Citation

Lee SF, Kelly M, McAlister A, Luck SN, Garcia EL, Hall RA, Robins‐Browne RM, Frankel G, Hartland EL. Cell. Microbiol. 2008; 10(2): 499-513.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1462-5822.2007.01065.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli induces characteristic attaching–effacing (A/E) lesions on the intestinal mucosa during infection. The locus of enterocyte effacement is essential for A/E lesion formation and encodes a type III secretion system that translocates multiple effector proteins into the host cell. Following translocation, EspI/NleA localizes to the Golgi. Using the yeast two-hybrid system (Y2HS) and PSD-95/Disk-large/ZO-1 (PDZ)-domain protein array overlays, we identified 15 putative host-interacting partners of EspI. All but two of the target proteins contained PDZ domains. Examination of the EspI amino acid sequence revealed a C-terminal consensus class I PDZ binding motif. Deletion of the last 7 amino acids of EspI to generate EspIΔC7 abrogated the Y2HS interaction between EspI and 5 of the 6 putative host cell target proteins tested. Deletion of the EspI PDZ binding motif also resulted in delayed trafficking of EspI to the Golgi. Using a mouse model of infection, we showed that Citrobacter rodentium expressing truncated EspIΔC7 was attenuated when in competition with C. rodentium expressing full-length EspI. Overall, these results suggested that EspI may modulate the virulence of A/E pathogens by binding host PDZ-domain proteins.