scholarly journals Contribution of Human Thrombospondin-1 to the Pathogenesis of Gram-Positive Bacteria

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Binsker ◽  
Thomas P. Kohler ◽  
Sven Hammerschmidt

A successful colonization of different compartments of the human host requires multifactorial contacts between bacterial surface proteins and host factors. Extracellular matrix proteins and matricellular proteins such as thrombospondin-1 play a pivotal role as adhesive substrates to ensure a strong interaction with pathobionts like the Gram-positive Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus. The human glycoprotein thrombospondin-1 is a component of the extracellular matrix and is highly abundant in the bloodstream during bacteremia. Human platelets secrete thrombospondin-1, which is then acquired by invading pathogens to facilitate colonization and immune evasion. Gram-positive bacteria express a broad spectrum of surface-exposed proteins, some of which also recognize thrombospondin-1. This review highlights the importance of thrombospondin-1 as an adhesion substrate to facilitate colonization, and we summarize the variety of thrombospondin-1-binding proteins of S. pneumoniae and S. aureus.

mBio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Resch ◽  
James Anthony Tsatsaronis ◽  
Anaïs Le Rhun ◽  
Gerald Stübiger ◽  
Manfred Rohde ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Export of macromolecules via extracellular membrane-derived vesicles (MVs) plays an important role in the biology of Gram-negative bacteria. Gram-positive bacteria have also recently been reported to produce MVs; however, the composition and mechanisms governing vesiculogenesis in Gram-positive bacteria remain undefined. Here, we describe MV production in the Gram-positive human pathogen group A streptococcus (GAS), the etiological agent of necrotizing fasciitis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. M1 serotype GAS isolates in culture exhibit MV structures both on the cell wall surface and in the near vicinity of bacterial cells. A comprehensive analysis of MV proteins identified both virulence-associated protein substrates of the general secretory pathway in addition to “anchorless surface proteins.” Characteristic differences in the contents, distributions, and fatty acid compositions of specific lipids between MVs and GAS cell membrane were also observed. Furthermore, deep RNA sequencing of vesicular RNAs revealed that GAS MVs contained differentially abundant RNA species relative to bacterial cellular RNA. MV production by GAS strains varied in a manner dependent on an intact two-component system, CovRS, with MV production negatively regulated by the system. Modulation of MV production through CovRS was found to be independent of both GAS cysteine protease SpeB and capsule biosynthesis. Our data provide an explanation for GAS secretion of macromolecules, including RNAs, lipids, and proteins, and illustrate a regulatory mechanism coordinating this secretory response. IMPORTANCE Group A streptococcus (GAS) is a Gram-positive bacterial pathogen responsible for more than 500,000 deaths annually. Establishment of GAS infection is dependent on a suite of proteins exported via the general secretory pathway. Here, we show that GAS naturally produces extracellular vesicles with a unique lipid composition that are laden with proteins and RNAs. Interestingly, both virulence-associated proteins and RNA species were found to be differentially abundant in vesicles relative to the bacteria. Furthermore, we show that genetic disruption of the virulence-associated two-component regulator CovRS leads to an increase in vesicle production. This study comprehensively describes the protein, RNA, and lipid composition of GAS-secreted MVs and alludes to a regulatory system impacting this process.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang-Na Guan ◽  
Tao Zhang ◽  
Teng Yang ◽  
Ze Dong ◽  
Song Yang ◽  
...  

The housekeeping sortase A (SrtA), a membrane-associated cysteine transpeptidase, is responsible for anchoring surface proteins to the cell wall peptidoglycan in Gram-positive bacteria. This process is essential for the regulation...


2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (12) ◽  
pp. 3831-3841
Author(s):  
Lidia Muscariello ◽  
Barbara De Siena ◽  
Rosangela Marasco

AbstractThe gut microbiota is a complex microbial ecosystem where bacteria, through mutual interactions, cooperate in maintaining of wellbeing and health. Lactobacilli are among the most important constituents of human and animal intestinal microbiota and include many probiotic strains. Their presence ensures protection from invasion of pathogens, as well as stimulation of the immune system and protection of the intestinal flora, often exerted through the ability to interact with mucus and extracellular matrix components. The main factors responsible for mediating adhesion of pathogens and commensals to the gut are cell surface proteins that recognize host targets, as mucus layer and extracellular matrix proteins. In the last years, several adhesins have been reported to be involved in lactobacilli–host interaction often miming the same mechanism used by pathogens.


