Disruption of the Rickettsia rickettsii Sca2 autotransporter inhibits actin-based motility.

ABSTRACT: Rickettsii rickettsii, the etiologic agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, replicates within the cytosol of infected cells and uses actin-based motility to spread inter- and intracellularly. Although the ultrastructure of the actin tail and host proteins associated with it are distinct from those of Listeria or Shigella, comparatively little is known regarding the rickettsial proteins involved in its organization. Here, we have used random transposon mutagenesis of R. rickettsii to generate a small-plaque mutant that is defective in actin-based motility and does not spread directly from cell to cell as is characteristic of spotted fever group rickettsiae. The transposon insertion site of this mutant strain was within Sca2, a member of a family of large autotransporter proteins. Sca2 exhib

SUBMITTER: Kleba B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2863521 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature