Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative intracellular bacterium causing listeriosis, a food-borne infection with a high mortality rate. The mechanisms and the role of cells and tissular components in generating protective adaptive immune responses are well studied, and cell biological studies provide a detailed understanding of the processes targeted by the bacterial products. Much less is known of the cellular responses activated to limit infection in individual cells when confronted with stress or infection. Eukaryotic cellular responses depend on multitiered homeostatic systems that ensure maintenance of proteostatis, organellar integrity, function and turnover, and overall cellular viability ('the cell-autonomous response'). Here, we review the cell-autonomous responses induced during extracellular and intracellular L. monocytogenes growth and discuss their contribution to limiting infection.
Keywords: Listeria monocytogenes; SUMOylation; autophagy; cytosolic receptors; histone modification; inflammasome; unfolded protein response.