Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli remodels host endosomes to promote endocytic turnover and breakdown of surface polarity

Ephrem G. Kassa, Efrat Zlotkin-Rivkin, Gil Friedman, Rachana P. Ramachandran, Naomi Melamed-Book, Aryeh M. Weiss, Michael Belenky, Dana Reichmann, William Breuer, Ritesh Ranjan Pal, Ilan Rosenshine, Lynne A. Lapierre, James R. Goldenring, Benjamin Aroeti

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17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) is an extracellular diarrheagenic human pathogen which infects the apical plasma membrane of the small intestinal enterocytes. EPEC utilizes a type III secretion system to translocate bacterial effector proteins into its epithelial hosts. This activity, which subverts numerous signaling and membrane trafficking pathways in the infected cells, is thought to contribute to pathogen virulence. The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying these events are not well understood. We investigated the mode by which EPEC effectors hijack endosomes to modulate endocytosis, recycling and transcytosis in epithelial host cells. To this end, we developed a flow cytometry-based assay and imaging techniques to track endosomal dynamics and membrane cargo trafficking in the infected cells. We show that type-III secreted components prompt the recruitment of clathrin (clathrin and AP2), early (Rab5a and EEA1) and recycling (Rab4a, Rab11a, Rab11b, FIP2, Myo5b) endocytic machineries to peripheral plasma membrane infection sites. Protein cargoes, e.g. transferrin receptors, β1 integrins and aquaporins, which exploit the endocytic pathways mediated by these machineries, were also found to be recruited to these sites. Moreover, the endosomes and cargo recruitment to infection sites correlated with an increase in cargo endocytic turnover (i.e. endocytosis and recycling) and transcytosis to the infected plasma membrane. The hijacking of endosomes and associated endocytic activities depended on the translocated EspF and Map effectors in non-polarized epithelial cells, and mostly on EspF in polarized epithelial cells. These data suggest a model whereby EPEC effectors hijack endosomal recycling machineries to mislocalize and concentrate host plasma membrane proteins in endosomes and in the apically infected plasma membrane. We hypothesize that these activities contribute to bacterial colonization and virulence.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere1007851
JournalPLoS Pathogens
Volume15
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Kassa et al.

Funding

This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation to BA (ISF 1483/13 https:// www.isf.org.il/#/) and by the Binational Science Foundation to B.A. and J.R.G (BSF 2015212 http:// www.bsf.org.il/BSFPublic/Default.aspx). EGK and RPR are recipients of the Dr. Willem Been Legacy Fellowship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

FundersFunder number
ISF 1483/13 https
United States-Israel Binational Science FoundationBSF 2015212
Israel Science FoundationISF 1483/13

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