Phobalysin: fisheye view of membrane perforation, repair, chemotaxis and adhesion

Phobalysin P (PhlyP, for photobacterial lysin encoded on a plasmid) is a recently described small %26beta;-pore forming toxin of Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae (Pdd). This organism, belonging to the family of Vibrionaceae, is an emerging pathogen of fish and various marine animals, which occasionally causes life-threatening soft tissue infections and septicemia in humans. By using genetically modified Pdd strains, PhlyP was found to be an important virulence factor. More recently, in vitro studies with purified PhlyP elucidated some basic consequences of pore formation. Being the first bacterial small %26beta;-pore forming toxin shown to trigger calcium-influx dependent membrane repair, PhlyP has advanced to a revealing model toxin to study this important cellular function. Further, results from co-culture experiments employing various Pdd strains and epithelial cells together with data on other bacterial toxins indicate that limited membrane damage may generally enhance the association of bacteria with target cells. Thereby, remodeling of plasma membrane and cytoskeleton during membrane repair could be involved. In addition, a chemotaxis-dependent attack-and track mechanism influenced by environmental factors like salinity may contribute to PhlyP-dependent association of Pdd with cells. Obviously, a synoptic approach is required to capture the regulatory links governing the interaction of Pdd with target cells. The characterization of Pdd%26rsquo;s secretome may hold additional clues because it may lead to the identification of proteases activating PhlyP%26rsquo;s pro-form. Current findings on PhlyP support the notion that pore forming toxins are not just killer proteins but serve bacteria to fulfill more subtle functions, like accessing their host

eIF2alpha Confers Cellular Tolerance to S. aureus alpha-Toxin

We report on the role of conserved stress-response pathways for cellular tolerance to a pore forming toxin. First, we observed that small molecular weight inhibitors including of eIF2alpha-phosphatase, jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK), and PI3-kinase sensitized normal mouse embryonal fibroblasts (MEFs) to the small pore forming S. aureus alpha-toxin. Sensitization depended on expression of mADAM10, the murine ortholog of a proposed high-affinity receptor for alpha-toxin in human cells. Similarly, eIF2alpha (S51A/S51A) MEFs, which harbor an Ala knock-in mutation at the regulated Ser51 phosphorylation site of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2alpha, were hyper-sensitive to alpha-toxin. Inhibition of translation with cycloheximide did not mimic the tolerogenic effect of eIF2alpha-phosphorylation. Notably, eIF2alpha-dependent tolerance of MEFs was toxin-selective, as wild-type MEFs and eIF2alpha (S51A/S51A) MEFs exhibited virtually equal sensitivity to Vibrio cholerae cytolysin. Binding of S. aureus alpha-toxin to eIF2alpha (S51A/S51A) MEFs and toxicity in these cells were enhanced as compared to wild-type cells. This led to the unexpected finding that the mutant cells carried more ADAM10. Because basal phosphorylation of eIF2alpha in MEFs required amino acid deprivation-activated eIF2alpha-kinase 4/GCN2, the data reveal that basal activity of this kinase mediates tolerance of MEFs to alpha-toxin. Further, they suggest that modulation of ADAM10 is involved. During infection, bacterial growth may cause nutrient shortage in tissues, which might activate this response. Tolerance to alpha-toxin was robust in macrophages and did not depend on GCN2. However, JNKs appeared to play a role, suggesting differential cell type and toxin selectivity of tolerogenic stress responses. Understanding their function or failure will be important to comprehend anti-bacterial immune responses

Phobalysin: Fisheye View of Membrane Perforation, Repair, Chemotaxis and Adhesion

