1) being crucial for efficient invasion when examined using siRNA-based knockdowns of spectrin components. Further Vismodegib studies demonstrated the recruitment of spectrin, Apoptosis inhibitor adducin and p4.1 to intracellular bacteria, prior to comet tail formation. However, unlike at L. monocytogenes comet tails, we show that spectrin is recruited to S. flexneri

comet tails. These studies demonstrate a novel cytoskeletal system crucial to S. flexneri pathogenesis, while also highlighting dramatic differences between the cytoskeletal hijacking strategies of S. flexneri, S. Typhimurium and L. monocytogenes. Results Spectrin cytoskeletal proteins are key components to S. flexneri invasion of epithelial cells To examine the role of spectrin cytoskeletal proteins during S. flexneri invasion, we infected HeLa cells selleck with S. flexneri for 30 minutes and immunolocalized spectrin, adducin and p4.1. To identify bacterial sites of invasion, indicated by actin-rich membrane ruffles, we probed the cells with Alexa fluor conjugated phalloidin (to stain filamentous actin) as well as DAPI

(to visualize bacterial DNA). We found that p4.1 was recruited to 94% of S. flexneri invasion sites (Figure 1a and 1b, Additional file 1: Figure S1 showing background actin). However, spectrin and adducin were largely absent from sites of S. flexneri invasion, showing recruitment to only 3% and15% of invasion sites respectively (Figure 1a and 1b). Figure 1 Spectrin, adducin and p4.1 are needed for efficient S. flexneri invasion. a) HeLa cells were infected with S. flexneri for 30 minutes prior to fixation and immunolocalization with antibodies targeted against spectrin, adducin or p4.1. To observe invasion events, we also probed the cells for F-actin (to visualize membrane invasion ruffles) and DNA (using DAPI, to visualize bacteria). P4.1 is recruited to S. flexneri actin-rich STK38 invasion sites, while spectrin and adducin are not recruited. Scale bars are 5 μm. b) Quantification

of the presence of spectrin cytoskeletal components during S. flexneri invasion. We counted 50 invasion events, in three separate experiements, looking for distinct recruitment of the protein of interest. c) Western blots to confirm knockdown of spectrin, adducin and p4.1 in HeLa cells. d) Spectrin, adducin, or p4.1 were knocked-down in HeLa cells prior to infection with S. flexneri for 1.5 hours (including 1-hour of gentamycin to kill external bacteria), followed by immunolocalization. Quantification of invasion was performed by microscopy, enumerating each cell with 1 or more internalized bacteria as a single invasion event. Cells with spectrin, adducin, or p4.1 knocked-down had significant (*P < 0.0001) reduction in invasion as compared to the control pool treated cells. For each experiment, 25 cells were counted that had undetectable levels of the targeted proteins following knockdown.