Project description:The intracellular bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila causes an inflammatory pneumonia called Legionnaires’ Disease. For virulence, L. pneumophila requires a Dot/Icm type IV secretion system that translocates bacterial effectors to the host cytosol. L. pneumophila lacking the Dot/Icm system is recognized by Toll-like receptors (TLRs), leading to a canonical NF-κB-dependent transcriptional response. In addition, L. pneumophila expressing a functional Dot/Icm system potently induces unique transcriptional targets, including proinflammatory genes such as Il23a and Csf2. Here we demonstrate that this Dot/Icm-dependent response, which we term the effector-triggered response (ETR), requires five translocated bacterial effectors that inhibit host protein synthesis. Upon infection of macrophages with virulent L. pneumophila, these five effectors caused a global decrease in host translation, thereby preventing synthesis of IκB, an inhibitor of the NF-κB transcription factor. Thus, macrophages infected with wildtype L. pneumophila exhibited prolonged activation of NF-κB, which was associated with transcription of ETR target genes such as Il23a and Csf2. L. pneumophila mutants lacking the five effectors still activated TLRs and NF-κB, but because the mutants permitted normal IκB synthesis, NF-κB activation was more transient and was not sufficient to fully induce the ETR. L. pneumophila mutants expressing enzymatically inactive effectors were also unable to fully induce the ETR, whereas multiple compounds or bacterial toxins that inhibit host protein synthesis via distinct mechanisms recapitulated the ETR when administered with TLR ligands. Previous studies have demonstrated that the host response to bacterial infection is induced primarily by specific microbial molecules that activate TLRs or cytosolic pattern recognition receptors. Our results add to this model by providing a striking illustration of how the host immune response to a virulent pathogen can also be shaped by pathogen-encoded activities, such as inhibition of host protein synthesis. Four-condition experiment: macrophages left uninfected (negative control), or infected with wildtype Legionella pneumophila, the flagellin-deficient mutant ΔflaA, or the secretion-deficient mutant ΔdotA (three experimental conditions). Biological replicates: two, independently infected, harvested, and hybridized to arrays. One to two technical replicates per array, as indicated in file titles.

Project description:The intracellular bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila causes an inflammatory pneumonia called Legionnaires’ Disease. For virulence, L. pneumophila requires a Dot/Icm type IV secretion system that translocates bacterial effectors to the host cytosol. L. pneumophila lacking the Dot/Icm system is recognized by Toll-like receptors (TLRs), leading to a canonical NF-κB-dependent transcriptional response. In addition, L. pneumophila expressing a functional Dot/Icm system potently induces unique transcriptional targets, including proinflammatory genes such as Il23a and Csf2. Here we demonstrate that this Dot/Icm-dependent response, which we term the effector-triggered response (ETR), requires five translocated bacterial effectors that inhibit host protein synthesis. Upon infection of macrophages with virulent L. pneumophila, these five effectors caused a global decrease in host translation, thereby preventing synthesis of IκB, an inhibitor of the NF-κB transcription factor. Thus, macrophages infected with wildtype L. pneumophila exhibited prolonged activation of NF-κB, which was associated with transcription of ETR target genes such as Il23a and Csf2. L. pneumophila mutants lacking the five effectors still activated TLRs and NF-κB, but because the mutants permitted normal IκB synthesis, NF-κB activation was more transient and was not sufficient to fully induce the ETR. L. pneumophila mutants expressing enzymatically inactive effectors were also unable to fully induce the ETR, whereas multiple compounds or bacterial toxins that inhibit host protein synthesis via distinct mechanisms recapitulated the ETR when administered with TLR ligands. Previous studies have demonstrated that the host response to bacterial infection is induced primarily by specific microbial molecules that activate TLRs or cytosolic pattern recognition receptors. Our results add to this model by providing a striking illustration of how the host immune response to a virulent pathogen can also be shaped by pathogen-encoded activities, such as inhibition of host protein synthesis.

