Bacterial pathogenicity deeply depends on the ability to secrete virulence factors that bind specific targets on host cells and manipulate host responses. The Gram-positive bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is a human foodborne pathogen that remains a serious public health concern. To transport proteins across its cell envelope, this facultative intracellular pathogen engages a set of specialized secretion systems. Here we show that L. monocytogenes EGDe uses a specialized secretion system, named ESX-1, to secrete EsxA, a homolog of the virulence determinants ESAT-6 and EsxA of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. Our data show that the L. monocytogenes ESX-1 secretion system and its substrates are dispensable for bacterial invasion and intracellular multiplication in eukaryotic cell lines. Surprisingly, we found that the EssC-dependent secretion of EsxA has a detrimental effect on L. monocytogenes in vivo infection.
Keywords: ESAT-6; ESX-1 secretion system; EsxA; Listeria monocytogenes; Type VII secretion system.