Previous Article | Next Article 
Journal of Bacteriology, December 2003, p. 7279-7284, Vol. 185, No. 24
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.24.7279-7284.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
InvB Is a Type III Secretion-Associated Chaperone for the Salmonella enterica Effector Protein SopE
Sang Ho Lee and Jorge E. Galán*
Section
of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University School of Medicine,
New Haven, Connecticut 06536
Received 7 August 2003/
Accepted 19 September 2003

ABSTRACT
SopE
is a bacteriophage-encoded effector protein of
Salmonella
enterica serovar Typhimurium that is translocated into the cytosol
of
eukaryotic cells by a type III secretion system (TTSS) (W.-D.
Hardt,
H. Urlaub, and J. E. Galán, Proc. Natl. Acad.
Sci. USA
95:2574-2579, 1998; M. W. Wood, R. Rosqvist,
P. B.
Mullan, M. H. Edwards, and E. E.
Galyov, Mol. Microbiol. 22:327-338,
1996). In this study, we
provide evidence that an unlinked gene
carried within the
Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1),
invB (K.
Eichelberg, C. Ginocchio, and J. E. Galán, J.
Bacteriol.
176:4501-4510, 1994), is required for the secretion
of SopE
through the SPI-1 TTSS. Furthermore, far-Western blotting
analysis
shows that SopE directly interacts with InvB through a domain
located
at its amino terminus. We conclude that InvB is the
TTSS-associated
chaperone for
SopE.

TEXT
Many gram-negative bacteria that are pathogenic for humans,
animals, and
plants have evolved a specialized protein secretion
system,
designated type III, which mediates the delivery of
a myriad of
virulence effectors into eukaryotic cells
(
6,
13).
Once translocated,
these effectors are able to subvert host
cellular processes for the
benefit of the infecting pathogen.
Salmonella enterica is
equipped with two type III secretion
systems (TTSSs), which contribute
to pathogenesis at different
stages during infection
(
12). One of the
Salmonella TTSSs, encoded
within
Salmonella
pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1), mediates the
initial interaction of
Salmonella with the intestinal epithelium,
eventually leading
to bacterial internalization and the production
of proinflammatory
cytokines (
15). Central
to the stimulation
of these responses is SopE, a Cdc42 and Rac1 guanine
nucleotide
exchange factor encoded within a lysogenic (or for some
strains,
defective) bacteriophage that is integrated at a chromosomal
location
away from SPI-1
(
17,
18,
22,
33). Many effector
proteins destined
to be secreted by the type III secretion machinery
are often
associated with specific chaperones that form a tight complex
by
binding a discrete domain within the amino terminus of their
cognate
substrates (
24,
26,
32). Although the
function of these
chaperones is not completely understood, it is clear
that they
maintain the substrate proteins as unfolded polypeptides
within
the bacterial cytoplasm, presumably in a secretion-competent
state
(
1,
27). Although poorly
conserved at the primary amino acid
sequence level, the crystal
structures of several TTSS-associated
chaperones have revealed a
remarkable structural conservation
among the members of this protein
family (
1,
27). A chaperone
for SopE
has not yet been identified. However, several biochemical
properties of
this protein suggest that it must have a chaperone.
(i) Full-length
SopE, but not a deletion mutant version lacking
the first 78 amino
acids, is insoluble when expressed in
Escherichia coli
(
3,
17). (ii) The catalytic
effector domain of SopE has
been mapped to amino acid residues 78 to
240 (
3). (iii) The
first

100 amino acids of SopE are sufficient to mediate the
translocation
of heterologous proteins into host cells
(
10). TTSS-associated
chaperones
are often, though not always, encoded in the vicinity of
their
cognate substrate proteins
(
32). Inspection of the
chromosomal
region in the vicinity of SopE did not reveal the presence
of
any open reading frame capable of encoding a protein that could
constitute
a candidate for its putative chaperone (i.e., a protein of
small
molecular weight, acidic pI, and propensity to form amphipathic

-helices).
We hypothesized that since SopE is specifically
secreted by
the SPI-1 TTSS, a protein encoded within this pathogenicity
island
may serve as its cognate chaperone.
Two TTSS-associated
chaperones are encoded within SPI-1: SicP, the chaperone for SptP
(11), and InvB, the
chaperone for SipA (2,
9). It has been previously
shown that some TTSS-associated chaperones can exert their function on
more than one substrate
(21,
29). Absence of the
cognate chaperones most often leads to deficiency of secretion and/or
expression of the cognate effector proteins
(24). We therefore
examined the effect of loss-of-function mutations in either
sicP or invB on the expression and secretion of SopE.