Project description:Legionella pneumophila is the causative agent of Legionnaires’ disease, an acute pulmonary infection. L. pneumophila is able to infect and multiply in both phagocytic protozoan, such as Acanthamoeba castellanii, and mammalian professional phagocytes. The best-known virulence determinant used by L. pneumophila to infect host cells is a Type IVb translocation system named Icm/Dot, which is used to modify the host cell functions to the benefit of the bacteria. To date the Icm/Dot systeme is known to translocate more than 100 effectors. While the transcriptional response of Legionella to the intracellular environement of A. castelannii as already been investigated, much less is known of how Legionella reacts transcriptionnally inside human macrophages. In this study, the transcriptome of L. pneumophila was monitored during exponential and post-exponential phase in rich AYE broth and during infection of human cultured macrophages by using microarray and a RNA amplification procedure called SCOTS to allow for the study of conditions of low bacterial loads. Among the genes induced intracellularly are those involved in amino acid synthesis pathway leading to L-arginine, L-histidne and L-proline as well as many transport system involved in amino acid and iron uptake. The Icm/Dot systems is not differentially expressed inside cells compare to the E phase control but the effectors are strongly induced. The intracellular transcriptome was further used to identify putative new Icm/Dot effectors and translocation was show to occur for 3 of them. This study provides a comprehensive view of how L. pneumophila react to the human macrophages intracellular environment. To validate the use of SCOTS, we compare the expression patterns obtained by SCOTS to those obtained when a standard microarray protocol was used. RNA from bacteria in E phase was treated using SCOTS or a standard microarray protocol where the cDNA is labeled during the reverse transcription reaction as previously published. The resulting cDNA was hybridized to the microarray slides as described previously and data analysis was carried out the same way as for the SCOTS treated samples.

Project description:Legionella pneumophila is the causative agent of Legionnaires’ disease, an acute pulmonary infection. L. pneumophila is able to infect and multiply in both phagocytic protozoan, such as Acanthamoeba castellanii, and mammalian professional phagocytes. The best-known virulence determinant used by L. pneumophila to infect host cells is a Type IVb translocation system named Icm/Dot, which is used to modify the host cell functions to the benefit of the bacteria. To date the Icm/Dot systeme is known to translocate more than 100 effectors. While the transcriptional response of Legionella to the intracellular environement of A. castelannii as already been investigated, much less is known of how Legionella reacts transcriptionnally inside human macrophages. In this study, the transcriptome of L. pneumophila was monitored during exponential and post-exponential phase in rich AYE broth and during infection of human cultured macrophages by using microarray and a RNA amplification procedure called SCOTS to allow for the study of conditions of low bacterial loads. Among the genes induced intracellularly are those involved in amino acid synthesis pathway leading to L-arginine, L-histidne and L-proline as well as many transport system involved in amino acid and iron uptake. The Icm/Dot systems is not differentially expressed inside cells compare to the E phase control but the effectors are strongly induced. The intracellular transcriptome was further used to identify putative new Icm/Dot effectors and translocation was show to occur for 3 of them. This study provides a comprehensive view of how L. pneumophila react to the human macrophages intracellular environment. The aim of this work was to study the gene expression profile of Legionella during infection of macrophages infected at a low multiplicity of infection (MOI). SCOTS is a method that allows amplification of small amounts of bacterial RNA from infected host cells, while discarding host cell transcripts and ribosomal RNA. Before infection, macrophages derived from the THP-1 monocyte cell line were pre-treated with antibodies against the L. pneumophila major outer membrane protein, which increases the efficiency of bacterial entry into host cells . After 2 hours of infection, the macrophages were washed and treated with gentamicin for 1 hour, to synchronize the infection and kill extracellular bacteria, and cells were washed 3 times and fresh medium was added. Samples for the first time point (T0) were collected after the gentamicin treatment. Samples were also collected after 6h (T6) and 18h (T18). Samples from all conditions, including growth in AYE broth to exponential (E) or post exponential (PE) phase, were treated with three consecutive rounds of SCOTS and the resulting cDNA was labeled and hybridized to the microarray slides. As a reference channel, labeled gDNA was also hybridized. For each condition studied, three independent biological replicates and two technical replicates were analyzed, resulting in six replicates for each condition. The data was background subtracted and normalized by calculating the contribution of each spot to the total intensity and the ratio to gDNA was recorded. A one tailed student's T test was used for statistical analysis and the ratio between test conditions (PE, T0, T6 and T18) and the control conditions (E phase or T0) was calculated.

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Secreted bacterial effectors that inhibit host protein synthesis are critical for induction of the innate immune response to virulent Legionella pneumophila [exp2]

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