Phobalysin P (PhlyP, for photobacterial lysin encoded on a plasmid) is a recently described small β-pore forming toxin of Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae (Pdd). This organism, belonging to the family of Vibrionaceae, is an emerging pathogen of fish and various marine animals, which occasionally causes life-threatening soft tissue infections and septicemia in humans. By using genetically modified Pdd strains, PhlyP was found to be an important virulence factor. More recently, in vitro studies with purified PhlyP elucidated some basic consequences of pore formation. Being the first bacterial small β-pore forming toxin shown to trigger calcium-influx dependent membrane repair, PhlyP has advanced to a revealing model toxin to study this important cellular function. Further, results from co-culture experiments employing various Pdd strains and epithelial cells together with data on other bacterial toxins indicate that limited membrane damage may generally enhance the association of bacteria with target cells. Thereby, remodeling of plasma membrane and cytoskeleton during membrane repair could be involved. In addition, a chemotaxis-dependent attack-and track mechanism influenced by environmental factors like salinity may contribute to PhlyP-dependent association of Pdd with cells. Obviously, a synoptic approach is required to capture the regulatory links governing the interaction of Pdd with target cells. The characterization of Pdd’s secretome may hold additional clues because it may lead to the identification of proteases activating PhlyP’s pro-form. Current findings on PhlyP support the notion that pore forming toxins are not just killer proteins but serve bacteria to fulfill more subtle functions, like accessing their host

Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae, a bacterium pathogenic for marine animals and humans

Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae (formerly Vibrio damsela) is a pathogen of a variety of marine animals including fish, crustaceans, molluscs and cetaceans. In humans, it can cause opportunistic infections that may evolve into necrotizing fasciitis with fatal outcome. Although the genetic basis of virulence in this bacterium is not completely elucidated, recent findings demonstrate that the phospholipase-D Dly (damselysin) and the pore-forming toxins HlyApl and HlyAch play a main role in virulence for homeotherms and poikilotherms. The acquisition of the virulence plasmid pPHDD1 that encodes Dly and HlyApl has likely constituted a main driving force in the evolution of a highly hemolytic lineage within the subspecies. Interestingly, strains that naturally lack pPHDD1 show a strong pathogenic potential for a variety of fish species, indicating the existence of yet uncharacterized virulence factors. Future and deep analysis of the complete genome sequence of P. damselae subsp. damselae will surely provide a clearer picture of the virulence factors employed by this bacterium to cause disease in such a varied range of hosts

rstB Regulates Expression of the Photobacterium damselae subsp damselae Major Virulence Factors Damselysin, Phobalysin P and Phobalysin C

The marine pathogenic bacterium Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae causes septicemia in marine animals and in humans. The pPHDD1 plasmid-encoded hemolysins damselysin (Dly) and phobalysin P (PhlyP), and the chromosome-encoded hemolysin phobalysin C (PhlyC) constitute its main virulence factors. However, the mechanisms by which expression of these three hemolysins is regulated remain unknown. Here we report the isolation of a mini-Tn10 transposon mutant which showed a strong impairment in its hemolytic activity. The transposon disrupted a putative sensor histidine kinase gene vda_000600 (rstB), which together with vda_000601 (rstA) is predicted to encode a putative two-component regulatory system. This system showed to be homologous to the Vibrio cholerae CarSR/VprAB and Escherichia coli RstAB systems. Reconstruction of the mutant by allelic exchange of rstB showed equal impairment in hemolysis, and complementation with a plasmid expressing rstAB restored hemolysis to wild-type levels. Remarkably, we demonstrated by promoter expression analyses that the reduced hemolysis in the rstB mutant was accompanied by a strong decrease in transcription activities of the three hemolysin genes dly (damselysin), hlyA(pl) (phobalysin P) and hlyA(ch) (phobalysin C). Thus, RstB, encoded in the small chromosome, regulates plasmid and chromosomal virulence genes. We also found that reduced expression of the three virulence genes correlated with a strong decrease in virulence in a sea bass model, demonstrating that RstB constitutes a master regulator of the three P. damselae subsp. damselae hemolysins and plays critical roles in the pathogenicity of this bacterium. This study represents the first evidence of a direct role of a RstAB-like system in the regulation of bacterial toxins

