Crash landing of Vibrio cholerae by MSHA pili-assisted braking and anchoring in a viscoelastic environment
- Tianjin University, China
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
- University of Bristol, United Kingdom
- University of Tsukuba, Japan
Abstract
Mannose-sensitive hemagglutinin (MSHA) pili and flagellum are critical for the surface attachment of Vibrio cholerae, the first step of V. cholerae colonization on host surfaces. However, the cell landing mechanism remains largely unknown, particularly in viscoelastic environments such as the mucus layers of intestines. Here, combining the cysteine-substitution-based labelling method with single-cell tracking techniques, we quantitatively characterized the landing of V. cholerae by directly observing both pili and flagellum of cells in a viscoelastic non-Newtonian solution consisting of 2% Luria-Bertani and 1% methylcellulose (LB+MC). The results show that MSHA pili are evenly distributed along the cell length and can stick to surfaces at any point along the filament. With such properties, MSHA pili are observed to act as a brake and anchor during cell landing which include three phases: running, lingering, and attaching. Importantly, loss of MSHA pili results in a more dramatic increase in mean path length in LB+MC than in 2% LB only or in 20% Ficoll solutions, indicating that the role of MSHA pili during cell landing is more apparent in viscoelastic non-Newtonian fluids than viscous Newtonian ones. Our work provides a detailed picture of the landing dynamics of V. cholerae under viscoelastic conditions, which can provide insights into ways to better control V. cholerae infections in real mucus-like environment.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data files have been provided for Figures 1-6.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Key R and D Program of China (2018YFA0902102)
- Kun Zhao
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770132)
- Zhi Liu
National Natural Science Foundation of China (81572050)
- Zhi Liu
National Natural Science Foundation of China (21621004)
- Kun Zhao
University of Bristol (Vice-Chancellor's Fellowship)
- Rachel R Bennett
Grant in aid for Young Scientists (17K15410)
- Andrew S Utada
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Raymond E Goldstein, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All mice received the humane care and the experimental protocols were carried out in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, as approved by the Animal Care Committee of Hubei Province.
Version history
- Received: July 2, 2020
- Accepted: July 1, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: July 2, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: July 15, 2021 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2021, Zhang et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 1,309
- views
-
- 189
- downloads
-
- 8
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Crash landing of Vibrio cholerae by MSHA pili-assisted braking and anchoring in a viscoelastic environment
eLife 10:e60655.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60655
Further reading
-
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant threat to human health. Although vaccines have been developed to combat AMR, it has proven challenging to associate specific vaccine antigens with AMR. Bacterial plasmids play a crucial role in the transmission of AMR. Our recent research has identified a group of bacterial plasmids (specifically, IncHI plasmids) that encode large molecular mass proteins containing bacterial immunoglobulin-like domains. These proteins are found on the external surface of the bacterial cells, such as in the flagella or conjugative pili. In this study, we show that these proteins are antigenic and can protect mice from infection caused by an AMR Salmonella strain harboring one of these plasmids. Furthermore, we successfully generated nanobodies targeting these proteins, that were shown to interfere with the conjugative transfer of IncHI plasmids. Considering that these proteins are also encoded in other groups of plasmids, such as IncA/C and IncP2, targeting them could be a valuable strategy in combating AMR infections caused by bacteria harboring different groups of AMR plasmids. Since the selected antigens are directly linked to AMR itself, the protective effect extends beyond specific microorganisms to include all those carrying the corresponding resistance plasmids.
-
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Canine distemper virus (CDV) belongs to morbillivirus, including measles virus (MeV) and rinderpest virus, which causes serious immunological and neurological disorders in carnivores, including dogs and rhesus monkeys, as recently reported, but their vaccines are highly effective. The attachment glycoprotein hemagglutinin (CDV-H) at the CDV surface utilizes signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM) and Nectin-4 (also called poliovirus-receptor-like-4; PVRL4) as entry receptors. Although fusion models have been proposed, the molecular mechanism of morbillivirus fusion entry is poorly understood. Here, we determined the crystal structure of the globular head domain of CDV-H vaccine strain at 3.2 Å resolution, revealing that CDV-H exhibits a highly tilted homodimeric form with a six-bladed β-propeller fold. While the predicted Nectin-4-binding site is well conserved with that of MeV-H, that of SLAM is similar but partially different, which is expected to contribute to host specificity. Five N-linked sugars covered a broad area of the CDV-H surface to expose receptor-binding sites only, supporting the effective production of neutralizing antibodies. These features are common to MeV-H, although the glycosylation sites are completely different. Furthermore, real-time observation using high-speed atomic force microscopy revealed highly mobile features of the CDV-H dimeric head via the connector region. These results suggest that sugar-shielded tilted homodimeric structure and dynamic conformational changes are common characteristics of morbilliviruses and ensure effective fusion entry and vaccination.
