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Bacterial pathogenesis

It takes two to tango

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 15, page 642 (2017)Cite this article

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Colonic mucus maintains intestinal homeostasis by protecting the epithelium from enteric microorganisms and by providing a carbon source to promote the growth of commensals in this niche. Investigating the role of the secreted intestinal glycoprotein mucin 2 (MUC2) in ETBF pathogenesis, the authors showed that colonization of MUC2-deficient mice with ETBF was lethal. However, animals with intact colonic mucus that were colonized by ETBF, and MUC2-deficient mice that were colonized with ETBF strains that lack BFT, were unaffected.

Next, the authors showed that a two-component response regulator system, comprising RprY and RprX, regulates the expression of bft. They detected decreased bft transcript levels when mice were inoculated with an ETBF strain that overexpressed RprX, whereas bft transcript levels were increased when the authors used a mutant bacterial strain that lacked RprX. Finally, colonization of MUC2-deficient mice with bacteria that overexpressed RprY or RprX prevented lethal disease.

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References

  1. Hecht, A. L. et al. A two-component system regulates Bacteroides fragilis toxin to maintain intestinal homeostasis and prevent lethal disease. Cell Host Microbe http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2017.08.007 (2017)

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Authors
  1. Andrea Du Toit
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Du Toit, A. It takes two to tango. Nat Rev Microbiol 15, 642 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.124

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