Co-ordinated Ras and Rac activity shapes macropinocytic cups and enables phagocytosis of geometrically diverse bacteria

Engulfment of extracellular material by phagocytosis or macropinocytosis depends on the ability of cells to generate specialised cup shaped protrusions. To effectively capture and internalise their targets, these cups are organised into a ring or ruffle of actin-driven protrusion encircling a non-protrusive interior domain. These functional domains depend on the combined activities of multiple Ras and Rho family small GTPases, but how their activities are integrated and differentially regulated over space and time is unknown. Here, we show that the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum coordinates Ras and Rac activity using the multidomain protein RGBARG (RCC1, RhoGEF, BAR and RasGAP-containing protein). We find RGBARG uses a tripartite mechanism of Ras, Rac and phospholipid interactions to localise at the protruding edge and interface with the interior of both macropinocytic and phagocytic cups. There, RGBARG shapes the protrusion by driving Rac activation at the rim whilst suppressing expansion of the active Ras interior domain. Consequently, cells lacking RGBARG form enlarged, flat interior domains unable to generate large macropinosomes. During phagocytosis, we find that disruption of RGBARG causes a geometry-specific defect in engulfing rod-shaped bacteria and ellipsoidal beads. This demonstrates the importance of co-ordinating small GTPase activities during engulfment of more complex shapes and thus the full physiological range of microbes, and how this is achieved in a model professional phagocyte.

Proteomic characterization of the Mycobacterium marinum-containing vacuole in Dictyostelium discoideum

ABSTRACTMycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, is able to manipulate the phagosome compartment where it resides in order to establish a permissive replicative compartment called the Mycobacterium-containing vacuole (MCV). Mycobacterium marinum, a fish pathogen and a close relative of the tuberculosis group, is also able to infect the free-living amoeba and professional phagocyte Dictyostelium discoideum and to manipulate its phagosome maturation. By using this host/pathogen model system, we have established an innovative procedure to isolate MCVs. This procedure allowed us to isolate M. marinum-MCV at 1, 3 and 6 hours post infection to study the early M. marinum-MCV proteome. By using isobaric labelling and mass spectrometry, we quantitatively compared the proteomic composition of those MCVs isolated at different stages of the early infection phase to understand how M. marinum impacts on this compartment to divert it from the normal phagosomal pathway. Furthermore, we also compare the manipulated compartment M. marinum-MCV to non- or less manipulated compartments containing different mycobacteria strains: the non-pathogenic M. smegmatis, the avirulent M. marinum-L1D or the attenuated M. marinum-RD1.

Zn2+ intoxication of Mycobacterium marinum during Dictyostelium discoideum infection is counteracted by induction of the pathogen Zn2+ exporter CtpC

ABSTRACTMacrophages use diverse strategies to kill or restrict intracellular pathogens. Some of these strategies involve the deprivation of bacteria from (micro)nutrients such as transition metals, and the bacteria intoxication through metal accumulation. Little is known about the chemical warfare between Mycobacterium marinum, a close relative of the human pathogen M. tuberculosis, and its hosts. Here we use the professional phagocyte Dictyostelium discoideum to investigate the role of Zn2+ during M. marinum infection. We show that M. marinum infection induces the accumulation of Zn2+ inside the Mycobacterium-containing vacuole (MCV), achieved by the induction and recruitment of the D. discoideum Zn2+ efflux pumps ZntA and ZntB. In cells lacking the ZntA detoxifying transporter there is further attenuation of M. marinum growth, possibly due to a compensatory efflux of Zn2+ into the MCV. This efflux is presumably carried out by ZntB, the main Zn2+ transporter in endosomes and phagosomes. Counterintuitively, M. marinum growth is also impaired in zntB KO cells, where MCVs accumulate less Zn2+. We also demonstrate that M. marinum senses toxic levels of Zn2+ and responds by upregulating its Zn2+ exporter CtpC, which supports bacteria survival under these restrictive conditions. Attenuation of M. marinum intracellular proliferation in zntA and zntB KO cells is accentuated in the absence of CtpC, confirming that mycobacteria face noxious levels of Zn2+. Altogether, we show for the first time that M. marinum infection induces a deleterious Zn2+ elevation in D. discoideum, which is counteracted by the bacteria with the induction of its Zn2+ exporter CtpC.

A Diaphanous-related formin links Ras signaling directly to actin assembly in macropinocytosis and phagocytosis

Phagocytosis and macropinocytosis are Ras-regulated and actin-driven processes that depend on the dynamic rearrangements of the plasma membrane that protrudes and internalizes extracellular material by cup-shaped structures. However, the regulatory mechanisms underlying actin assembly in large-scale endocytosis remain elusive. Here, we show that the Diaphanous-related formin G (ForG) from the professional phagocyte Dictyostelium discoideum localizes to endocytic cups. Biochemical analyses revealed that ForG is a rather weak nucleator but efficiently elongates actin filaments in the presence of profilin. Notably, genetic inactivation of ForG is associated with a strongly impaired endocytosis and a markedly diminished F-actin content at the base of the cups. By contrast, ablation of the Arp2/3 (actin-related protein-2/3) complex activator SCAR (suppressor of cAMP receptor) diminishes F-actin mainly at the cup rim, being consistent with its known localization. These data therefore suggest that ForG acts as an actin polymerase of Arp2/3-nucleated filaments to allow for efficient membrane expansion and engulfment of extracellular material. Finally, we show that ForG is directly regulated in large-scale endocytosis by RasB and RasG, which are highly related to the human proto-oncogene KRas.

Specifics of professional phagocyte activity in residents of radiation-contaminated areas

We studied phagocytic activity indices in patients aged 18-24 who lived from birth in the territories contaminated with radionuclides due to the Chornobyl catastrophe. We revealed that in the analyzed years there has been a gradual decline in indices of phagocytic number and phagocytic index, especially pronounced for populations of monocytes. There is a growing negative correlation between the activity of 137Cs in contaminated areas and phagocytic activity of monocytes in the population of these territories from 1995 to 2014.