Helicobacter pylori versus the host: remodeling of the bacterial outer membrane is required for survival in the gastric mucosa.

ABSTRACT: Modification of bacterial surface structures, such as the lipid A portion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), is used by many pathogenic bacteria to help evade the host innate immune response. Helicobacter pylori, a gram-negative bacterium capable of chronic colonization of the human stomach, modifies its lipid A by removal of phosphate groups from the 1- and 4'-positions of the lipid A backbone. In this study, we identify the enzyme responsible for dephosphorylation of the lipid A 4'-phosphate group in H. pylori, Jhp1487 (LpxF). To ascertain the role these modifications play in the pathogenesis of H. pylori, we created mutants in lpxE (1-phosphatase), lpxF (4'-phosphatase) and a double lpxE/F mutant. Analysis of lipid A isolated from lpxE and lpxF mutants revealed lipid A species with a 1 or 4'-

SUBMITTER: Cullen TW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3245313 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature