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Infection and Immunity, October 2007, p. 4826-4830, Vol. 75, No. 10
0019-9567/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.00454-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Sebastian Lourido,
,
Bärbel Raupach, and
Arturo Zychlinsky*
Department of Cellular Microbiology, Max-Planck-Institut für Infektionsbiologie, Charité Platz 1, D-10117 Berlin, Germany
Received 28 March 2007/ Returned for modification 17 May 2007/ Accepted 17 July 2007
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In this study, we demonstrate that SPI-1, carried on a single-copy plasmid, can complement a deletion in the SER for epithelial cell invasion, phagosome escape, and induction of macrophage apoptosis. Surprisingly, an S. flexneri strain lacking the entire large virulence plasmid and complemented with SPI-1 is invasive but fails to escape the phagosome and does not replicate inside epithelial cells, indicating that phagosome escape requires genes carried in the large virulence plasmid outside the SER. This is the first report demonstrating that invasion and phagosome escape can be uncoupled in S. flexneri.
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View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 1. Bacterial strains and characteristics
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Chloroquine assay. Phagosomal escape was evaluated with a modified chloroquine resistance assay (4). Briefly, RawB cells were seeded 24 h prior to infection at 2.5 x 105 cells per well in 24-well plates. Cells were infected at an MOI of 10:1 as described above. At 30 min postinfection, cells were washed with PBS, and fresh medium containing 100 mM HEPES and 100 µg/ml gentamicin, with or without 2.5 mg/ml chloroquine (Sigma), was added to each well. At 2 hours postinfection, cells were washed twice with PBS and lysed in 0.1% Triton X-100, and the CFU per well were determined. For all assays described above, the standard error was calculated based on at least three independent determinations.
Plasmids and knockout strains.
We used the method described by Datsenko and Wanner (2) to delete SPI-1 (delimited by mutS and sitA) from wild-type S. enterica serovar Typhimurium strain SL1344 and the SER (delimited by virB and spa40) or ipaH7.8 from wild-type S. flexneri strain M90T to produce strains SL1344
SPI-1, M90T
SER, and M90T
ipaH7.8, respectively. A single-copy plasmid harboring SPI-1 (pSPI-1) was used to complement deletions of SPI-1 in S. enterica serovar Typhimurium and of the SER in S. flexneri to generate strains SL1344
SPI-1/pSPI-1 and M90T
SER/pSPI-1, respectively. To construct pSPI-1, regions upstream and downstream of SPI-1 were deleted from the bacterial artificial chromosome harbored by Escherichia coli/SGSC_10F09 (Salmonella Genetic Stock Center). Two consecutive deletions produced a construct containing SPI-1 from mutS to sitA in a pBeloBAC11 vector. The gene ipaH7.8 was cloned under the control of its own promoter into the low-copy-number vector pWSK29 (16) to create the plasmid pipaH7.8 and transformed into M90T
ipaH7.8 to produce strain M90T
ipaH7.8/pipaH7.8.
Immunoblots. Proteins from supernatants of stationary-phase cultures of different strains were precipitated with ice-cold acetone, resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and immunoblotted with sera from rabbits immunized with recombinant SipC. The blots were incubated with horseradish peroxidase-labeled anti-rabbit antibodies and developed with an ECL Western blotting detection kit (Amersham).
Immunofluorescence microscopy. HeLa cells were seeded on 12-mm glass coverslips 24 h prior to infection. Cells were infected with Shigella as described above, fixed in 3.7% paraformaldehyde at 3 h postinfection, and permeabilized with 0.1% Triton X-100. Filamentous actin was visualized with Alexa 594-phalloidin (Molecular Probes). Bacteria were stained with rabbit anti-Shigella serotype 5A serum and secondary goat anti-rabbit antibodies conjugated with cyan-2. For quantification of actin tail formation, Shigella-infected cells were fixed at 5 h postinfection. To distinguish intracellular from extracellular bacteria, external bacteria were labeled using rabbit anti-Shigella serotype 5A serum and secondary goat anti-rabbit antibodies conjugated with cyan-5. After permeabilization, intracellular microorganisms were stained with rabbit anti-Shigella serotype 5A serum and secondary cyan-3-conjugated goat anti-rabbit antibodies. Actin was visualized with Alexa 488-phalloidin. Using confocal microscopy, the ratio of polar actin tails to intracellular bacteria was determined. Since the number of intracellular bacteria varied with the invasive capacity of the tested Shigella strains, we analyzed an average of 50 (48 to 71) infected cells per strain.