In-frame deletions of sicP or invB were introduced
into an S. enterica serovar Typhimurium strain
carrying an M45 epitope-tagged SopE in the chromosome. Strains were
grown under SPI-1-TTSS-inducing conditions (0.3 M NaCl)
(5); whole cells and
culture supernatants were harvested when cultures reached an optical
density measured at 600 Å of 0.8 and were separated by sodium
dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The
samples were then transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF)
membranes (Immobilon-P; Millipore) and immunoblotted with a monoclonal
antibody directed to the M45 epitope tag
(23). Neither secretion
nor expression of SopE was altered in the strain carrying a
sicP deletion (Fig.
1). In contrast, the level of SopE was drastically reduced in culture
supernatants of a strain harboring an invB deletion (Fig.
1, right panel),
suggesting that InvB is required for efficient SopE secretion. The
secretion defect associated with the invB mutation could be
complemented by expression of invB on an arabinose-inducible
plasmid (16) (Fig.
1, right panel). Secretion
of other TTSS-secreted proteins such as SptP and SipB was unaffected in
the
invB strain (data not shown), indicating that the
secretion defect observed in this strain was not the result of an
overall effect on TTSS-mediated secretion.
It is often observed
that the stability of secreted proteins
within the bacterial cytoplasm
is compromised in the absence
of their cognate chaperones
(
24). In addition, it has
been reported
that some chaperones control the transcription or the
translation
of genes encoding their cognate secreted proteins
(
7,
29). Despite
the drastic
defect in secretion, the levels of SopE in whole-cell
lysates of the
invB strain were only slightly reduced (Fig.
1,
left panel).
Furthermore, transcription and translation of SopE
in the
invB strain were also equivalent to those of the wild
type
(Fig.
2). This behavior of SopE is reminiscent of the
Yersinia species
effector proteins YopH, YscM, and YopN, which in the
absence of their
chaperones are produced but not secreted
(
4,
19,
25,
30).
A key
characteristic of chaperones is their ability to bind
to their cognate
substrates (
31). To
investigate whether InvB
is able to bind to SopE, we utilized
far-Western blotting analysis
as previously described
(
11). Wild-type
Salmonella serovar Typhimurium
(SL1344) and its isogenic
derivative carrying a nonpolar in-frame
deletion of
sopE were
grown under SPI-1-TTSS-inducing conditions,
and proteins in
whole-cell lysates were separated by SDS-PAGE
and transferred to a PVDF
membrane. The membranes were then
treated with a soluble extract of an
Escherichia coli strain
expressing InvB-M45 epitope tag
(equivalent to 10
9 CFU) for
2 h, followed by
Western immunoblot analysis using a monoclonal
antibody directed to the
M45 epitope tag. Far-Western blot analysis
revealed an InvB-interacting
band corresponding to the molecular
mass of SopE
(

28 kDa) (Fig.
3). This band was not
observed in
the
sopE
mutant, which strongly suggests that InvB specifically
binds to SopE. A
high-molecular-mass band (>70 kDa) presumably
corresponding to
SipA was also detected, in keeping with the
reported activity of InvB
as a chaperone for SipA
(
2) (Fig.
3).
Far-Western blot
analysis was also used to dissect the InvB-interacting
domain of SopE.
Various amino-terminal segments of SopE (amino
acid residues 1 to 15, 1
to 38, 1 to 50, and 1 to 104) were
fused to PhoA and introduced into
serovar Typhimurium carrying
an in-frame deletion of
sopE. In
addition, various carboxy termini
of SopE (amino acid residues 78 to
240 and 115 to 240) were
fused to glutathione
S-transferase
(GST) and expressed in
E. coli. Whole-cell extracts of these
strains were separated by
SDS-PAGE and transferred to PVDF membranes,
which were then
overlaid with a lysate of an
E. coli strain
expressing InvB-M45
and then immunoblotted with monoclonal antibody
directed against
the M45 epitope. InvB was unable to bind to the first
15 residues
of SopE or to its carboxy terminus (residues 78 to 240 or
115
to 240), which comprises its catalytic guanine nucleotide exchange
factor
domain (Fig.
4). These results indicate that InvB binds to residues
15 to 78 of SopE, a
finding which is consistent with the observation
that TTSS-associated
chaperones bind to the amino terminus of
their cognate substrates
(
24). The observed
binding profile
was not due to nonspecific binding either to PhoA or
GST, since
SptP
1-35-PhoA or GST-SptP did not interact with
InvB (Fig.
