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Marcinkiewicz AL, Brangulis K, Dupuis AP, Hart TM, Zamba‐Campero M, Nowak TA, Stout JL, Akopjana I, Kazaks A, Bogans J, Ciota AT, Kraiczy P, Kolokotronis SO, Lin YP. Structural evolution of an immune evasion determinant shapes pathogen host tropism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2301549120. [PMID: 37364114 PMCID: PMC10319004 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2301549120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Modern infectious disease outbreaks often involve changes in host tropism, the preferential adaptation of pathogens to specific hosts. The Lyme disease-causing bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) is an ideal model to investigate the molecular mechanisms of host tropism, because different variants of these tick-transmitted bacteria are distinctly maintained in rodents or bird reservoir hosts. To survive in hosts and escape complement-mediated immune clearance, Bb produces the outer surface protein CspZ that binds the complement inhibitor factor H (FH) to facilitate bacterial dissemination in vertebrates. Despite high sequence conservation, CspZ variants differ in human FH-binding ability. Together with the FH polymorphisms between vertebrate hosts, these findings suggest that minor sequence variation in this bacterial outer surface protein may confer dramatic differences in host-specific, FH-binding-mediated infectivity. We tested this hypothesis by determining the crystal structure of the CspZ-human FH complex, and identifying minor variation localized in the FH-binding interface yielding bird and rodent FH-specific binding activity that impacts infectivity. Swapping the divergent region in the FH-binding interface between rodent- and bird-associated CspZ variants alters the ability to promote rodent- and bird-specific early-onset dissemination. We further linked these loops and respective host-specific, complement-dependent phenotypes with distinct CspZ phylogenetic lineages, elucidating evolutionary mechanisms driving host tropism emergence. Our multidisciplinary work provides a novel molecular basis for how a single, short protein motif could greatly modulate pathogen host tropism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley L. Marcinkiewicz
- New York State Department of Health, Division of Infectious Diseases, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY12208
| | - Kalvis Brangulis
- Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, RigaLV-1067, Latvia
- Department of Human Physiology and Biochemistry, Riga Stradins University, RigaLV-1007, Latvia
| | - Alan P. Dupuis
- New York State Department of Health, Division of Infectious Diseases, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY12208
| | - Thomas M. Hart
- New York State Department of Health, Division of Infectious Diseases, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY12208
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York Albany, Albany, NY12222
| | - Maxime Zamba‐Campero
- New York State Department of Health, Division of Infectious Diseases, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY12208
| | - Tristan A. Nowak
- New York State Department of Health, Division of Infectious Diseases, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY12208
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York Albany, Albany, NY12222
| | - Jessica L. Stout
- New York State Department of Health, Division of Infectious Diseases, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY12208
| | - Inara Akopjana
- Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, RigaLV-1067, Latvia
| | - Andris Kazaks
- Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, RigaLV-1067, Latvia
| | - Janis Bogans
- Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, RigaLV-1067, Latvia
| | - Alexander T. Ciota
- New York State Department of Health, Division of Infectious Diseases, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY12208
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York Albany, Albany, NY12222
| | - Peter Kraiczy
- Institute of Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, University Hospital of Frankfurt, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt60596, Germany
| | - Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Brooklyn, NY 11203-2098
- Institute for Genomics in Health, Brooklyn, NY11203-2098
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Brooklyn, NY11203-2098
- Department of Cell Biology, College of Medicine, State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY11203-2098
| | - Yi-Pin Lin
- New York State Department of Health, Division of Infectious Diseases, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY12208
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York Albany, Albany, NY12222
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