Chlamydia trachomatis homotypic inclusion fusion is promoted by host microtubule trafficking

BMC Microbiology

Research Article

Andrea E Knowlton¹  Scott S Grieshaber¹  Theresa S Richards¹ 

[1] Department of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Box 100424, 32610, Gainesville, FL, USA;

关键词: Chlamydia;    Dynein;    Microtubules;    Vesicle fusion;    Centrosomes;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2180-13-185

 received in 2013-05-13, accepted in 2013-08-01,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe developmental cycle of the obligate intracellular pathogen Chlamydia is dependant on the formation of a unique intracellular niche termed the chlamydial inclusion. The inclusion is a membrane bound vacuole derived from host cytoplasmic membrane and is modified significantly by the insertion of chlamydial proteins. A unique property of the inclusion is its propensity for homotypic fusion. The vast majority of cells infected with multiple chlamydial elementary bodies (EBs) contain only a single mature inclusion. The chlamydial protein IncA is required for fusion, however the host process involved are uncharacterized.ResultsHere, through live imaging studies, we determined that the nascent inclusions clustered tightly at the cell microtubule organizing center (MTOC) where they eventually fused to form a single inclusion. We established that factors involved in trafficking were required for efficient fusion as both disruption of the microtubule network and inhibition of microtubule trafficking reduced the efficiency of fusion. Additionally, fusion occurred at multiple sites in the cell and was delayed when the microtubule minus ends were either no longer anchored at a single MTOC or when a cell possessed multiple MTOCs.ConclusionsThe data presented demonstrates that efficient homotypic fusion requires the inclusions to be in close proximity and that this proximity is dependent on chlamydial microtubule trafficking to the minus ends of microtubules.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Richards et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.