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Neuronal Goα and CAPS regulate behavioral and immune responses to bacterial pore-forming toxins.

ABSTRACT: Pore-forming toxins (PFTs) are abundant bacterial virulence factors that attack host cell plasma membranes. Host defense mechanisms against PFTs described to date all function in the host tissue that is directly attacked by the PFT. Here we characterize a rapid and fully penetrant cessation of feeding of Caenorhabditis elegans in response to PFT attack. We demonstrate via analyses of C. elegans mutants that inhibition of feeding by PFT requires the neuronal G protein Goα subunit goa-1, and that maintenance of this response requires neuronally expressed calcium activator for protein secretion (CAPS) homolog unc-31. Independently from their role in feeding cessation, we find that goa-1 and unc-31 are additionally required for immune protection against PFTs. We thus demonstrate that the behavioral and immune responses to bacterial PFT attack involve the cross-talk between the nervous system and the cells directly under attack.

SUBMITTER: Los FC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3547950 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Bacterial pathogens use various strategies to interfere with host cell functions. Among these strategies, bacteria induce transcriptional changes, in order to modify the set of proteins synthetized by the host cell, or target pre-existing proteins by modulating their post-translational modifications or by triggering their degradation. Protein levels variations in host cells during infection integrates both transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulations induced by pathogens. Here, we focused on host proteome alterations induced by the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, and more specifically the Listeria toxin Listeriolysin O (LLO). In order to characterize host proteome alterations induced by LLO, we performed a shotgun proteomics analysis on HeLa cells treated or not with the LLO toxin. To this end, we used SILAC labelling (stable isotope labelling by amino acids in cell culture) to compared in a quantitative manner the protein content from two differentially treated cell populations: one control population and one population incubated with a sublytic dose of LLO (3 nM). We decided to expose cells to LLO during only 20 min to limit protein level changes resulting from transcriptional changes. We performed two independent experiments (experiment #1 and experiment #2) with swapped SILAC labelling to rule out putative labelling-dependent effects. A total of 2009 and 2577 proteins was quantified in each independent experiment, respectively, and 1834 proteins were quantified in both experiments. Among these 1834 proteins, we identified a total of 151 proteins for which protein levels were consistently decreased in cells treated with LLO (i.e. with a log2 control/LLO ratio >0.5 in both experiments). To assess whether the host proteasome was involved in the decrease of these 151 proteins, we repeated our proteomics analysis on SILAC-labelled HeLa cells pre-treated with proteasome inhibitors before exposure to LLO. Two independent experiments were similarly performed with swapped SILAC labelling (experiment #3 and experiment #4). Interestingly, we observed that the vast majority of host proteins identified as strongly downregulated in response to LLO also displayed significant decreased levels in the presence of proteasome inhibitors, indicating that the majority of observed decreases in host protein levels induced by LLO are not due to proteasome-mediated degradation. In follow-up experiments, we validated that LLO decreases in particular the protein level of two E2 ubiquitin enzymes, UBE2K and UBE2N, leading to major changes in the host ubiquitylome. This toxin-induced proteome remodeling involves post-transcriptional regulations, as no modification in the transcription levels of the corresponding genes was observed. These decreases in host protein levels were observed in different epithelial cell lines but not in macrophages. In addition, we could show that Perfringolysin O, another bacterial pore-forming toxin similar to LLO, also induces host proteome changes. Taken together, our data show that different bacterial pore-forming toxins induce deep proteome remodeling, that may impair host epithelial cell functions.

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Neuronal Goα and CAPS regulate behavioral and immune responses to bacterial pore-forming toxins.

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