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FIG. 1. Plasmid-borne SPI-1 can complement a SPI-1 deletion in S. enterica serovar Typhimurium and an SER deletion in S. flexneri. (A) The culture supernatants of strains SL1344 (lane 1), SL1344 SPI-1 (lane 2), SL1344 SPI-1/pSPI-1 (lane 3), M90T (lane 4), M90T SER (lane 5), and M90T SER/pSPI-1 (lane 6) were precipitated, resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and probed with an anti-SipC serum. The data show that SipC is efficiently secreted from Shigella and Salmonella strains complemented with pSPI-1. (B) Invasiveness of epithelial cells by SPI-1 and SER deletion strains is rescued by pSPI-1. HeLa cells were infected with the strains described above at an MOI of 10:1 for Salmonella and 100:1 for Shigella strains. Intracellular bacteria were quantified at 4 h postinfection in a gentamicin protection assay. Values represent the means of measurements for triplicate samples of a representative experiment, and error bars indicate standard deviations.
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SPI-1/pSPI-1 was as invasive as wild-type SL1344, showing that the plasmid-borne SPI-1 is fully functional. Interestingly, complementation of M90T
SER with pSPI-1 restored invasion to almost wild-type levels. The slightly lower invasion efficiency seen with M90T
SER/pSPI-1 might reflect differences in regulation of SPI-1 and the SER. Other studies previously showed that S. enterica serovar Typhimurium SipB only partially complements a deletion of the S. flexneri effector protein IpaB (5), supporting the hypothesis that despite functional similarities the two proteins may have different efficiencies.
To determine the role of the remaining large virulence plasmid genes in Shigella virulence, we transformed BS176, a derivative of M90T cured of the large virulence plasmid (12), with pSPI-1 to generate strain BS176/pSPI-1. Interestingly, despite an initial invasion rate in HeLa cells similar to that of M90T
SER/pSPI-1, BS176/pSPI-1 failed to grow intracellularly (Fig. 2A). In contrast to the 30-fold increase in growth of M90T
SER/pSPI-1 between 2 and 6 h postinfection (P = 0.0003; unpaired t test), BS176/pSPI-1 counts were not statistically different in the same period (P = 0.06; unpaired t test). Intracellular replication was correlated with the induction of cytotoxicity in bone marrow-derived macrophages, as assayed by LDH release (Fig. 2B). Complementation with pSPI-1 restored cytotoxicity to different levels in M90T
SER and BS176. The partial complementation of M90T
SER/pSPI-1 is in agreement with the partial complementation seen for invasion. Curiously, BS176/pSPI-1 released only low levels of LDH. Since the induction of apoptosis requires phagosomal escape (18), these data suggest that this phenotype as well as the lack of intracellular growth in epithelial cells indicates that BS176/pSPI1 is trapped in a vacuole.
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FIG. 2. Intracellular growth and macrophage cytotoxicity require invasion as well as other functions encoded in the large virulence plasmid outside the SER. (A) BS176, an S. flexneri strain cured of the large virulence plasmid, invades but cannot grow inside HeLa cells when complemented with pSPI-1. HeLa cells were infected at an MOI of 100:1, and intracellular bacteria were quantified at 2, 4, and 6 h postinfection in a gentamicin protection assay. (B) BS176/pSPI-1 fails to induce cytotoxicity to the same level as that by M90T SER/pSPI-1 in bone marrow-derived macrophages. Macrophages were infected at an MOI of 100:1, and cytotoxicity was measured by LDH release at 4 h postinfection. Values represent the means of measurements for triplicate samples of a representative experiment, and error bars indicate standard deviations.
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SER and BS176 were unable to escape the phagosome and were killed by chloroquine. This phenotype was rescued, by >1 log, by the presence of pSPI-1 in M90T
SER/pSPI-1. However, in accordance with our previous observations, BS176/pSPI-1 was trapped in the phagosome and killed similarly to the noninvasive strains (Fig. 3A, gray bars).
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FIG. 3. A gene(s) in the large virulence plasmid outside the SER is required for S. flexneri phagosome escape. (A) pSPI-1 complements an SER deletion in M90T, allowing bacteria to escape the phagosomes of infected RawB macrophages. RawB cells were infected at an MOI of 10:1 and incubated in the presence of gentamicin, with or without chloroquine, as indicated in the figure. At 2 hours postinfection, the cells were lysed and the surviving bacteria were enumerated. CFU for wells containing only gentamicin represent total intracellular bacteria. The presence of intracellular bacteria that survive chloroquine indicate a cytoplasmic localization. Values represent the means of measurements for triplicate samples of a representative experiment, and error bars indicate standard deviations. (B) HeLa cells were infected with the indicated Shigella strains at an MOI of 100:1 and fixed at 3 h postinfection. Actin was detected with phalloidin (red), and bacteria were detected with an anti-lipopolysaccharide antibody (green). Bacteria that escape the phagosome polymerize actin tails (arrowheads).
