Erwinia chrysanthemi strains cause death of human gastrointestinal cells in culture and express an intimin-like protein.
The bacterium Erwinia chrysanthemi is a model plant pathogen, responsible for causing cell death in plant tissue. Cell-wall depolymerizing enzymes and avirulence proteins essential for parasitism by this bacterium utilize dedicated type II and type III secretion systems, respectively. Although E. chrysanthemi is not recognized as a mammalian pathogen, we have observed that the bacterium can adhere to, cause an oxidative stress response in and kill cultured human adenocarcinoma cells. These bacteria express a surface protein that bears immunological identity to intimin, a protein required for full virulence of enterohemorrhagic and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. A type III secretion mutant of E. chrysanthemi was observed to have a significantly lower capability of causing death than the wild-type strain in parallel cultures of human colon adenocarcinoma cells. These observations suggest that E. chrysanthemi has the potential to parasitize mammalian hosts as well as plants.
Duarté
X
X
Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock 79409, USA.
Anderson
C T
CT
Grimson
M
M
Barabote
R D
RD
Strauss
R E
RE
Gollahon
L S
LS
San Francisco
M J
MJ
D018829:Adhesins, Bacterial; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D016923:Cell Death; D016974:Dickeya chrysanthemi / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D019073:HT29 Cells; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000166:cytology / Q000382:microbiology*; D016253:Microscopy, Immunoelectron; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D014774:Virulence
D018829:Adhesins, Bacterial; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C073819:eaeA protein, E coli