A Chlamydia pneumoniae adhesin induces phosphatidylserine exposure on host cells

Jan N. Galle, Tim Fechtner, Thorsten Eierhoff, Winfried Römer and Johannes H. Hegemann ()
Additional contact information
Jan N. Galle: Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf
Tim Fechtner: Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf
Thorsten Eierhoff: Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf
Winfried Römer: Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg
Johannes H. Hegemann: Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract In mammalian cells, the internal and external leaflets of the plasma membrane (PM) possess different phospholipids. Phosphatidylserine (PS) is normally confined to the inner (cytoplasmic) membrane leaflet. Here we report that the adhesin CPn0473 of the human pathogenic bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn) binds to the PM of human cells and induces PS externalization but unexpectedly not apoptosis. PS externalization is increased in human cells exposed to infectious Cpn cells expressing increased CPn0473 and reduced in exposure to Cpn expressing decreased CPn0473. CPn0473 binds specifically to synthetic membranes carrying PS and stimulates pore formation. Asymmetric giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) in which PS is restricted to the inner leaflet reveal that CPn0473 induces PS externalization in the absence of other proteins. Thus our identification of CPn0473 as a bacterial PS translocator capable of specific and apoptosis-independent PS externalization during infection extends the spectrum of mechanisms intracellular pathogens use to enter host cells.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12419-8 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-12419-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12419-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().