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Infection and Immunity, August 2008, p. 3359, Vol. 76, No. 8
0019-9567/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00753-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

SPOTLIGHT

Articles of Significant Interest Selected from This Issue by the Editors

Microbial invasion is critically dependent on specific interactions of the pathogen with host cellular and extracellular receptors. Characterizing these interactions is therefore key to understanding pathogenic mechanisms and developing anti-infective therapies. Progress towards these ultimate goals is, however, hindered by the often-long lag between the identification of host and pathogen factors for each specific interaction. Lu and PereiraPerrin (p. 3530-3538) developed a novel immunoprecipitation strategy that allows simultaneous discovery of both members. Using this method, they discovered a novel counterreceptor in the Chagas' disease parasite Trypanosoma cruzi that uniquely binds receptors for the GDNF (glial cell-derived neurotropic factor) family of ligands, which are essential for survival and development of central and peripheral neurons. The trypanosome neurotrophic mimic could underlie both neuroregeneration and neurodegeneration during Chagas' disease progression.

Assessing the Specific Roles of the iro Genes for Salmochelin Production and Extraintestinal Virulence of Escherichia coli

The iroBCDEN genes encode salmochelins, which are glucosylated derivatives of the siderophore enterobactin. Glucosylation of enterobactin improves bacterial iron acquisition by evading host proteins that can sequester enterobactin. Using a systemic infection model of pathogenic Escherichia coli in chickens, Caza et al. (p. 3539-3549) examined the specific roles of the iro genes for production of salmochelins and related siderophores by use of mass spectrometry. The comparative levels of different siderophores produced in infected tissues were also assessed. The results provide new insights into the production of different siderophores by E. coli during infection.

A Recombinant Borrelia burgdorferi Proteome Array Identifies Novel Immunogens for Humans with Lyme Borreliosis and a Natural Reservoir, White-Footed Mice

The identities of proteins that are immunogenic during infections with Borrelia burgdorferi have largely been limited to those that are expressed during in vitro cultivation. Barbour et al. (p. 3374-3389) used a genome-wide proteome array to assess antibody responses to proteins with no or limited expression under these in vitro conditions. With serum sets from either humans with different stages of Lyme borreliosis or infected white-footed mice trapped in an area of Lyme borreliosis endemicity, only 15% of open reading frames were found to elicit an antibody response detectably, but among this group were several proteins that hitherto were not known to be immunogenic. Immuogenic proteins tended to be lipoproteins, encoded by plasmids rather than by the chromosome, and members of paralogous families.

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