Immunoblots show the result of SRT1720 cost T3S assays in which Selleck Crenigacestat proteins in culture supernatants (S, secreted proteins) and in bacterial pellets (P, nonsecreted proteins) from ~5×107 bacteria were loaded per lane. The first 15 amino acids of the Yersinia effector YopE correspond to an archetypal T3S signal [57, 58], and YopE15-TEM-1 was used as positive control; SycT and SycO are strictly cytosolic Yersinia T3S chaperones [44, 51]. SycT20-TEM-1 was a negative control for the T3S assays. Immunodetection of SycO ensured that the presence of TEM-1 hybrid proteins

in the culture supernatants was not a result of bacterial lysis or contamination. The percentage (%) of secretion of each TEM-1 hybrid was calculated by densitometry, as the ratio between the amount of secreted and total protein. The threshold to decide whether a protein was secreted was set to 5% (dashed line), based on the % of secretion of SycT20-TEM-1. Data are the mean ± SEM from at least 3 independent experiments. Identification of T3S

signals in C. trachomatis proteins To identify T3S signals in the selected 46 C. trachomatis proteins, we analyzed secretion of fusions to TEM-1 of the first 20 amino acids of each of these proteins by T3S-proficient Y. enterocolitica ΔHOPEMT. These experiments revealed 24 C. trachomatis proteins whose first 20 amino acids drove secretion AZD1480 clinical trial of TEM-1 hybrid proteins by Y. enterocolitica (Figure 2A). Owing to lack of expression, or very low expression levels, it was not possible to conclude if the TEM-1 hybrids comprising the N-terminal region of CT590, CT845 and CT863 were secreted (Figure 2A). By individually introducing the plasmids encoding the TEM-1 hybrid Carnitine dehydrogenase proteins that were secreted into T3S-deficient Y.

enterocolitica ΔHOPEMT ΔYscU and performing T3S assays, we confirmed that secretion of the proteins was dependent on a functional T3SS (Figure 2B). The percentage of secretion of the different hybrid proteins that were secreted varied considerable, between 56% (SEM, 4) for CT69420-TEM-1 to 5% (SEM, 2) for CT14320-TEM-1 (Figure 2B). Overall, this confirmed a T3S signal in CT203, which has been previously shown to be a T3S substrate [21], and revealed T3S signals in 23 previously T3S substrates of C. trachomatis. Figure 2 Identification of T3S signals in C. trachomatis proteins using Y. enterocolitica as a heterologous system. Y. enterocolitica T3S-proficient (ΔHOPEMT) (A) and T3S-defective (ΔHOPEMT ΔYscU) (B) were used to analyze secretion of hybrid proteins comprising the first 20 amino acids of selected C. trachomatis proteins or the first 20 amino acids of Y. enterocolitica SycT fused to the mature form of TEM-1 β-lactamase (TEM-1). Immunoblots show the result of T3S assays in which proteins in culture supernatants (S, secreted proteins) and in bacterial pellets (P, non-secreted proteins) from ~2.5×108 and ~5×107 bacteria, respectively, were loaded per lane. TEM-1 hybrids of the known C.