Description:

The Department of Microbiology-Immunology Seminar Series

“Life on the Inside: Targeting the Host Cell to Understand How Plague Survives in Macrophages”

Matthew Lawrenz, PhD / University of Louisville

Description

Yersinia pestis is a facultative intracellular pathogen that causes the human disease known as plague. While researchers have known for decades that Y. pestis can survive in macrophages, the molecular mechanisms that enable Y. pestis to evade macrophage killing have been difficult to define. Using an RNAi-based approach targeting the host cell, we were able to identify for the first time a vesicular trafficking pathway targeted by Y. pestis during infection and demonstrate that this pathway is important for intracellular survival. These data provide our first clues into how Y. pestis manipulates the macrophage during intracellular infection and allows us to compare and contrast virulence mechanisms of other intracellular pathogens. Using these data we can begin to identify Y. pestis virulence factors that allow the bacterium to subvert normal macrophage killing mechanisms.