title: Listeria monocytogenes remodels the cell surface in the blood-stage.
abstract: After crossing the intestinal barrier, the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes disseminates via the blood to the liver, spleen, brain and placenta. Transcriptomic studies have shown that L. monocytogenes changes expression of many genes during this blood-stage. However, no comparable data at the protein level are known. As main interactors with the environment, we focused in surface proteins produced by L. monocytogenes in an ex vivo bovine blood model. Bacteria exposed to blood alter selectively the amount of several surface proteins compared with bacteria grown in laboratory media. Increased levels were detected for Lmo0514 and Internalin A, two surface proteins covalently bound to peptidoglycan, and the moonlighting protein alcohol-acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, also known as Lap for 'Listeria adhesion protein'. Lmo0514, induced by L. monocytogenes inside epithelial cells, is required for survival in plasma and for virulence in mice at early infection stages. Lmo0514 is also important to cope with low pH stress. By contrast, L. monocytogenes down-regulates other surface proteins following exposure to blood and plasma such as Internalin I. These data provide evidence for remodelling of the L. monocytogenes cell surface during the blood-stage, which it could facilitate pathogen dissemination to deep organs.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Intracellular Bacterial Pathogens, Departamento de Biotecnología Microbiana, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Quereda
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Intracellular Bacterial Pathogens, Departamento de Biotecnología Microbiana, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: García-Del Portillo
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Intracellular Bacterial Pathogens, Departamento de Biotecnología Microbiana, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain.|Centro de Biología Molecular 'Severo Ochoa' (CBMSO-CSIC), Departamento de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: M Graciela
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Pucciarelli