Due to their cytotoxic activities, many anticancer drugs cause extensive damage to the intestinal mucosa and have antibiotic activities. Here, we show that cisplatin induces significant changes in the repertoire of intestinal commensal bacteria that exacerbate mucosal damage. Restoration of the microbiota through fecal-pellet gavage drives healing of cisplatin-induced intestinal damage. Bacterial translocation to the blood stream is correspondingly abrogated, resulting in a significant reduction in systemic inflammation, as evidenced by decreased serum IL-6 and reduced mobilization of granulocytes. Mechanistically, reversal of dysbiosis in response to fecal gavage results in the production of protective mucins and mobilization of CD11b myeloid cells to the intestinal mucosa, which promotes angiogenesis. Administration of Ruminococcus gnavus, a bacterial strain selectively depleted by cisplatin treatment, could only partially restore the integrity of the intestinal mucosa and reduce systemic inflammation, without measurable increases in the accumulation of mucin proteins. Together, our results indicate that reconstitution of the full repertoire of intestinal bacteria altered by cisplatin treatment accelerates healing of the intestinal epithelium and ameliorates systemic inflammation. Therefore, fecal microbiota transplant could paradoxically prevent life-threatening bacteremia in cancer patients treated with chemotherapy.

Gram- negative bacteria utilize a diverse array of multidrug transporters to pump toxic compounds out of the cell. Some transporters, together with periplasmic membrane fusion proteins (MFPs) and outer membrane channels, assemble trans-envelope complexes that expel multiple antibiotics across outer membranes of Gram-negative bacteria and into the external medium. Others further potentiate this efflux by pumping drugs across the inner membrane into the periplasm. Together these transporters create a powerful network of efflux that protects bacteria against a broad range of antimicrobial agents. This review is focused on the mechanism of coupling transport reactions located in two different membranes of Gram-negative bacteria. Using a combination of biochemical, genetic and biophysical approaches we have reconstructed the sequence of events leading to the assembly of trans-envelope drug efflux complexes and characterized the roles of periplasmic and outer membrane proteins in this process. Our recent data suggest a critical step in the activation of intermembrane efflux pumps, which is controlled by MFPs. We propose that the reaction cycles of transporters are tightly coupled to the assembly of the trans-envelope complexes. Transporters and MFPs exist in the inner membrane as dormant complexes. The activation of complexes is triggered by MFP binding to the outer membrane channel, which leads to a conformational change in the membrane proximal domain of MFP needed for stimulation of transporters. The activated MFP-transporter complex engages the outer membrane channel to expel substrates across the outer membrane. The recruitment of the channel is likely triggered by binding of effectors (substrates) to MFP or MFP-transporter complexes. This model together with recent structural and functional advances in the field of drug efflux provides a fairly detailed understanding of the mechanism of drug efflux across the two membranes.

In Gram-negative bacteria, multidrug efflux transporters function in complexes with periplasmic membrane fusion proteins (MFPs) that enable antibiotic efflux across the outer membrane. In this study, we analyzed the function, composition and assembly of the triclosan efflux transporter TriABC-OpmH from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We report that this transporter possesses a surprising substrate specificity that encompasses not only triclosan but the detergent SDS, which are often used together in antibacterial soaps. These two compounds interact antagonistically with each other in a TriABC-dependent manner and negate antibacterial properties of each other. Unlike other efflux pumps that rely on a single MFP for their activities, two different MFPs, TriA and TriB, are required for triclosan/SDS resistance mediated by TriABC-OpmH. We found that analogous mutations in the α-helical hairpin and membrane proximal domains of TriA and TriB differentially affect triclosan efflux and assembly of the complex. Furthermore, our results show that TriA and TriB function as a dimer, in which TriA is primarily responsible for stabilizing interactions with the outer membrane channel, while TriB is important for the stimulation of the transporter. We conclude that MFPs are engaged into complexes as asymmetric dimers, in which each protomer plays a specific role.

