Iron-depleting nutritional immunity controls extracellular bacterial replication in Legionella pneumophila infections.

The accidental human pathogen Legionella pneumophila (Lp) is the etiological agent for a severe atypical pneumonia known as Legionnaires' disease. In human infections and animal models of disease alveolar macrophages are the primary cellular niche that supports bacterial replication within a unique intracellular membrane-bound organelle. The Dot/Icm apparatus-a type IV secretion system that translocates ~300 bacterial proteins within the cytosol of the infected cell-is a central virulence factor required for intracellular growth.

Characterization of colonization of macrophages under distinct polarization states and nutrients environment.

is a uniquely adapted human pathogen and the etiological agent of gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease. has developed numerous mechanisms to avoid and actively suppress innate and adaptive immune responses. successfully colonizes and establishes topologically distinct colonies in human macrophages and avoids phagocytic killing.

Characterization of colonization of macrophages under distinct polarization states and nutrients environment.

is a uniquely adapted human pathogen and the etiological agent of gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease. has developed numerous mechanisms to avoid and actively suppress innate and adaptive immune responses. successfully colonizes and establishes topologically distinct colonies in human macrophages and avoids phagocytic killing.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae subverts formin-dependent actin polymerization to colonize human macrophages.

Dynamic reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton dictates plasma membrane morphogenesis and is frequently subverted by bacterial pathogens for entry and colonization of host cells. The human-adapted bacterial pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae can colonize and replicate when cultured with human macrophages, however the basic understanding of how this process occurs is incomplete. N.

Functional Characterization of Multiple Sodium (Cation)/Proton Antiporter Genes Involved in the Bacterial pH Homeostasis.

causes human monocytic ehrlichiosis. Little is known about how this and other related tick-borne rickettsia pathogens maintain pH homeostasis in acidified phagosomes and the extracellular milieu. The membrane-bound sodium (cation)/proton antiporters are found in a wide range of organisms aiding pH homeostasis.

Mutations in Ehrlichia chaffeensis Genes ECH_0660 and ECH_0665 Cause Transcriptional Changes in Response to Zinc or Iron Limitation.

Ehrlichia chaffeensis causes human monocytic ehrlichiosis by replicating within phagosomes of monocytes/macrophages. A function disruption mutation within the pathogen's ECH_0660 gene, which encodes a phage head-to-tail connector protein, resulted in the rapid clearance of the pathogen , while aiding in induction of sufficient immunity in a host to protect against wild-type infection challenge. In this study, we describe the characterization of a cluster of seven genes spanning from ECH_0659 to ECH_0665, which contained four genes encoding bacterial phage proteins, including the ECH_0660 gene.

The -Regulated Microbiome Enhances Experimental Allergic Asthma.

Changes in intestinal or respiratory microbiomes in infants correlate with increased incidence of asthma, but the causative role of microbiome in the susceptibility to asthma and the host genes that regulate these changes in microbiome are mostly unknown. In this study, we show that decreased responsiveness to allergic asthma in mice (lacking bactericidal peptidoglycan recognition protein 1) could be transferred to germ-free wild-type mice by colonization of mothers and newborns with microbiota from mice. These colonized mice had decreased airway resistance and fewer inflammatory cells, less severe histopathology, and lower levels of IgE and proallergic cytokines and chemokines in the lungs.

Transcriptional regulation of the Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans ygiW-qseBC operon by QseB and integration host factor proteins.

The QseBC two-component system plays a pivotal role in regulating virulence and biofilm growth of the oral pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. We previously showed that QseBC autoregulates the ygiW-qseBC operon. In this study, we characterized the promoter that drives ygiW-qseBC expression.

Integration host factor is required for replication of pYGK-derived plasmids in Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans.

In this study, we show that integration host factor protein (IHF) is required for replication of pYGK plasmids in Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. YGK plasmids were not replicated in A. actinomycetemcomitans strains lacking either the α- or β- subunit of IHF.

Differential transcriptional regulation of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans lsrACDBFG and lsrRK operons by integration host factor protein.

