Molecular turn in <i>Yersinia pestis</i> pathogenesis: implications of the <i>gppA</i> frameshift for bacterial survival in human macrophage.

ABSTRACT: Yersinia pestis, the etiological agent of the devastating plague, has caused three pandemics in human history. While known for its fatality, it has long been intriguing that biovar microtus strains are highly attenuated to humans. The survival and replication within macrophages are critical in the early stages of the Y. pestis lifestyle within warm-blooded hosts. Here, we demonstrate that a frameshift truncation of gppA, a gene encoding the phosphohydrolase GppA that responsible for the conversion of stringent response alarmone pppGpp to ppGpp, significantly promotes Y. pestis to survive inside human macrophages. This frameshift mutation of gppA is present in all the evolutionary branches formed by the modern Y. pestis strains responsible for the p

SUBMITTER: Chen H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11878169 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature