Cazevieille, C. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2018

Microbial predator-prey interactions could favor coincidental selection of diverse virulence factors in marine coastal waters.

Vibrios are ubiquitous in marine environments and opportunistically colonize a broad range of hosts. Strains of Vibrio tasmaniensis present in oyster farms can thrive in oysters during juvenile mortality events. Among them, V. tasmaniensis LGP32 behaves as a facultative intracellular pathogen of oyster hemocytes, a property rather unusual in vibrios. Herein, we asked whether LGP32 resistance to phagocytosis could result from coincidental selection of virulence factors during interactions with heterotrophic protists, such as amoeba, in the environment. To answer that question, we developed an integrative study, from the first description of amoeba diversity in oyster-farming areas to the characterization of LGP32 interactions with amoebae of the Vannella genus that were found abundant in the oyster environment. LGP32 was shown to be resistant to grazing by amoebae and this phenotype was dependent on previously identified virulence factors: the secreted metalloprotease Vsm and the copper efflux p-ATPase CopA. Using dedicated in vitro assays, our results showed that these virulence factors act at different steps during amoeba-vibrio interactions than they do in oysters-vibrio interactions. Hence, the virulence factors of LGP32 are key determinants of biotic interactions with multiple hosts ranging from protozoans to metazoans, suggesting that the selective pressure exerted by amoebae in marine coastal environments favor coincidental selection of virulence factors.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2018

Wolbachia endosymbionts subvert the endoplasmic reticulum to acquire host membranes without triggering ER stress

The reproductive parasite Wolbachia are the most common endosymbionts on earth, present in a plethora of arthropod species. They have been introduced into mosquitos to successfully prevent the spread of vector-borne diseases, yet the strategies of host cell subversion underlying their obligate intracellular lifestyle remain to be explored in depth in order to gain insights into the mechanisms of pathogen-blocking. Like some other intracellular bacteria, Wolbachia reside in a host-derived vacuole in order to replicate and escape the immune surveillance. Using here the pathogen-blocking Wolbachia strain from Drosophila melanogaster, introduced into two different Drosophila cell lines, we show that Wolbachia subvert the endoplasmic reticulum to acquire their vacuolar membrane and colonize the host cell at high density. Wolbachia redistribute the endoplasmic reticulum to increase contact sites, and time lapse experiments reveal tight coupled dynamics suggesting important signalling events or nutrient uptake. They however do not affect the tubular or cisternal morphologies. A fraction of endoplasmic reticulum becomes clustered, allowing the endosymbionts to reside in between the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus, possibly modulating the traffic between these two organelles. Gene expression analyses and immunostaining studies suggest that Wolbachia achieve persistent infections at very high titers without triggering endoplasmic reticulum stress or enhanced ERAD-driven proteolysis, suggesting that amino acid salvage is achieved through modulation of other signalling pathways.\n\nAuthor summaryWolbachia are a genus of intracellular bacteria living in symbiosis with millions of arthropod species. They have the ability to block the transmission of arboviruses when introduced into mosquito vectors, by interfering with the cellular resources exploited by these viruses. Despite the biomedical interest of this symbiosis, little is known about the mechanisms by which Wolbachia survive and replicate in the host cell. We show here that the membrane composing the Wolbachia vacuole is acquired from the endoplasmic reticulum, a central organelle required for protein and lipid synthesis, and from which originates a vesicular trafficking toward the Golgi apparatus and the secretory pathway. Wolbachia modify the distribution of this organelle to increase their interactions with this source of membrane and likely of nutrients as well. In contrast to some intracellular pathogenic bacteria, the effect of Wolbachia on the cell homeostasis does not induce a stress on the endoplasmic reticulum. One of the consequences of such a stress would be an increased proteolysis used to relieve the cell from an excess of misfolded proteins. Incidentally, this shows that Wolbachia do not acquire amino acids from the host cell through this strategy.

cell biology↗