Publications by authors named "Yousef Abu Kwaik"

Unlabelled: species evade degradation and proliferate within alveolar macrophages as an essential step for the manifestation of disease. However, most intracellular bacterial pathogens are restricted in neutrophils, which are the first line of innate immune defense against invading pathogens. Bacterial degradation within neutrophils is mediated by the fusion of microbicidal granules to pathogen-containing phagosomes and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by the phagocyte NADPH oxidase complex.

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Grazing of amoebae on microorganisms represents one of the oldest predator-prey dynamic relationships in nature. It represents a genetic "melting pot" for an ancient and continuous multi-directional inter- and intra-kingdom horizontal gene transfer between amoebae and its preys, intracellular microbial residents, endosymbionts, and giant viruses, which has shaped the evolution, selection, and adaptation of microbes that evade degradation by predatory amoeba. Unicellular phagocytic amoebae are thought to be the ancient ancestors of macrophages with highly conserved eukaryotic processes.

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Francisella tularensis is a highly pathogenic intracellular bacterium that causes the disease tularemia. While its ability to replicate within cells has been studied in much detail, the bacterium also encodes a less characterised type 4 pili (T4P) system. T4Ps are dynamic adhesive organelles identified as major virulence determinants in many human pathogens.

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While most bacterial species taken up by macrophages are degraded through processing of the bacteria-containing vacuole through the endosomal-lysosomal degradation pathway, intravacuolar pathogens have evolved to evade degradation through the endosomal-lysosomal pathway. All intra-vacuolar pathogens possess specialized secretion systems (T3SS-T7SS) that inject effector proteins into the host cell cytosol to modulate myriad of host cell processes and remodel their vacuoles into proliferative niches. Although intravacuolar pathogens utilize similar secretion systems to interfere with their vacuole biogenesis, each pathogen has evolved a unique toolbox of protein effectors injected into the host cell to interact with, and modulate, distinct host cell targets.

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The Dot/Icm type IV secretion system (T4SS) of Legionella pneumophila is essential for lysosomal evasion and permissiveness of macrophages for intracellular proliferation of the pathogen. In contrast, we show that polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) respond to a functional Dot/Icm system through rapid restriction of L. pneumophila.

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Diversion of the -containing vacuole (LCV) from the host endosomal-lysosomal degradation pathway is one of the main virulence features essential for manifestation of Legionnaires' pneumonia. Many of the ∼350 Dot/Icm-injected effectors identified in have been shown to interfere with various host pathways and processes, but no effector has ever been identified to be indispensable for lysosomal evasion. While most single effector mutants of do not exhibit a defective phenotype within macrophages, we show that the MavE effector is essential for intracellular growth of in human monocyte-derived macrophages (hMDMs) and amoebae and for intrapulmonary proliferation in mice.

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Through long-term interactions with their hosts, bacterial pathogens have evolved unique arsenals of effector proteins that interact with specific host targets and reprogram the host cell into a permissive niche for pathogen proliferation. The targeting of effector proteins into the host cell nucleus for modulation of nuclear processes is an emerging theme among bacterial pathogens. These unique pathogen effector proteins have been termed in recent years as "nucleomodulins.

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is a highly infectious, intracellular bacterium and it is the causative agent of tularemia. The bacterium has been isolated from more than 250 species, including protozoa. Previous studies have shown that the growth of within the amoeba results in a dramatic increase in the resistance to disinfectants.

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Legionella pneumophila has co-evolved with amoebae, their natural hosts. Upon transmission to humans, the bacteria proliferate within alveolar macrophages causing pneumonia. Here, we show L.

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Species of the genus encode at least 18,000 effector proteins that are translocated through the Dot/Icm type IVB translocation system into macrophages and protist hosts to enable intracellular growth. Eight effectors, including ankyrin H (AnkH), are common to all species. The AnkH effector is also present in and To date, no pathogenic effectors have ever been described that directly interfere with host cell transcription.

