Chapter title |
ActA of Listeria monocytogenes and Its Manifold Activities as an Important Listerial Virulence Factor
|
---|---|
Chapter number | 30 |
Book title |
The Actin Cytoskeleton and Bacterial Infection
|
Published in |
Current topics in microbiology and immunology, January 2016
|
DOI | 10.1007/82_2016_30 |
Pubmed ID | |
Book ISBNs |
978-3-31-950046-1, 978-3-31-950047-8
|
Authors |
Helena Pillich, Madhu Puri, Trinad Chakraborty, Pillich, Helena, Puri, Madhu, Chakraborty, Trinad |
Abstract |
Listeria monocytogenes is a ubiquitously occurring gram-positive bacterium in the environment that causes listeriosis, one of the deadliest foodborne infections known today. It is a versatile facultative intracellular pathogen capable of growth within the host's cytosolic compartment. Following entry into the host cell, L. monocytogenes escapes from vacuolar compartments to the cytosol, where the bacterium begins a remarkable journey within the host cytoplasm, culminating in bacterial spread from cell to cell, to deeper tissues and organs. This dissemination process depends on the ability of the bacterium to harness central components of the host cell actin cytoskeleton using the surface bound bacterial factor ActA (actin assembly inducing protein). Hence ActA plays a major role in listerial virulence, and its absence renders bacteria intracellularly immotile and essentially non-infectious. As the bacterium, moving by building a network of filamentous actin behind itself that is often referred to as its actin tail, encounters cell-cell contacts it forms double-vacuolar protrusions that allow it to enter the neighboring cell where the cycle then continues. Recent studies have now implicated ActA in other stages of the life cycle of L. monocytogenes. These include extracellular properties of aggregation and biofilm formation to mediate colonization of the gut lumen, promotion and enhancement of bacterial host cell entry, evasion of autophagy, vacuolar exit, as well as nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells (NF-κB) activation. These novel properties provide a new view of ActA and help explain its role as an essential virulence factor of L. monocytogenes. |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Unknown | 47 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
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Researcher | 8 | 17% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 5 | 11% |
Student > Master | 5 | 11% |
Student > Bachelor | 3 | 6% |
Other | 3 | 6% |
Other | 7 | 15% |
Unknown | 16 | 34% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 11 | 23% |
Immunology and Microbiology | 5 | 11% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 4 | 9% |
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine | 2 | 4% |
Environmental Science | 1 | 2% |
Other | 4 | 9% |
Unknown | 20 | 43% |