2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (09) ◽  
pp. 488-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patric Nitsche-Schmitz ◽  
Manfred Rohde ◽  
Gursharan Chhatwal

SummaryGram-positive cocci are important human pathogens. Streptococci and staphylococci in particular are a major threat to human health,since they cause a variety of serious invasive infections. Their invasion into normally sterile sites of the host depends on elaborated bacterial mechanisms that involve adhesion to the host tissue, its degradation, internalisation by host cells, and passage through epithelia and endothelia. Interactions of bacterial surface proteins with proteins of the host’s extracellular matrix as well as with cell surface receptors are crucial factors in these processes, and some of the key mechanisms are similar in many pathogenic Gram-positive cocci.Therapies that interfere with these mechanisms may become efficient alternatives to today’s antibiotic treatments.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1659-1666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt H. Piepenbrink ◽  
Eric J. Sundberg

Type IV pili are hair-like bacterial surface appendages that play a role in diverse processes such as cellular adhesion, colonization, twitching motility, biofilm formation, and horizontal gene transfer. These extracellular fibers are composed exclusively or primarily of many copies of one or more pilin proteins, tightly packed in a helix so that the highly hydrophobic amino-terminus of the pilin is buried in the pilus core. Type IV pili have been characterized extensively in Gram-negative bacteria, and recent advances in high-throughput genomic sequencing have revealed that they are also widespread in Gram-positive bacteria. Here, we review the current state of knowledge of type IV pilus systems in Gram-positive bacterial species and discuss them in the broader context of eubacterial type IV pili.


2004 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 2710-2722 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Comfort ◽  
Robert T. Clubb

ABSTRACT Surface proteins in gram-positive bacteria are frequently required for virulence, and many are attached to the cell wall by sortase enzymes. Bacteria frequently encode more than one sortase enzyme and an even larger number of potential sortase substrates that possess an LPXTG-type cell wall sorting signal. In order to elucidate the sorting pathways present in gram-positive bacteria, we performed a comparative analysis of 72 sequenced microbial genomes. We show that sortase enzymes can be partitioned into five distinct subfamilies based upon their primary sequences and that most of their substrates can be predicted by making a few conservative assumptions. Most bacteria encode sortases from two or more subfamilies, which are predicted to function nonredundantly in sorting proteins to the cell surface. Only ∼20% of sortase-related proteins are most closely related to the well-characterized Staphylococcus aureus SrtA protein, but nonetheless, these proteins are responsible for anchoring the majority of surface proteins in gram-positive bacteria. In contrast, most sortase-like proteins are predicted to play a more specialized role, with each anchoring far fewer proteins that contain unusual sequence motifs. The functional sortase-substrate linkage predictions are available online (http://www.doe-mbi.ucla.edu/Services/Sortase/ ) in a searchable database.


Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Maria Valeria Raimondi ◽  
Roberta Listro ◽  
Maria Grazia Cusimano ◽  
Mery La Franca ◽  
Teresa Faddetta ◽  
...  

Sortase A (SrtA) is a membrane enzyme responsible for the covalent anchoring of surface proteins on the cell wall of Gram-positive bacteria. [...]


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Järvå ◽  
Helmut Hirt ◽  
Gary M. Dunny ◽  
Ronnie P.-A. Berntsson

Surface proteins in Gram-positive bacteria are often involved in biofilm formation, host-cell interactions, and surface attachment. Here we review a protein module found in surface proteins that are often encoded on various mobile genetic elements like conjugative plasmids. This module binds to different types of polymers like DNA, lipoteichoic acid and glucans, and is here termed polymer adhesin domain. We analyze all proteins that contain a polymer adhesin domain and classify the proteins into distinct classes based on phylogenetic and protein domain analysis. Protein function and ligand binding show class specificity, information that will be useful in determining the function of the large number of so far uncharacterized proteins containing a polymer adhesin domain.


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