Shigella spp. are important human pathogens and among the leading causes of diarrheal mortality worldwide, especially in children. Virulence depends on the Shigella type III secretion system (T3SS).

Shigella spp. cause diarrhea by invading human intestinal epithelial cells. Effector proteins delivered into target host cells by the Shigella type 3 secretion system modulate host signaling pathways and processes in a manner that promotes infection. The effector OspB activates mTOR, the central cellular regulator of growth and metabolism, and potentiates the inhibition of mTOR by rapamycin. The net effect of OspB on cell monolayers is cell proliferation at infectious foci. To gain insights into the mechanism by which OspB potentiates rapamycin inhibition of mTOR, we employ in silico analyses to identify putative catalytic residues of OspB and show that a conserved cysteine-histidine dyad is required for this activity of OspB. In a screen of an over-expression library in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we identify a dependency of OspB activity on inositol pyrophosphates, a class of eukaryotic secondary messengers that are distinct from the inositol phosphates known to act as cofactors for bacterial cysteine proteases. We show that inositol pyrophosphates are required for OspB activity not only in yeast, but also in mammalian cells - the first demonstration of inositol pyrophosphates being required for virulence of a bacterial pathogen in vivo.