The type III secretion system effector SptP of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi

Abstract

Strains of the various Salmonella enterica serovars cause gastroenteritis or typhoid fever in humans, with virulence depending on the action of two type III secretion systems (Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 [SPI-1] and SPI-2). SptP is a Salmonella SPI-1 effector, involved in mediating recovery of the host cytoskeleton postinfection. SptP requires a chaperone, SicP, for stability and secretion. SptP has 94% identity between S. enterica serovar Typhimurium and S. Typhi; direct comparison of the protein sequences revealed that S. Typhi SptP has numerous amino acid changes within its chaperone-binding domain. Subsequent comparison of ΔsptP S. Typhi and S. Typhimurium strains demonstrated that, unlike SptP in S. Typhimurium, SptP in S. Typhi was not involved in invasion or cytoskeletal recovery postinfection. Investigation of whether the observed amino acid changes within SptP of S. Typhi affected its function revealed that S. Typhi SptP was unable to complement S. Typhimurium ΔsptP due to an absence of secretion. We further demonstrated that while S. Typhimurium SptP is stable intracellularly within S. Typhi, S. Typhi SptP is unstable, although stability could be recovered following replacement of the chaperonebinding domain with that of S. Typhimurium. Direct assessment of the strength of the interaction between SptP and SicP of both serovars via bacterial two-hybrid analysis demonstrated that S. Typhi SptP has a significantly weaker interaction with SicP than the equivalent proteins in S. Typhimurium. Taken together, our results suggest that changes within the chaperone-binding domain of SptP in S. Typhi hinder binding to its chaperone, resulting in instability, preventing translocation, and therefore restricting the intracellular activity of this effector.