Bacterial pathogenicity islands (PAI) often encode both effector molecules responsible for disease and secretion systems that deliver these effectors to host cells. Human enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), enteropathogenic E. coli, and the mouse pathogen Citrobacter rodentium (CR) possess the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) PAI. We systematically mutagenized all 41 CR LEE genes and functionally characterized these mutants in vitro and in a murine infection model. We identified 33 virulence factors, including two virulence regulators and a hierarchical switch for type III secretion. In addition, 7 potential type III effectors encoded outside the LEE were identified by using a proteomics approach. These non-LEE effectors are encoded by three uncharacterized PAIs in EHEC O157, suggesting that these PAIs act cooperatively with the LEE in pathogenesis. Our findings provide significant insights into bacterial virulence mechanisms and disease. D iarrheagenic enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), and Citrobacter rodentium (CR) are attaching͞effacing (A͞E) bacterial pathogens that attach to host intestinal epithelium and efface brush border microvilli, forming A͞E lesions (1, 2). EHEC and EPEC represent a significant threat to human health. Sequencing the genome of EHEC O157:H7, the causative agent of ''Hamburger disease'' and the most common serotype associated with food and water poisoning, has identified many putative virulence factors (3). These factors are often encoded by pathogenicity islands (PAI) present in the genomes of pathogenic, but not closely related nonpathogenic, strains (4). However, the functions of the PAIs in virulence have not been systematically analyzed.Many key virulence factors shared by A͞E pathogens reside in the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE), a PAI essential for A͞E lesion formation (5-8). The LEE contains 41 genes and encodes a type III secretion system (TTSS), a common virulence mechanism for many human and plant pathogens (4, 9, 10). TTSSs are conserved organelles that deliver bacterial effector proteins capable of modulating host functions into host cells. The LEE encodes proteins for forming such an organelle (2), but the LEE genes involved in assembling and regulating this apparatus have not been defined.The LEE also encodes a regulator (Ler), an adhesin (intimin) and its receptor (Tir) responsible for intimate attachment, several secreted proteins, and their chaperones (1, 2). The secreted proteins consist of effectors as well as translocators (EspA, EspD, and EspB) required for translocating effectors into host cells. Five LEEencoded effectors (Tir, EspG, EspF, Map, and EspH) have been identified, which are involved in modulating host cytoskeleton (2, 11). However, nearly half of the LEE genes have no homologs and have not been functionally studied.Because EHEC and EPEC are human pathogens, efforts aimed at elucidating the function of the LEE have primarily been restricted to in vitro studies. Animal models, including neonatal...
Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) is a bacterial pathogen that causes infantile diarrhea worldwide. EPEC injects a bacterial protein, translocated intimin receptor (Tir), into the host-cell plasma membrane where it acts as a receptor for the bacterial outer membrane protein, intimin. The interaction of Tir and intimin triggers a marked rearrangement of the host actin cytoskeleton into pedestals beneath adherent bacteria. On delivery into host cells, EPEC Tir is phosphorylated on tyrosine 474 of the intracellular carboxy-terminal domain, an event that is required for pedestal formation. Despite its essential role, the function of Tir tyrosine phosphorylation has not yet been elucidated. Here we show that tyrosine 474 of Tir directly binds the host-cell adaptor protein Nck, and that Nck is required for the recruitment of both neural Wiskott-Aldrich-syndrome protein (N-WASP) and the actin-related protein (Arp)2/3 complex to the EPEC pedestal, directly linking Tir to the cytoskeleton. Cells with null alleles of both mammalian Nck genes are resistant to the effects of EPEC on the actin cytoskeleton. These results implicate Nck adaptors as host-cell determinants of EPEC virulence.
The Nramp1 (natural-resistance-associated macrophage protein 1) locus (Bcg, Ity, Lsh) controls the innate resistance or susceptibility of mice to infection with a group of unrelated intracellular parasites which includes Salmonella, Leishmania, and Mycobacterium. Nramp1 is expressed exclusively in professional phagocytes and encodes an integral membrane protein that shares structural characteristics with ion channels and transporters. Its function and mechanism of action remain unknown. The intracellular localization of the Nramp1 protein was analyzed in control 129/sv and mutant Nramp1− /− macrophages by immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy and by biochemical fractionation. In colocalization studies with a specific anti-Nramp1 antiserum and a panel of control antibodies directed against known cellular structures, Nramp1 was found not to be expressed at the plasma membrane but rather localized to the late endocytic compartments (late endosome/lysosome) of resting macrophages in a Lamp1 (lysosomal-associated membrane protein 1)-positive compartment. Double immunofluorescence studies and direct purification of latex bead–containing phagosomes demonstrated that upon phagocytosis, Nramp1 is recruited to the membrane of the phagosome and remains associated with this structure during its maturation to phagolysosome. After phagocytosis, Nramp1 is acquired by the phagosomal membrane with time kinetics similar to Lamp1, but clearly distinct from those of the early endosomal marker Rab5. The targeting of Nramp1 from endocytic vesicles to the phagosomal membrane supports the hypothesis that Nramp1 controls the replication of intracellular parasites by altering the intravacuolar environment of the microbe-containing phagosome.
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