize different ubiquitinated proteins and/or perform independent functions in cells may be critical for the complete understanding of autophagy and its therapeutic potential.Recent evidence has implicated the cytoskeleton as a critical mediator of selective autophagy. We have shown that septins, a novel component of the cytoskeleton (10), are recruited with autophagy proteins to "cage" Shigella flexneri in the cytosol of infected cells and restrict bacterial dissemination (11). The...

Upon infection, pathogens reprogram host gene expression. In eukaryotic cells, genetic reprogramming is induced by the concerted activation/repression of transcription factors and various histone modifications that control DNA accessibility in chromatin. We report here that the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes induces a dramatic dephosphorylation of histone H3 as well as a deacetylation of histone H4 during early phases of infection. This effect is mediated by the major listerial toxin listeriolysin O in a pore-forming-independent manner. Strikingly, a similar effect also is observed with other toxins of the same family, such as Clostridium perfringens perfringolysin and Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumolysin. The decreased levels of histone modifications correlate with a reduced transcriptional activity of a subset of host genes, including key immunity genes. Thus, control of epigenetic regulation emerges here as an unsuspected function shared by several bacterial toxins, highlighting a common strategy used by intracellular and extracellular pathogens to modulate the host response early during infection.

During infection, pathogenic bacteria manipulate the host cell in various ways to permit their own replication, propagation and escape from host immune responses. Post-translational modifications are unique mechanisms that allow cells to rapidly, locally, and specifically modify activity or interactions of key proteins. Some of these modifications, including phosphorylation and ubiquitylation 1,2 , can be induced by pathogens. However, the effects of pathogenic bacteria on SUMOylation, an essential post-translational modification in eukaryotic cells 3 remain largely unknown. Here we show that Listeria monocytogenes infection leads to a decrease in the levels of cellular SUMO-conjugated proteins. This event is triggered by the bacterial virulence factor listeriolysin O (LLO) which induces a proteasome-independent degradation of Ubc9, an essential enzyme of the SUMOylation machinery. The effect of LLO on Ubc9 is dependent on the poreforming capacity of the toxin and is shared by other bacterial pore-forming toxins like perfringolysin O (PFO) and pneumolysin (PLY). Ubc9 degradation was also observed in vivo in infected mice. Furthermore, we show that SUMO overexpression impairs bacterial infection. Together, our results reveal that Listeria, and probably other pathogens, dampen the host response to infection by preventing SUMOylation of key regulatory proteins.Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative intracellular pathogen responsible for human listeriosis, a severe food-borne disease, and has emerged as a model for the study of hostpathogen interactions. This bacterium is able to cross the intestinal, maternofetal and blood

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