IDENTIFICATION OF A VIRULENCE FACTOR IN Brucella abortus THAT MODULATES HOST CELL INVASION AND INTRACELLULAR SURVIVAL

ORTIZ E; DEL GIUDICE MG; GONZALESZ WUSENER ANA; ARREGUI CO; UGALDE JE; CZIBENER C

Rosario

Congreso; LIX Annual Meeting of the Argentine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research (SAIB); 2023

Sociedad Argentina de investigaciones en Bioquimica y Biologia Molecular

Brucellosis is one of the most widespread distributed zoonosis worldwide and is caused by species of the genus Brucella: gram-negative intracellular facultative pathogens with the capacity to modulate the biology of the host cells. Among the activities that this bacterium modulates is theadhesion/invasion mediated endocytosis and phagocytosis that ultimately impacts the capacity toevade phagolysosome killing and establishing a successful intracellular replication niche. In thispresentation we present evidence that the protein encoded in the bab1_1611 gene of Brucella abortus is involved in the early invasion events of the bacterium modulating the dynamics of the cytoskeleton and the plasma membrane. Our results show that a deletion mutant in bab1_1611 has a defect in the intracellular replication and that the resulting strain is rough (lacks the complete assembled LPS). We present data showing the subcellular localization of the protein and propose a mechanism for its secretion and interaction with the host cell. The link between the synthesis of LPS, subcellular localization, secretion and actin cytoskeletal modulation is discussed.