Detoxification of methylglyoxal by the glyoxalase system is required for glutathione availability and virulence activation in Listeria monocytogenes.

ABSTRACT: Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive, food-borne pathogen that lives a biphasic lifestyle, cycling between the environment and as a facultative intracellular pathogen of mammals. Upon entry into host cells, L. monocytogenes upregulates expression of glutathione synthase (GshF) and its product, glutathione (GSH), which is an allosteric activator of the master virulence regulator PrfA. Although gshF mutants are highly attenuated for virulence in mice and form very small plaques in host cell monolayers, these virulence defects can be fully rescued by mutations that lock PrfA in its active conformation, referred to as PrfA*. While PrfA activation can be recapitulated in vitro by the addition of reducing agents, the precise biological cue(s) experienced by L. monocytogenes that lead to Prf

SUBMITTER: Anaya-Sanchez A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8372916 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature