Brucella abortus BspJ Is a Nucleomodulin That Inhibits Macrophage Apoptosis and Promotes Intracellular Survival of Brucella

Zhongchen Ma; Ruirui Li; Ruirui Hu; Xiaoyu Deng; Yimei Xu; Wei Zheng; Jihai Yi; Yong Wang; Chuangfu Chen

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.599205

Brucella abortus BspJ Is a Nucleomodulin That Inhibits Macrophage Apoptosis and Promotes Intracellular Survival of Brucella

Front Microbiol. 2020 Nov 12:11:599205. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.599205. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Zhongchen Ma^{1

2

3}, Ruirui Li^{1

2

3}, Ruirui Hu⁴, Xiaoyu Deng^{1

2

3}, Yimei Xu⁵, Wei Zheng^{1

2

3}, Jihai Yi^{1

2

3}, Yong Wang^{1

2

3}, Chuangfu Chen^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ International Joint Research Center for Animal Health Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center for Prevention and Control of High Incidence Zoonotic Infectious Diseases in Western China, College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Control and Prevention of Animal Disease, Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps, College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, China.
⁴ College of Life Science, Shihezi University, Shihezi, China.
⁵ Xinjiang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Urumqi, China.

Abstract

To date, a variety of Brucella effector proteins have been found to mediate host cell secretion, autophagy, inflammation, and other signal pathways, but nuclear effector proteins have not yet been reported. We identified the first Brucella nucleomodulin, BspJ, and we screened out the BspJ interaction host proteins NME/NM23 nucleoside diphosphate kinase 2 (NME2) and creatine kinase B (CKB) through yeast two-hybrid and co-immunoprecipitation assays. These proteins are related to the host cell energy synthesis, metabolism, and apoptosis pathways. Brucella nucleomodulin BspJ will decrease the expression level of NME2 and CKB. In addition, BspJ gene deletion strains promoted the apoptosis of macrophages and reduced the intracellular survival of Brucella in host cells. In short, we found nucleomodulin BspJ may directly or indirectly regulate host cell apoptosis through the interaction with NME2 and CKB by mediating energy metabolism pathways in response to the intracellular circulation of Brucella infection, but the mechanism needs further study.

Keywords: Brucella; BspJ; CKB; NME2; nucleomodulin; yeast two-hybrid.