4).
Furthermore,
the absence of binding was not due to lack of expression
of
the relevant constructs, since all constructs were shown to
be
expressed to equivalent levels when subsequently probed with
antibodies
directed against PhoA or GST (Fig.
4, lower panels).
Even
though SopE and SipA bind the same chaperone, there is
no obvious
primary amino acid similarity between these two proteins.
However, this
is not surprising, since despite the structural
similarity of many
TTSS-associated chaperones, there is little
similarity in the primary
amino acid sequence of the binding
domains of their cognate binding
proteins. Presumably, binding
to the chaperones is dictated by a few
key amino acids and secondary
structural features which are compatible
with variations in
the primary amino acid sequence
(
26).
The
observation that SopE is not secreted into the culture supernatant
in
the absence of InvB did not rule out the possibility that
InvB may not
be required for the translocation of SopE into
eukaryotic cells. To
address this issue, we examined whether
the SopE-mediated invasion
phenotype of a
Salmonella strain
carrying loss-of-function
mutations in
sopB and
sopE2 was affected
by the
introduction of the
invB mutation. In the absence of
SopB and
SopE2,
Salmonella invasion into tissue culture cells
is
mediated solely by the activity of SopE
(
34). Therefore,
bacterial
internalization is a sensitive surrogate measure of SopE
translocation.
The ability of a
Salmonella strain carrying
deletion mutations
of the
sopB and
sopE2
genes or that of its isogenic derivative
carrying an
invB null mutation to enter into cultured intestinal
Henle-407
cells was examined by using the gentamicin protection
assay as
previously described
(
14). In the absence of
InvB,
the
sopB
sopE2 strain was
severely defective in its ability
to invade cultured intestinal cells
(Fig.
5), indicating that
InvB is required for the translocation of SopE into
host cells.
In this study, we have identified InvB as the
chaperone for
the
Salmonella type III secreted effector
protein SopE. This
conclusion is supported by the following pieces of
evidence.
(i) In the absence of InvB, SopE is not secreted or
translocated
into cultured host cells. (ii) InvB specifically binds a
discrete
domain within the amino terminus of SopE. InvB exhibits a
number
of unique features. Unlike most chaperones identified thus far,
InvB
is not encoded in the vicinity of its cognate SopE effector
protein.
Interestingly, the chaperone and its cognate substrate are
maintained
in two separate genetic elements, a pathogenicity island
(SPI-1)
and an integrated bacteriophage, which were presumably
horizontally
acquired independently through evolution. It has been
previously
shown that InvB is also a chaperone for an SPI-1-encoded
secreted
protein, SipA
(
2). Although not
specifically examined in this
study, it is possible that InvB serves as
a chaperone for the
highly related protein SopE2
(
28). Therefore, InvB
serves as
a chaperone for two or perhaps even three secreted proteins
that
are genetically unlinked. SopE, SopE2, and SipA exert their
function
very early during the infection process
(
15). It is therefore
possible
that the utilization of a common chaperone is related to
yet-undefined
control mechanisms of the secretion process to ensure the
rapid
and early delivery of these effector
proteins.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank
members of the Galán laboratory for critical
reading of the
manuscript.
S.H.L. was supported by NRSA fellowship number
AI52710-01 from the National Institutes of Health. This work was
supported by Public Health Service grant number AI30492 from the
National Institutes of Health to
J.E.G.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding
author. Mailing address: Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale
University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06536. Phone: (203)
737-2404. Fax: (203) 737-2630. E-mail:
Jorge.galan{at}yale.edu.


REFERENCES
1 - Birtalan,
S. C., R. M. Phillips, and P. Ghosh.2002
. Three-dimensional secretion signals in
chaperone-effector complexes of bacterial pathogens. Mol.
Cell
9:971-980.[CrossRef][Medline]
2 - Bronstein,
P. A., E. A. Miao, and S. I. Miller.2000
. InvB is a type III secretion chaperone specific for
SspA. J. Bacteriol.
182:6638-6644.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3 - Buchwald,
G., A. Friebel, J. E. Galán, W. D. Hardt, A.
Wittinghofer, and K. Scheffzek. 2002. Structural basis
for the reversible activation of a Rho protein by the bacterial toxin
SopE. EMBO J.
21:3286-3295.[CrossRef][Medline]
4 - Cambronne,
E. D., L. W. Cheng, and O. Schneewind.2000
. LcrQ/YscM1, regulators of the Yersinia yop virulon,
are injected into host cells by a chaperone-dependent mechanism.Mol. Microbiol.
