A nanocompartment system contributes to defense against oxidative stress in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- University of California, Berkeley, United States
- The University of British Columbia, Canada
Abstract
Encapsulin nanocompartments are an emerging class of prokaryotic protein-based organelle consisting of an encapsulin protein shell that encloses a protein cargo. Genes encoding nanocompartments are widespread in bacteria and archaea, and recent works have characterized the biochemical function of several cargo enzymes. However, the importance of these organelles to host physiology is poorly understood. Here, we report that the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) produces a nanocompartment that contains the dye-decolorizing peroxidase DyP. We show that this nanocompartment is important for the ability of Mtb to resist oxidative stress in low pH environments, including during infection of host cells and upon treatment with a clinically relevant antibiotic. Our findings are the first to implicate a nanocompartment in bacterial pathogenesis and reveal a new mechanism that Mtb uses to combat oxidative stress.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting file
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Center for Emerging and Neglected Disease (Graduate Student Award)
- Katie A Lien
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM129241)
- David F Savage
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (1R01AI143722)
- Sarah A Stanley
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Bavesh D Kana, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All procedures involving the use of mice were approved by the University of California, Berkeley Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (protocol no. R353-1113B). All protocols conform to federal regulations, the National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the Public Health Service's Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
Version history
- Preprint posted: August 31, 2020 (view preprint)
- Received: September 30, 2021
- Accepted: November 6, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: November 9, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: December 1, 2021 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2021, Lien 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.
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A nanocompartment system contributes to defense against oxidative stress in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
eLife 10:e74358.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.74358
