Salmonella Typhimurium outer membrane protein A (OmpA) renders protection from nitrosative stress of macrophages by maintaining the stability of bacterial outer membrane

PLoS Pathog. 2022 Aug 15;18(8):e1010708. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010708. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Bacterial porins are highly conserved outer membrane proteins used in the selective transport of charged molecules across the membrane. In addition to their significant contributions to the pathogenesis of Gram-negative bacteria, their role(s) in salmonellosis remains elusive. In this study, we investigated the role of outer membrane protein A (OmpA), one of the major outer membrane porins of Salmonella, in the pathogenesis of Salmonella Typhimurium (STM). Our study revealed that OmpA plays an important role in the intracellular virulence of Salmonella. An ompA deficient strain of Salmonella (STM ΔompA) showed compromised proliferation in macrophages. We found that the SPI-2 encoded virulence factors such as sifA and ssaV are downregulated in STM ΔompA. The poor colocalization of STM ΔompA with LAMP-1 showed that disruption of SCV facilitated its release into the cytosol of macrophages, where it was assaulted by reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI). The enhanced recruitment of nitrotyrosine on the cytosolic population of STM ΔompAΔsifA and ΔompAΔssaV compared to STM ΔsifA and ΔssaV showed an additional role of OmpA in protecting the bacteria from host nitrosative stress. Further, we showed that the generation of greater redox burst could be responsible for enhanced sensitivity of STM ΔompA to the nitrosative stress. The expression of several other outer membrane porins such as ompC, ompD, and ompF was upregulated in STM ΔompA. We found that in the absence of ompA, the enhanced expression of ompF increased the outer membrane porosity of Salmonella and made it susceptible to in vitro and in vivo nitrosative stress. Our study illustrates a novel mechanism for the strategic utilization of OmpA by Salmonella to protect itself from the nitrosative stress of macrophages.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / metabolism
  • Bacterial Outer Membrane*
  • Macrophages / metabolism
  • Nitrosative Stress
  • Porins / genetics
  • Porins / metabolism
  • Salmonella typhimurium* / genetics
  • Salmonella typhimurium* / metabolism

Substances

  • Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins
  • Porins
  • OMPA outer membrane proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the DAE SRC fellowship (DAE00195) and DBT-IISc partnership umbrella program for advanced research in biological sciences and Bioengineering. Infrastructure support from ICMR (Centre for Advanced Study in Molecular Medicine), DST (FIST), and UGC (special assistance) is acknowledged. DC acknowledges the ASTRA Chair professorship grant from IISc and the TATA Innovation fellowship grant. ARC sincerely acknowledges the IISc Fellowship from MHRD, Govt. of India, and the estate of the late Dr. Krishna S. Kaikini for the Shamrao M. Kaikini and Krishna S. Kaikini scholarship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.