Quorum sensing modulates the formation of virulent Legionella persisters within infected cells.
- Personnic N Institute for Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, Gloriastrasse 30, 8006, Zürich, Switzerland. npersonnic@imm.uzh.ch.
- Striednig B Institute for Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, Gloriastrasse 30, 8006, Zürich, Switzerland.
- Lezan E Proteomics Core Facility, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50/70, 4056, Basel, Switzerland.
- Manske C Max von Pettenkofer Institute, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Pettenkoferstrasse 9a, 80336, Munich, Germany.
- Welin A Institute for Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, Gloriastrasse 30, 8006, Zürich, Switzerland.
- Schmidt A Proteomics Core Facility, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50/70, 4056, Basel, Switzerland.
- Hilbi H Institute for Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, Gloriastrasse 30, 8006, Zürich, Switzerland.
- 2019-11-20
Published in:
- Nature communications. - 2019
Amoeba
Animals
Bacterial Proteins
Intracellular Space
Legionella
Legionellosis
Macrophages
Mice
Microbial Viability
Proteome
Quorum Sensing
Vacuoles
Virulence
English
The facultative intracellular bacterium Legionella pneumophila replicates in environmental amoebae and in lung macrophages, and causes Legionnaires' disease. Here we show that L. pneumophila reversibly forms replicating and nonreplicating subpopulations of similar size within amoebae. The nonreplicating bacteria are viable and metabolically active, display increased antibiotic tolerance and a distinct proteome, and show high virulence as well as the capacity to form a degradation-resistant compartment. Upon infection of naïve or interferon-γ-activated macrophages, the nonreplicating subpopulation comprises ca. 10% or 50%, respectively, of the total intracellular bacteria; hence, the nonreplicating subpopulation is of similar size in amoebae and activated macrophages. The numbers of nonreplicating bacteria within amoebae are reduced in the absence of the autoinducer synthase LqsA or other components of the Lqs quorum-sensing system. Our results indicate that virulent, antibiotic-tolerant subpopulations of L. pneumophila are formed during infection of evolutionarily distant phagocytes, in a process controlled by the Lqs system.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- gold
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-13021-8
- PMID 31740681
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/285060
Statistics
Document views: 19
File downloads:
- Full-text: 0