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SER/pSPI-1 to escape the phagosome, we analyzed HeLa cells infected with the different strains by immunofluorescence microscopy. We observed polar actin tails formed by the wild-type Shigella strain as a control and by M90T
SER/pSPI-1 (Fig. 3B), which directly demonstrates the ability of these strains to escape the phagosome. The percentage of actin tails formed inside infected cells was quantified by microscopy and showed that SPI-1 is functional in Shigella. For wild-type Shigella, 10.1% of the internalized bacteria showed polar actin recruitment, and an average of 24.6 bacteria/cell were detected. In contrast, we did not observe a single actin tail associated with any of the intracellular M90T
SER microorganisms detected inside a total of 71 infected HeLa cells analyzed. M90T
SER/pSPI-1, however, could escape from phagosomes and initiate actin recruitment. As expected from the results obtained from gentamicin protection assays, the average number of intracellular bacteria was slightly reduced (8.5 bacteria/cell) compared to that of the wild type, but 2% of the intracellular bacteria showed polar actin tail formation. At this point, it is not clear why there is a difference in the numbers of bacteria that recruited actin in wild-type Shigella and M90T
SER/pSPI-1. These results, however, strongly suggest that phagosome escape requires either the SER or SPI-1, since deletion of the SER leads to a lack of escape and complementation with pSPI-1 restores it. Furthermore, since pSPI-1 restores invasion but not phagosomal escape to BS176, it is clear that a gene or genes outside the SER and carried in the large virulence plasmid are also required for this function.
Shigella phagosomal escape does not depend on IpaH7.8.
A report by Fernandez-Prada et al. (3) identified ipaH7.8 as the gene that facilitates S. flexneri escape from the phagosome. Since ipaH7.8 is carried in the large virulence plasmid outside the SER, we tested the effect of IpaH7.8 on phagosome escape in the ipaH7.8 deletion strain M90T
ipaH7.8. In addition, ipaH7.8 was cloned to create the plasmid pipaH7.8 and transformed into M90T
ipaH7.8 to produce strain M90T
ipaH7.8/pipaH7.8. Deletion of ipaH7.8 had no effect on invasion or replication of the strain in HeLa cells (data not shown). However, M90T
ipaH7.8 had delayed cytotoxicity in RawB macrophages (Fig. 4A), which was restored to wild-type levels by pipaH7.8, thus confirming that the delayed cytotoxicity phenotype was dependent on ipaH7.8. Furthermore, in Fig. 4B we show, using the same chloroquine assay described above, that strain M90T
ipaH7.8 escapes from the phagosome. Moreover, M90T
ipaH7.8 also recruits polar actin tails in HeLa cells (Fig. 4C). Microscopic analysis of actin tail formation confirmed that a lack of ipaH7.8 does not affect infectivity. Comparable numbers of intracellular bacteria were detected inside HeLa cells infected with M90T (24.6 bacteria/cell), M90T
ipaH7.8 (26.9 bacteria/cell), and M90T
ipaH7.8/pipaH7.8 (24.6 bacteria/cell). The numbers of actin tails formed per internalized bacterium were similar for the three strains under comparison, with the average percentages for M90T, M90T
ipaH7.8, and M90T
ipaH7.8/pipaH7.8 being 10.1%, 7.1%, and 5.5%, respectively. These data show that ipaH7.8 does not play a role in S. flexneri escape from the phagosome. The discrepancy between our results and those published previously (3) might be due to differences in the deleted strains or in the interpretation of the data. We feel confident that actin recruitment is a reliable reporter for intracytoplasmic location. This issue could be addressed by directly comparing both strains in the same experimental setup. Thus, the gene or genes for the required phagosome escape factor carried outside the SER in the virulence plasmid remain to be identified.
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FIG. 4. ipaH7.8 is not required for phagosome escape. (A) S. flexneri deleted in ipaH7.8 is less cytotoxic to macrophages than are wild-type strains. RawB cells were infected at an MOI of 100:1, and cytotoxicity was measured by LDH release. (B) S. flexneri lacking ipaH7.8 escapes the phagosome and is resistant to chloroquine. RawB macrophages were infected as described in the legend to Fig. 3 and plated for CFU counts at 2 h postinfection. Values in panels A and B represent the means of measurements for triplicate samples of a representative experiment, and error bars indicate standard deviations. (C) S. flexneri lacking ipaH7.8 shows polar actin polymerization similar to that of the wild type. HeLa cells infected with Shigella strains at an MOI of 100:1 were fixed at 3 h postinfection and analyzed as described in the legend to Fig. 3.
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Published ahead of print on 30 July 2007. ![]()
S.P. and S.L. contributed equally to this study. ![]()
Present address: Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63130. ![]()
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