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The host is a nutrient-rich niche for microbial pathogens, but one that comes with obstacles and challenges. Many intracellular pathogens like Legionella pneumophila, Coxiella burnetii, Listeria monocytogenes, and Chlamydia trachomatis have developed bipartite metabolism within their hosts. This style of metabolic regulation enables pathogen sensing of specific nutrients to engage them into catabolic and anabolic processes, and contributes to temporal and spatial pathogen phenotypic modulation.

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Legionella pneumophila is a ubiquitous environmental bacterium that has evolved to infect and proliferate within amoebae and other protists. It is thought that accidental inhalation of contaminated water particles by humans is what has enabled this pathogen to proliferate within alveolar macrophages and cause pneumonia. However, the highly evolved macrophages are equipped with more sophisticated innate defence mechanisms than are protists, such as the evolution of phagotrophic feeding into phagocytosis with more evolved innate defence processes.

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Within the human host, replicates within alveolar macrophages, leading to pneumonia. However, is an aquatic generalist pathogen that replicates within a wide variety of protist hosts, including amoebozoa, percolozoa, and ciliophora. The intracellular lifestyles of within the two evolutionarily distant hosts macrophages and protists are remarkably similar.

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Acquisition of nutrients during intra-vacuolar growth of L. pneumophila within macrophages or amoebae is poorly understood. Since many genes of L.

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Legionella pneumophila invades protozoa with an "accidental" ability to cause pneumonia upon transmission to humans. To support its nutrition during intracellular residence, L. pneumophila relies on host amino acids as the main source of carbon and energy to feed the TCA cycle.

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is a gram-negative bacterial pathogen, which causes tularemia in humans and animals. A crucial step of infection is its invasion of macrophage cells. Biogenesis of the -containing phagosome (FCP) is arrested for ~15 min at the endosomal stage, followed by gradual bacterial escape into the cytosol, where the microbe proliferates.

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Within macrophages and amoeba, the Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV) membrane is derived from the ER. The bona fide F-box AnkB effector protein of L. pneumophila strain AA100/130b is anchored to the cytosolic side of the LCV membrane through host-mediated farnesylation of its C-terminal eukaryotic "CaaX" motif.

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Ankyrin B (AnkB/LegAU13) is a translocated F box effector essential for the intracellular replication of the pathogen Legionella pneumophila. AnkB co-opts a host ubiquitin ligase to decorate the pathogen-containing vacuole with K-linked polyubiquitinated proteins and degrade host proteins as a source of energy. Here, we report that AnkB commandeers the host ubiquitin-proteasome system through mimicry of two eukaryotic protein domains.

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Francisella tularensis is a facultative intracellular bacterium that causes tularemia in humans and animals. Epidemiology of tularemia worldwide is often associated with water-borne transmission, which includes mosquitoes and amoebae as the potential host reservoirs of the bacteria in water environment. In vitro studies showed intracellular replication of F.

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Yersinia pestis is a facultative intracellular pathogen that causes the disease known as plague. During infection of macrophages Y. pestis actively evades the normal phagosomal maturation pathway to establish a replicative niche within the cell.

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The fate of the polyubiquitinated protein is determined by the lysine linkages involved in the polymerization of the ubiquitin monomers, which has seven lysine residues (K(6), K(11), K(27), K(29), K(33), K(48), and K(63)). The translocated AnkB effector of the intravacuolar pathogen Legionella pneumophila is a bona fide F-box protein, which is localized to the cytosolic side of the Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV) and is essential for intravacuolar proliferation within macrophages and amoebae. The F-box domain of AnkB interacts with the host SCF1 E3 ubiquitin ligase that triggers the decoration of the LCV with K(48)-linked polyubiquitinated proteins that are targeted for proteasomal degradation.

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Legionella pneumophila utilizes the Dot/Icm type IV translocation system to proliferate within a vacuole in a wide variety of natural amoebal hosts and in alveolar macrophages of the human accidental host. Although L. pneumophila utilizes host amino acids as the main sources of carbon and energy, it is not known whether de novo synthesis of amino acids by intravacuolar L.

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