37:263-273.[CrossRef][Medline]
5 - Chen,
L. M., K. Kaniga, and J. E. Galán.1996
. Salmonella spp. are cytotoxic for cultured
macrophages. Mol. Microbiol.
21:1101-1115.[CrossRef][Medline]
6 - Cornelis,
G. R., and F. Van Gijsegem. 2000. Assembly
and function of type III secretory systems. Annu. Rev.
Microbiol.
54:735-774.[CrossRef][Medline]
7 - Darwin,
K., and V. Miller. 2001. Type III secretion
chaperone-dependent regulation: activation of virulence genes by SicA
and InvF in Salmonella typhimurium. EMBO J.
20:1850-1862.[CrossRef][Medline]
8 - Eichelberg,
K., and J. E. Galan. 1999. Differential
regulation of Salmonella typhimurium type III secreted
proteins by pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1)-encoded transcriptional
activators InvF and HilA. Infect Immun.
67:4099-4105.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
9 - Eichelberg,
K., C. Ginocchio, and J. E. Galán.1994
. Molecular and functional characterization of the
Salmonella typhimurium invasion genes invB and
invC: homology of InvC to the F0F1
ATPase family of proteins. J. Bacteriol.
176:4501-4510.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
10 - Evans,
D. T., L.-M. Chen, J. Gillis, K.-C. Lin, B. Harty,
G. P. Mazzara, R. O. Donis, K. G.
Mansfield, J. D. Lifson, R. C. Desrosiers,
J. E. Galán, and R. P. Johnson.2003
. Mucosal priming of simian immunodeficiency
virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses in rhesus macaques by
the Salmonella type III secretion antigen delivery system.J. Virol.
77:2400-2409.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
11 - Fu,
Y., and J. E. Galán. 1998.
Identification of a specific chaperone for SptP, a substrate of the
centisome 63 type III secretion system of Salmonella
typhimurium. J. Bacteriol.
180:3393-3399.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
12 - Galán,
J. E. 2001. Salmonella interaction
with host cells: type III secretion at work. Annu. Rev. Cell
Dev. Biol.
17:53-86.[CrossRef][Medline]
13 - Galán,
J. E., and A. Collmer. 1999. Type III
secretion machines: bacterial devices for protein delivery into host
cells. Science
284:1322-1328.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
14 - Galán,
J. E., and R. Curtiss III. 1989. Cloning and
molecular characterization of genes whose products allow Salmonella
typhimurium to penetrate tissue culture cells. Proc. Natl.
Acad. Sci. USA
86:6383-6387.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
15 - Galán,
J. E., and D. Zhou. 2000. Striking a
balance: modulation of the actin cytoskeleton by Salmonella.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
97:8754-8761.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
16 - Guzman,
L. M., D. Belin, M. J. Carson, and J. Beckwith.1995
. Tight regulation, modulation, and high-level
expression by vectors containing the arabinose PBAD promoter. J.
Bacteriol.
177:4121-4130.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
17 - Hardt,
W.-D., L.-M. Chen, K. E. Schuebel, X. R. Bustelo,
and J. E. Galán. 1998. Salmonella
typhimurium encodes an activator of Rho GTPases that induces
membrane ruffling and nuclear responses in host cells.Cell
93:815-826.[CrossRef][Medline]
18 - Hardt,
W.-D., H. Urlaub, and J. E. Galán.1998
. A target of the centisome 63 type III protein
secretion system of Salmonella typhimurium is encoded by a
cryptic bacteriophage. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
95:2574-2579.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
19 - Jackson,
M., J. Day, and G. Plano. 1998. YscB of Yersinia
pestis functions as a specific chaperone for YopN. J.
Bacteriol.
180:4912-4921.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
20 - Kaniga,
K., J. C. Bossio, and J. E. Galán.1994
. The Salmonella typhimurium invasion genes
invF and invG encode homologues to the PulD and AraC
family of proteins. Mol. Microbiol.
13:555-568.[CrossRef][Medline]
21 - Ménard,
R., P. J. Sansonetti, C. Parsot, and T. Vasselon.1994
. Extracellular association and cytoplasmic
partitioning of the IpaB and IpaC invasins of S. flexneri.Cell
79:515-529.[CrossRef][Medline]
22 - Mirold,
S., W. Rabsch, M. Rohde, S. Stender, H. Tschape, H. Russmann, E. Igwe,
and W. D. Hardt. 1999. Isolation of a
temperate bacteriophage encoding the type III effector protein.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
96:9845-9850.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
23 - Obert,
S., R. J. O'Connor, S. Schmid, and P. Hearing.1994
. The adenovirus E4-6/7 protein transactivates
the E2 promoter by inducing dimerization of a heteromeric E2F complex.Mol. Cell. Biol.
14:1333-1346.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
24 - Page,
A. L., and C. Parsot. 2002. Chaperones of
the type III secretion pathway: jacks of all trades. Mol.
Microbiol.
46:1-11.[CrossRef][Medline]
25 - Persson,
C., R. Nordfelth, A. Holmström, S. Hakansson, R. Rosqvist, and H.
Wolf-Watz. 1995. Cell surface-bound Yersinia
translocate the protein tyrosine phosphatase YopH by a polarized
mechanism into the target cell. Mol. Microbiol.
18:135-150.[CrossRef][Medline]
26 - Stebbins,
C. E., and J. E. Galan. Priming virulence
factors for delivery into the host. Nat. Rev. Mol. Biol., in
press.
27 - Stebbins,
C. E., and J. E. Galán.2001
. Maintenance of an unfolded polypeptide by a cognate
chaperone in bacterial type III secretion. Nature
414:77-81.[CrossRef][Medline]
28 - Stender,
S., A. Friebel, S. Linder, M. Rohde, S. Mirold, and W. D.
Hardt. 2000. Identification of SopE2 from
Salmonella typhimurium, a conserved guanine nucleotide
exchange factor for Cdc42 of the host cell. Mol.
Microbiol.
36:1206-1211.[CrossRef][Medline]
29 - Tucker,
S. C., and J. E. Galán.2000
. Complex function for SicA, a Salmonella
enterica serovar Typhimurium type III secretion-associated
chaperone. J. Bacteriol.
182:2262-2268.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
30 - Wattiau,
P., B. Bernier, P. Deslée, T. Michiels, and G.
R. Cornelis. 1994. Individual chaperones
required for Yop secretion by Yersinia. Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
91:10493-10497.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
31 - Wattiau,
P., and G. R. Cornelis. 1993. SycE, a
chaperone-like protein of Yersinia enterocolitica involved in
the secretion of YopE. Mol. Microbiol.
8:123-131.[Medline]
32 - Wattiau,
P., S. Woestyn, and G. R. Cornelis. 1996.
Customized secretion chaperones in pathogenic bacteria. Mol.
Microbiol.
20:255-262.[CrossRef][Medline]
33 - Wood,
M. W., R. Rosqvist, P. B. Mullan, M. H.
Edwards, and E. E. Galyov. 1996. SopE, a
secreted protein of Salmonella dublin, is translocated into
the target eukaryotic cell via a sip-dependent mechanism and
promotes bacterial entry. Mol. Microbiol.
22:327-338.[CrossRef][Medline]
34 - Zhou,
D., L. M. Chen, L. Hernandez, S. B. Shears, and
J. E. Galán. 2001. A Salmonella
inositol polyphosphatase acts in conjunction with other bacterial
effectors to promote host cell actin cytoskeleton rearrangements and
bacterial internalization. Mol. Microbiol.
39:248-259.[CrossRef][Medline]
Journal of Bacteriology, December 2003, p. 7279-7284, Vol. 185, No. 24
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.24.7279-7284.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Chen, L.-M., Briones, G., Donis, R. O., Galan, J. E.
(2006). Optimization of the Delivery of Heterologous Proteins by the Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Type III Secretion System for Vaccine Development.. Infect. Immun.
74: 5826-5833
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Higashide, W., Zhou, D.
(2006). The First 45 Amino Acids of SopA Are Necessary for InvB Binding and SPI-1 Secretion.. J. Bacteriol.
188: 2411-2420
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Karavolos, M. H., Wilson, M., Henderson, J., Lee, J. J., Khan, C. M. A.
(2005). Type III Secretion of the Salmonella Effector Protein SopE Is Mediated via an N-Terminal Amino Acid Signal and Not an mRNA Sequence. J. Bacteriol.
187: 1559-1567
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Ghosh, P.
(2004). Process of Protein Transport by the Type III Secretion System. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev.
68: 771-795
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Brussow, H., Canchaya, C., Hardt, W.-D.
(2004). Phages and the Evolution of Bacterial Pathogens: from Genomic Rearrangements to Lysogenic Conversion. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev.
68: 560-602
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Dai, S., Zhou, D.
(2004). Secretion and Function of Salmonella SPI-2 Effector SseF Require Its Chaperone, SscB. J. Bacteriol.
186: 5078-5086
[Abstract]
[Full Text]