How stress hormones guide bacteria in their host
Date:
March 7, 2022
Source:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universita"t Mu"nchen
Summary:
A newly discovered protein helps bacteria recognize stress hormones
in the human body and direct their motion in the host.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A newly discovered protein helps bacteria recognize stress hormones in
the human body and direct their motion in the host.
==========================================================================
In humans and animals, catecholamines such as epinephrine, norepinephrine,
and dopamine are common stress hormones. Stress can increase the body's susceptibility to bacterial infections. In the laboratory, stress
hormones stimulate the growth of various pathogens. This had already
been observed in Salmonella (Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium),
and other intestinal bacteria, Escherichia coli and the causative agent
of cholera, Vibrio cholerae.
Furthermore, epinephrine and norepinephrine make it easier for bacteria
to infect the body's cells. And these hormones also influence the
biosynthesis of virulence factors, which enable pathogens to adhere to, penetrate, and destroy cells.
"We therefore suspected that some bacteria use such hormones as signals
to recognize the eukaryotic host environment," says LMU microbiologist Professor Kirsten Jung. "But the molecular basis was not known." Together
with Professor Stephan A. Sieber from the Technical University of Munich
(TUM) and other researchers, Jung has now identified the binding site
of epinephrine and the epinephrine derivative phenylephrine in the
bacterium Vibrio campbellii. As the team reports in PNAS, the target
of both molecules is the protein CheW. "The biological significance of
the mechanism is that bacteria recognize, for example, that they are no
longer in sea water, but in the intestine of a host," explains Jung.
Studies with the model organism V. campbellii "We wanted to know how
bacteria recognize catecholamines as signaling molecules," says the
LMU scientist. "Which receptors control this process?" Her experiments consisted of several individual steps.
For the study, Sieber developed a method for chemically modifying
epinephrine and phenylephrine, so that the researchers could directly
isolate complexes from the catecholamines and the bound bacterial
proteins. A prerequisite of the experiments was that the new compounds
would not have any biological characteristics that the unmodified
molecules did not have. Jung's group did laboratory experiments to
demonstrate this was so. Epinephrine binds iron, whereas the epinephrine derivative phenylephrine does not. With their choice of compounds, the researchers wanted to rule out effects that arise when the bacteria have
a better supply of iron.
Jung and Sieber worked with Vibrio campbellii as a model organism. The
marine bacterium infects fish, shrimp, squid, and many other marine invertebrates.
They added Vibrio campbellii to the chemically modified catecholamines
and lysed the cells. Next, they extracted from the lysate all proteins
to which a molecule had bound and characterized them by using proteome analysis. This resulted in a particular enrichment of the soluble
chemotaxis protein CheW.
Subsequently, Jung's group isolated the CheW protein directly
from bacteria, purified it, and measured its binding affinity to catecholamines. In the process, the researchers discovered something surprising: the hormones do not bind to the chemoreceptors themselves,
as originally expected, but to the coupling protein CheW, which is
located between receptors and a signal transduction cascade. This entire stimulus perception system controls the motion of the bacterium in a
chemical gradient.
"Our study provides new insights into the communication of bacteria with
their host," summarizes Jung. "We were able to show that the swimming
behavior of bacteria is modified by host hormones, which is controlled
by CheW." Motility, and in particular directed motility, is decisively important for host colonization, as bacteria deliberately seek to colonize
an organism and conquer all niches. In the next step, Jung now wants to
find out whether the same mechanism can be detected in other bacteria.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universita"t_Mu"nchen. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Angela Weigert Mun~oz, Elisabeth Hoyer, Kilian Schumacher, Marianne
Grognot, Katja M. Taute, Stephan M. Hacker, Stephan A. Sieber,
Kirsten Jung. Eukaryotic catecholamine hormones influence the
chemotactic control of Vibrio campbellii by binding to the coupling
protein CheW. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
2022; 119 (10) DOI: 10.1073/ pnas.2118227119 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220307113056.htm
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