In silico knockout studies of xenophagic capturing of salmonella

  • The degradation of cytosol-invading pathogens by autophagy, a process known as xenophagy, is an important mechanism of the innate immune system. Inside the host, Salmonella Typhimurium invades epithelial cells and resides within a specialized intracellular compartment, the Salmonella-containing vacuole. A fraction of these bacteria does not persist inside the vacuole and enters the host cytosol. Salmonella Typhimurium that invades the host cytosol becomes a target of the autophagy machinery for degradation. The xenophagy pathway has recently been discovered, and the exact molecular processes are not entirely characterized. Complete kinetic data for each molecular process is not available, so far. We developed a mathematical model of the xenophagy pathway to investigate this key defense mechanism. In this paper, we present a Petri net model of Salmonella xenophagy in epithelial cells. The model is based on functional information derived from literature data. It comprises the molecular mechanism of galectin-8-dependent and ubiquitin-dependent autophagy, including regulatory processes, like nutrient-dependent regulation of autophagy and TBK1-dependent activation of the autophagy receptor, OPTN. To model the activation of TBK1, we proposed a new mechanism of TBK1 activation, suggesting a spatial and temporal regulation of this process. Using standard Petri net analysis techniques, we found basic functional modules, which describe different pathways of the autophagic capture of Salmonella and reflect the basic dynamics of the system. To verify the model, we performed in silico knockout experiments. We introduced a new concept of knockout analysis to systematically compute and visualize the results, using an in silico knockout matrix. The results of the in silico knockout analyses were consistent with published experimental results and provide a basis for future investigations of the Salmonella xenophagy pathway. Author Summary Salmonellae are Gram-negative bacteria, which cause the majority of foodborne diseases worldwide. Serovars of Salmonella cause a broad range of diseases, ranging from diarrhea to typhoid fever in a variety of hosts. In the year 2010, Salmonella Typhi caused 7.6 million foodborne diseases and 52 000 deaths, and Salmonella enterica was responsible for 78.7 million diseases and 59 000 deaths. After invasion of Salmonella into host epithelial cells, a small fraction of Salmonella escapes from a specialized intracellular compartment and replicates inside the host cytosol. Xenophagy is a host defense mechanism to protect the host cell from cytosolic pathogens. Understanding how Salmonella is recognized and targeted for xenophagy is an important subject of current research. To the best of our knowledge, no mathematical model has been presented so far, describing the process of Salmonella Typhimurium xenophagy. Here, we present a manually curated and mathematically verified theoretical model of Salmonella Typhimurium xenophagy in epithelial cells, which is consistent with the current state of knowledge. Our model reproduces literature data and postulates new hypotheses for future investigations.
Metadaten
Author:Jennifer Scheidel, Leonie Katharina AmsteinORCiDGND, Jörg AckermannORCiDGND, Ivan ĐikićORCiDGND, Ina KochORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-398434
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005200
ISSN:1553-734X
ISSN:1553-7358
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27906974
Parent Title (English):Plos Computational Biology
Publisher:Plos
Place of publication:Lawrence, Kan.
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2016/05/03
Date of first Publication:2016/12/01
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2016/12/07
Volume:12
Issue:(12):e1005200
Page Number:18
Note:
Copyright: © 2016 Scheidel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
HeBIS-PPN:421386673
Institutes:Informatik und Mathematik / Informatik
Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme / 004 Datenverarbeitung; Informatik
5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0