eIF2α confers cellular tolerance to S. aureus α-toxin

We report on the role of conserved stress-response pathways for cellular tolerance to a pore formingtoxin. First, we observed that small molecular weight inhibitors including of eIF2α-phosphatase, jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK), and PI3-kinase sensitized normal mouse embryonal fibroblasts (MEFs) to the small pore forming S. aureus α-toxin. Sensitization depended on expression of mADAM10, the murine ortholog of a proposed high affinity-receptor for α-toxin in human cells. Similarly, eIF2αS51A/S51A MEFs, which harbor an Ala knock-in mutation at the regulated Ser51 phosphorylation site of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2, were hyper-sensitive to α-toxin. Inhibition of translation with Cycloheximide did not mimic the tolerogenic effect of eIF2α-phosphorylation. Notably, eIF2α-dependent tolerance of MEFs was toxin-selective, as wild type-MEFs and eIF2αS51A/S51A MEFs exhibited virtually equal sensitivity to Vibrio cholerae cytolysin. Binding of S. aureus α-toxin to eIF2αS51A/S51A MEFs and toxicity in these cells were enhanced as compared to wild type cells. This led to the unexpected finding that the mutant cells carried more ADAM10. Because basal phosphorylation of eIF2α in MEFs required amino acid deprivation-activated eIF2α-kinase 4/GCN2, the data reveal that basal activity of this kinase mediates tolerance of MEFs to α-toxin. Further, they suggest that modulation of ADAM10 is involved. During infection, bacterial growth may cause nutrient shortage in tissues which might activate this response. Tolerance to α-toxin was robust in macrophages and did not depend on GCN2. However, JNKs appeared to play a role, suggesting differential cell type- and toxin-selectivity of tolerogenic stress-responses. Understanding their function or failure will be important to comprehend anti-bacterial immune responses

Repair of a Bacterial Small beta-Barrel Toxin Pore Depends on Channel Width

Membrane repair emerges as an innate defense protecting target cells against bacterial pore-forming toxins. Here, we report the first paradigm of Ca2+-dependent repair following attack by a small β-pore-forming toxin, namely, plasmid-encoded phobalysin of Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae. In striking contrast, Vibrio cholerae cytolysin, the closest ortholog of phobalysin, subverted repair. Mutational analysis uncovered a role of channel width in toxicity and repair. Thus, the replacement of serine at phobalysin{acute}s presumed channel narrow point with the bulkier tryptophan, the corresponding residue in Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (W318), modulated Ca2+ influx, lysosomal exocytosis, and membrane repair. And yet, replacing tryptophan (W318) with serine in Vibrio cholerae cytolysin enhanced toxicity. The data reveal divergent strategies evolved by two related small β-pore-forming toxins to manipulate target cells: phobalysin leads to fulminant perturbation of ion concentrations, closely followed by Ca2+ influx-dependent membrane repair. In contrast, V. cholerae cytolysin causes insidious perturbations and escapes control by the cellular wounded membrane repair-like response

The Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae Hemolysins Damselysin and HlyA Are Encoded within a New Virulence Plasmid ▿

Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae (formerly Vibrio damsela) is a marine bacterium that causes infections and fatal disease in a wide range of marine animals and in humans. Highly hemolytic strains produce damselysin (Dly), a cytolysin encoded by the dly gene that is lethal for mice and has hemolytic activity. We found that Dly is encoded in the highly hemolytic strain RM-71 within a 153,429-bp conjugative plasmid that we dubbed pPHDD1. In addition to Dly, pPHDD1 also encodes a homologue of the pore-forming toxin HlyA. We found a direct correlation between presence of pPHDD1 and a strong hemolytic phenotype in a collection of P. damselae subsp. damselae isolates. Hemolysis was strongly reduced in a double dly hlyA mutant, demonstrating the role of the two pPHDD1-encoded genes in hemolysis. Interestingly, although single hlyA and dly mutants showed different levels of hemolysis reduction depending on the erythrocyte source, hemolysis was not abolished in any of the single mutants, suggesting that the hemolytic phenotype is the result of the additive effect of Dly and HlyA. We found that pPHDD1-encoded dly and hlyA genes are necessary for full virulence for mice and fish. Our results suggest that pPHDD1 can be considered as a driving force for the emergence of a highly hemolytic lineage of P. damselae subsp. damselae