We previously showed that the Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans lsrACDBFG and lsrRK operons are regulated by LsrR and cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP) and that proper regulation of the lsr locus is required for optimal biofilm growth by A. actinomycetemcomitans. Here, we identified sequences that reside immediately upstream from both the lsrA and lsrR start codons that closely resemble the consensus recognition sequence of Escherichia coli integration host factor (IHF) protein.

ygiW and qseBC are co-expressed in Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and regulate biofilm growth.

The quorum-sensing Escherichia coli regulators B and C (QseBC) two-component system were previously shown to regulate biofilm growth of the oral pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and to be essential for virulence. In this study, we use RT-PCR to show that an open reading frame, ygiW, residing upstream of qseBC and encoding a hypothetical protein is co-expressed with qseBC. In addition, using a series of lacZ transcriptional fusion constructs and 5'-rapid amplification of cDNA Ends (RACE), the promoter that drives expression of the ygiW-qseBC operon and the transcriptional start site was mapped to the 372 bp intergenic region upstream from ygiW.

Transcriptional regulation of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans lsrACDBFG and lsrRK operons and their role in biofilm formation.

Autoinducer-2 (AI-2) is required for biofilm formation and virulence of the oral pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, and we previously showed that lsrB codes for a receptor for AI-2. The lsrB gene is expressed as part of the lsrACDBFG operon, which is divergently transcribed from an adjacent lsrRK operon. In Escherichia coli, lsrRK encodes a repressor and AI-2 kinase that function to regulate lsrACDBFG.

Live attenuated Salmonella vaccines against Mycobacterium tuberculosis with antigen delivery via the type III secretion system.

Tuberculosis remains a global health threat, and there is dire need to develop a vaccine that is safe and efficacious and confers long-lasting protection. In this study, we constructed recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccine (RASV) strains with plasmids expressing fusion proteins consisting of the 80 amino-terminal amino acids of the type 3 secretion system effector SopE of Salmonella and the Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens early secreted antigenic target 6-kDa (ESAT-6) protein and culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP-10). We demonstrated that the SopE-mycobacterial antigen fusion proteins were translocated into the cytoplasm of INT-407 cells in cell culture assays.

Live attenuated Salmonella vaccines displaying regulated delayed lysis and delayed antigen synthesis to confer protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Live recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccine (RASV) strains have great potential to induce protective immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis by delivering M. tuberculosis antigens. Recently, we reported that, in orally immunized mice, RASV strains delivering the M.

Evaluation of the humoral immune response in mice orally vaccinated with live recombinant attenuated Salmonella enterica delivering a secreted form of Yersinia pestis PsaA.

Yersinia pestis PsaA is an adhesin that is synthesized inside macrophages. Here, we evaluated the immune profile of codon-optimized Y. pestis PsaA synthesized in a live recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccine (RASV) strain chi9558.

Biogenesis of Yersinia pestis PsaA in recombinant attenuated Salmonella Typhimurium vaccine (RASV) strain.

Yersinia pestis PsaA is an adhesin important for the establishment of bacterial infection. PsaA synthesis requires the products of the psaEFABC genes. Here, by prediction analysis, we identified a PsaA signal sequence with two signal peptidase (SPase) cleavage sites, type-I and type-II (SPase-I and SPase-II).

Immunogenicity of recombinant attenuated Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium vaccine strains carrying a gene that encodes Eimeria tenella antigen SO7.

Recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines against avian coccidiosis were developed to deliver Eimeria species antigens to the lymphoid tissues of chickens via the type 3 secretion system (T3SS) and the type 2 secretion system (T2SS) of Salmonella. For antigen delivery via the T3SS, the Eimeria tenella gene encoding sporozoite antigen SO7 was cloned downstream of the translocation domain of the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium sopE gene in the parental pYA3868 and pYA3870 vectors to generate pYA4156 and pYA4157. Newly constructed T3SS vectors were introduced into host strain chi8879 (Delta phoP233 Delta sptP1033::xylE Delta asdA16), an attenuated derivative of the highly virulent UK-1 strain.