Instituto de Biotecnología, CICVyA-INTA Castelar, Los Reseros y Las Cabañas s/n, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
BMC Microbiol. 2011 May 9;11:95. doi: 10.1186/1471-2180-11-95.
Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is an intracellular bacterial pathogen which can colonize a variety of hosts, including human, causing syndromes that vary from gastroenteritis and diarrhea to systemic disease.
In this work we present structural information as well as insights into the in vivo function of YqiC, a 99-residue protein of S. Typhimurium, which belongs to the cluster of the orthologous group 2960 (COG2960). We found that YqiC shares biophysical and biochemical properties with Brucella abortus BMFP, the only previously characterized member of this group, such as a high alpha helix content, a coiled-coil domain involved in trimerization and a membrane fusogenic activity in vitro. In addition, we demonstrated that YqiC localizes at cytoplasmic and membrane subcellular fractions, that a S. Typhimurium yqiC deficient strain had a severe attenuation in virulence in the murine model when inoculated both orally and intraperitoneally, and was impaired to replicate at physiological and high temperatures in vitro, although it was still able to invade and replicate inside epithelial and macrophages cell lines.
This work firstly demonstrates the importance of a COG2960 member for pathogen-host interaction, and suggests a common function conserved among members of this group.
鼠伤寒沙门氏菌是一种胞内细菌病原体，可定植于多种宿主，包括人类，引起从胃肠炎和腹泻到全身性疾病的综合征。
在这项工作中，我们提供了结构信息以及对鼠伤寒沙门氏菌 99 个残基蛋白 YqiC 的体内功能的深入了解，该蛋白属于同源群 2960（COG2960）簇。我们发现 YqiC 与 Brucella abortus BMFP 具有生物物理和生化特性，后者是该组中唯一具有特征的成员，如高α螺旋含量、涉及三聚化的卷曲螺旋域以及体外的膜融合活性。此外，我们证明了 YqiC 定位于细胞质和膜亚细胞部分，鼠伤寒沙门氏菌 yqiC 缺陷株在口服和腹腔内接种的小鼠模型中毒力严重减弱，并且在体外生理和高温下的复制能力受损，尽管它仍然能够侵入和复制上皮细胞和巨噬细胞系内。
这项工作首次证明了 COG2960 成员在病原体-宿主相互作用中的重要性，并表明该组中成员具有保守的共同功能。
