title: The Role of Universal Stress Proteins in Bacterial Infections.
abstract: Universal stress proteins are ubiquitously expressed in bacteria, archaea and plants and other eukaryotes. A general property of USPs is their role in adaptation of bacteria to oxidative stress, high temperature, low pH and/or hypoxia. There is increasing evidence that these proteins facilitate the adaption of bacterial pathogens to the human host environment, thereby facilitating colonisation and pathogenicity. USPs in Mycobacterium tuberculosis are well studied and may play a role in latency of tuberculosis. USP expressed by Acinetobacter baumannii, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium are involved in survival in vivo, while USPs expressed in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Porphyromonas gingivalis are involved in biofilm formation. Burkholderia cepacia complex and Staphylococcus aureus express USPs that play roles in host cell or host protein adhesion. There is also increasing evidence that USPs also bind to antimicrobial agents and may be ideal candidates to target in the future design of new anti-virulence strategies.
authors.affiliation: Centre of Microbial Host Interactions, Institute of Technology Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.affiliation: School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Siobhan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McClean
mesh_terms: D040981:Acinetobacter baumannii / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes / Q000378:metabolism; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000378:metabolism; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000378:metabolism; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins
keywords: Universal stress proteins; UspA; bacterial infection.; hypoxia; latency; oxidative stress