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.
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.
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.
Metrics
-
- 2,428
- views
-
- 414
- downloads
-
- 25
- 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)
A nanocompartment system contributes to defense against oxidative stress in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
eLife 10:e74358.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.74358
Further reading
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
In the bacterium M. smegmatis, an enzyme called MftG allows the cofactor mycofactocin to transfer electrons released during ethanol metabolism to the electron transport chain.
-
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Bacterial regional demonstration after global dissemination is an essential pathway for selecting distinct finesses. However, the evolution of the resistome during the transition to endemicity remains unaddressed. Using the most comprehensive whole-genome sequencing dataset of Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum (S. Gallinarum) collected from 15 countries, including 45 newly recovered samples from two related local regions, we established the relationship among avian-specific pathogen genetic profiles and localization patterns. Initially, we revealed the international transmission and evolutionary history of S. Gallinarum to recent endemicity through phylogenetic analysis conducted using a spatiotemporal Bayesian framework. Our findings indicate that the independent acquisition of the resistome via the mobilome, primarily through plasmids and transposons, shapes a unique antimicrobial resistance profile among different lineages. Notably, the mobilome-resistome combination among distinct lineages exhibits a geographical-specific manner, further supporting a localized endemic mobilome-driven process. Collectively, this study elucidates resistome adaptation in the endemic transition of an avian-specific pathogen, likely driven by the localized farming style, and provides valuable insights for targeted interventions.
