Adhesion to the host cell surface is sufficient to mediate Listeria monocytogenes entry into epithelial cells.

ABSTRACT: The intestinal epithelium is the first physiological barrier breached by the Gram-positive facultative pathogen Listeria monocytogenes during an in vivo infection. Listeria monocytogenes binds to the epithelial host cell receptor E-cadherin, which mediates a physical link between the bacterium and filamentous actin (F-actin). However, the importance of anchoring the bacterium to F-actin through E-cadherin for bacterial invasion has not been tested directly in epithelial cells. Here we demonstrate that depleting αE-catenin, which indirectly links E-cadherin to F-actin, did not decrease L. monocytogenes invasion of epithelial cells in tissue culture. Instead, invasion increased due to increased bacterial adhesion to epithelial monolayers with compromised cell-cell juncti

SUBMITTER: Ortega FE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5662255 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature