Yu Pang, Zhihui Cheng, Si Zhang, Shujie Li, Xueping Li, Xiaodan Li, Xiao Zhang, Xiaoxiao Li, Yingxing Feng, Heting Cui, Zhen Chen, Le Liu, Qing Li, Jianxiao Huang, Mingqing Zhang, Siwei Zhu, Lei Wang, Lu Feng
Urinary tract infections are predominantly caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). UPEC infects bladder epithelial cells (BECs) via fusiform vesicles, escapes into the cytosol to evade exocytosis, and establishes intracellular bacterial communities (IBCs) for the next round of infection. The UPEC vesicle escape mechanism remains unclear. Here we show that UPEC senses host immune responses and initiates escape by upregulating a key phospholipase. The UPEC phospholipase PldA disrupts the vesicle membrane, and pldA expression is activated by phosphate reduction in vesicles...
April 19, 2022: Cell Reports