Significant role for ladC in initiation of Legionella pneumophila infection

Abstract

Previously, we identified ladC in a cohort of genes that were present in Legionella pneumophila but absent in other Legionella species. Here we constructed a ladC mutant of L. pneumophila and assessed its ability to replicate in mammalian cell lines and Acanthamoeba castellanii. The ladC mutant was recovered in significantly lower numbers than wild-type L. pneumophila at early time points, which was reversed upon transcomplementation with ladC but not ladCN430A/R434A, encoding a putative catalytically inactive derivative of the protein. In fact, complementation of ladC::Km with ladC N430A/R434A resulted in a severe replication defect within human and amoeba cell models of infection, which di..