Lipopolysaccharide composition determines the preferred route and entry kinetics of bacterial outer membrane vesicles into host cells

Eloise J O’Donoghue, Douglas F Browning, Ewa Bielska, Luke Alderwick, Sara Jabbari, Anne Marie Krachler

Research output: Preprint or Working paperPreprint

Abstract

Outer membrane vesicles are microvesicles shed by Gram-negative bacteria and play important roles in immune priming and disease pathogenesis. However, our current mechanistic understanding of vesicle - host cell interactions is limited by a lack of methods to study the kinetics of vesicle entry and cargo delivery to host cells in real-time. Here, we describe a highly sensitive method to study the kinetics of vesicle entry into host cells in real-time using a genetically encoded probe targeted to vesicles. We found that route of vesicular uptake, and thus entry kinetics and efficiency of cargo release, are determined by the chemical composition of the bacterial lipopolysaccharide. The presence of O-antigen facilitates receptor-independent entry, which enhances both rate and efficiency of cargo uptake by host cells. Collectively, our findings highlight the chemical composition of the bacterial cell wall as a major determinant of secretion-independent delivery of virulence factors during Gram-negative infections.
Original languageEnglish
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2016

Bibliographical note

The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Keywords

  • microbiology

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