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium can inject effector proteins into host cells via type III secretion systems (T3SSs). These effector proteins modulate a variety of host transcriptional responses to facilitate bacterial growth and survival. Here we show that infection of host cells with S. Typhimurium specifically induces the ubiquitination of tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6). This TRAF6 ubiquitination is triggered by the Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1) T3SS effectors SopB and SopE2. We also demonstrate that TRAF6 is involved in the SopB/ SopE2-induced phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), a signaling event conducive to the intracellular growth of S. Typhimurium. Specifically, TRAF6 mediates lysine-63 ubiquitination within the Src homology 2 (SH2) domain of STAT3, which is an essential step for STAT3 membrane recruitment and subsequent phosphorylation in response to S. Typhimurium infection. TRAF6 ubiquitination participates in STAT3 phosphorylation rather than serving as only a hallmark of E3 ubiquitin ligase activation. Our results reveal a novel strategy in which S. Typhimurium T3SS effectors broaden their functions through the activation of host proteins in a ubiquitination-dependent manner to manipulate host cells into becoming a Salmonella-friendly zone.KEYWORDS Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, TRAF6, ubiquitination, STAT3, Salmonella effectors I nfection with bacterial pathogens often induces host inflammatory responses (1), which are initiated by the recognition of microbial products, collectively known as pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). PAMPs are recognized by Toll-like receptors (TLRs) or cytosolic NOD-like receptors (NLRs) (1, 2), which activate nuclear factor B (NF-B) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and induce the production of proinflammatory cytokines critical for host defenses (3, 4). To overcome host defenses, some pathogens have developed strategies to dampen the host innate immune response by inactivating MAPKs or NF-B signaling. For instance, the Shigella flexneri phosphothreonine lyase OspF, which is injected into host cells by a type III secretion system (T3SS), inactivates the innate immune response by dephosphorylating MAPKs (5). The Yersinia protein YopJ/YopP, a T3SS effector protein containing both

TriABC-OpmH is an efflux pump from Pseudomonas aeruginosa with an unusual substrate specificity and protein composition. When overexpressed, this pump confers a high level of resistance to the biocide triclosan and the detergent SDS, which are commonly used in combinations for antimicrobial treatments. This activity requires an RND transporter (TriC), an outer membrane channel (OpmH), and two periplasmic membrane fusion proteins (TriA and TriB) with nonequivalent functions. In the active complex, TriA is responsible for the recruitment of OpmH, while TriB is responsible for stimulation of the transporter TriC. Here, we used the functional and structural differences between the two membrane fusion proteins to link their functional roles to specific interactions with OpmH. Our results provide evidence that the TriB-dependent stimulation of the TriC transporter is coupled to opening of the OpmH aperture through binding to the interprotomer groove of OpmH. IMPORTANCEMultidrug efflux transporters are important contributors to intrinsic and acquired antibiotic resistance in clinics. In Gram-negative bacteria, these transporters have a characteristic tripartite architecture spanning the entire two-membrane cell envelope. How such complexes are assembled and how the reactions separated in two different membranes are coupled to provide efficient efflux of various compounds across the cell envelope remain unclear. This study addressed these questions, and the results suggest a mechanism for functional integration of drug efflux by the inner membrane transporter and opening of the channel for transport across the outer membrane. In Gram-negative bacteria, polyspecific transporters detoxify the inner membrane and periplasm of noxious compounds and contribute to clinical antibiotic resistance (1). A characteristic structural feature of these transporters is the formation of tripartite complexes spanning both the inner and outer membranes of Gram-negative cell envelopes. Located in the outer membrane are proteins belonging to the outer membrane factor (OMF) family that act as channels for substrate expulsion across the low-permeability barrier of the outer membrane. OMFs show very little sequence similarity to one another but are structurally similar (2). OMF structures comprise both a ␤-barrel domain, a common structural feature of other outer membrane proteins, and a large ␣-helical barrel (3) (Fig. 1A). The periplasmic tip of the ␣-helical barrel converges to form a closed aperture that prevents leakage of the periplasmic content and uptake of various molecules from the external medium (Fig. 1B). Large extracellular loops on the external side of the ␤-barrel domain also help with blocking noxious chemicals from entering the cell. At the aperture, a series of ionic bridges act as the locking gate of the aperture and disruption of these causes a "leaky" phenotype (4, 5). A secondary gate of aspartate or, in a few cases, a ring of hydrophobic residues acts additionally to keep the aperture locked.In the resting state,...