Work

Coordination of transcriptional and translational regulations in human epithelial cells infected by Listeria monocytogenes

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: The invasion of mammalian cells by intracellular bacterial pathogens reshuffles their gene expression and functions; however, we lack dynamic insight into the distinct control levels that shape the host response. Here, we have addressed the respective contribution of transcriptional and translational regulations during a timecourse of infection of human intestinal epithelial cells by an epidemic strain of Listeria monocytogenes , using transcriptome analysis paralleled with ribosome profiling. Upregulations were dominated by early transcriptional activation of pro-inflammatory genes, whereas translation inhibition appeared as the major driver of downregulations. Instead of a widespread but transient shutoff, translation inhibition affected specifically and durably transcripts encoding components of the translation machinery harbouring a 5’-terminal oligopyrimidine motif. Pre-silencing the most repressed target gene ( PABPC1 ) slowed down the intracellular multiplication of Listeria monocytogenes , suggesting that the infected host cell can benefit from the repression of genes involved in protein synthesis and thereby better control infection.

Source: RNA Biology

DOI: 10.1080/15476286.2020.1777380

Authors: Vinko Besic, Fatemeh Habibolahi, Benoît Noël, Sebastian Rupp, Auguste Genovesio, Alice Lebreton