Oral Presentation The 4th Prato Conference on Pore Forming Proteins 2018

Intracellular factors involved in up-take and action of bacterial glucosyltransferase toxins (#32)

Klaus Aktories 1
  1. Institute for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical Faculty, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

Several groups of bacterial protein toxins and effectors act on eukaryotic cells by cytosolic mono-O-glucosylation. One group comprises clostridial glucosylating exotoxins, which are produced by Clostridium difficile, C. sordellii, C. novyi and C. perfringens. The large protein toxins (200-300 kDa) modify Rho- and Ras-subfamily proteins at Thr35/37 by O-glucosylation or GlcNAcylation thereby inhibiting the signaling functions of the eukaryotic GTPases. Rho proteins are also the targets of PaTox, an exotoxin produced by entomopathogenic Photorhabdus asymbiotica. PaTox GlcNAcylates Rho proteins at Tyr32/34. Novel bacterial glucosyltransferase toxins and cytosolic factors essential for up-take of glucosylating toxins will be discussed in detail.