Download MendeleyBacteria deliver a microtubule-binding protein into mammalian cells to promote colonization.
Costello, M.S., Neumann, B., Raimondi, M.W., Cuthbert, B.J., Holubova, J., Garza-Sanchez, F., Samad, A., Bumba, L., Torres, J.A., Holznecht, N., Mendoza, J., Stanek, O., Prombhul, S., Weimbs, T., Morrissey, M.A., Acosta-Alvear, D., Low, D.A., Sebo, P., Goulding, C.W., Gonen, S., Hayes, C.S.(2026) Science 391: 825-830
- PubMed: 41712723 Search on PubMedSearch on PubMed Central
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz2737
- Primary Citation Related Structures:
9NNL - PubMed Abstract:
Pathogenic Bordetella bacteria use protein adhesins to infect the ciliated respiratory epithelia of vertebrate hosts. In this work, we show that the filamentous hemagglutinin FhaB adhesin of Bordetella carries a C-terminal microtubule-binding domain (FhaB-CT), which is translocated into host cells to promote colonization. FhaB-CT delivery is required to occupy a niche at the base of cilia in airway epithelia, and mutant bacteria lacking this domain are defective for nasal colonization. These observations suggest that FhaB-CT is transferred into motile respiratory cilia to interact with core axonemal microtubules. We propose that Bordetella adheres initially to the tips of cilia and then deploys multiple FhaB adhesins to migrate to the base of the cilia forest, where the bacteria resist removal by the mucociliary "escalator" that normally clears the respiratory tract of microbes.
- Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
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