In vivo structure of the Legionella type II secretion system by electron cryotomography

Debnath Ghosal; Ki Woo Kim; Huaixin Zheng; Mohammed Kaplan; Hilary K. Truchan; Alberto E. Lopez; Ian E. McIntire; Joseph P. Vogel; Nicholas P. Cianciotto; Grant J. Jensen

doi:10.1038/s41564-019-0603-6

In vivo structure of the Legionella type II secretion system by electron cryotomography

Debnath Ghosal, Ki Woo Kim, Huaixin Zheng, Mohammed Kaplan, Hilary K. Truchan, Alberto E. Lopez, Ian E. McIntire, Joseph P. Vogel, Nicholas P. Cianciotto, Grant J. Jensen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

38 Scopus citations

Abstract

The type II secretion system (T2SS) is a multiprotein envelope-spanning assembly that translocates a wide range of virulence factors, enzymes and effectors through the outer membrane of many Gram-negative bacteria^1–3. Here, using electron cryotomography and subtomogram averaging methods, we reveal the in vivo structure of an intact T2SS imaged within the human pathogen Legionella pneumophila. Although the T2SS has only limited sequence and component homology with the evolutionarily related type IV pilus (T4P) system^4,5, we show that their overall architectures are remarkably similar. Despite similarities, there are also differences, including, for example, that the T2SS–ATPase complex is usually present but disengaged from the inner membrane, the T2SS has a much longer periplasmic vestibule and it has a short-lived flexible pseudopilus. Placing atomic models of the components into our electron cryotomography map produced a complete architectural model of the intact T2SS that provides insights into the structure and function of its components, its position within the cell envelope and the interactions between its different subcomplexes.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2101-2108
Number of pages	8
Journal	Nature Microbiology
Volume	4
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-019-0603-6
State	Published - Dec 1 2019

Funding

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants AI127401 to G.J.J. and AI043987 to N.P.C. ECT data were recorded at the Beckman Institute Resource Center for Transmission Electron Microcopy at Caltech and the cryo-EM facility at Janelia Research Campus. We thank D. Ortega, Y.-W. Chang and R.C. White for helpful discussions. M.K. is supported by a postdoctoral Rubicon fellowship from De Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
Microbiology (medical)
Genetics
Cell Biology
Microbiology
Immunology

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abstract = "The type II secretion system (T2SS) is a multiprotein envelope-spanning assembly that translocates a wide range of virulence factors, enzymes and effectors through the outer membrane of many Gram-negative bacteria1–3. Here, using electron cryotomography and subtomogram averaging methods, we reveal the in vivo structure of an intact T2SS imaged within the human pathogen Legionella pneumophila. Although the T2SS has only limited sequence and component homology with the evolutionarily related type IV pilus (T4P) system4,5, we show that their overall architectures are remarkably similar. Despite similarities, there are also differences, including, for example, that the T2SS–ATPase complex is usually present but disengaged from the inner membrane, the T2SS has a much longer periplasmic vestibule and it has a short-lived flexible pseudopilus. Placing atomic models of the components into our electron cryotomography map produced a complete architectural model of the intact T2SS that provides insights into the structure and function of its components, its position within the cell envelope and the interactions between its different subcomplexes.",

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AU - Cianciotto, Nicholas P.

AU - Jensen, Grant J.

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In vivo structure of the Legionella type II secretion system by electron cryotomography

Abstract

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