IDEHU   05542
INSTITUTO DE ESTUDIOS DE LA INMUNIDAD HUMORAL PROF. RICARDO A. MARGNI
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Brucella monomeric adhesins: variability, functionality and possible pseudogenization
Autor/es:
BIALER MG; POSADAS DM; RUIZ RANWEZ V; FERRERO MC; DELPINO MV; BALDI PC; ZORREGUIETA A
Lugar:
Mar del Plata
Reunión:
Congreso; SAIB: LI reunión anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica y Biología Molecular.; 2015
Institución organizadora:
Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica y de biología molecular
Resumen:
Brucella is an intracellular pathogen responsible for brucellosis. Adhesion to host surfaces is a critical step in the infection process. Brucella genomes are very similar among species; however, it seems that much of the variability is associated to surface proteins, suggesting they could contribute to host preference and tissue tropism. The genome of Brucella suis 1330 harbors three autotransporters from the monomeric family (BmaA, B and C). We aimed to explore the role of BmaA and BmaB in the interaction of Brucella with the host as well as the variability and functionality of their orthologs from different strains. A heterologous approach revealed that the bmaA and bmaB genes of B. suis confer adhesive properties to a non-adherent E.coli strain. Besides, mutants in bma genes of B. suis showed a reduction in the adherence to HeLa, sinoviocytes, osteoblasts, and colorectal epithelial cells, suggesting that they may contribute to the interaction of Brucella with host cells before internalization. Bioinformatical analyses suggest that, in addition to variability in size and number of adhesion motifs between orthologs, BmaA and BmaB might represent pseudogenes in several strains of B. melitensis and B. abortus. These observations suggest that these adhesins could represent factors of bacterial surface variability between the different species, thus, contributing to host preference.