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The Helicobacter pylori Cag Pathogenicity Island Protein Cag1 is Associated with the Function of T4SS

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Abstract

The human pathogen Helicobacter pylori is involved in gastric diseases ranging from gastritis to gastric cancer. Virulent strains harboring the cag pathogenicity island (cag PAI) which encode a Type IV Secretion System (T4SS) can induce pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-8 and deliver their major effector proteins CagA into the gastric cells. While a subset of cag PAI genes have been identified to be the homologues of T4SS genes from Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a majority have unknown functions. We have identified one of such proteins, Cag1, which was predicted to be a non-classically secreted and virulent protein. Our results showed that Cag1 is a membrane-associated protein essential for the induction of multiple cytokine secretions, and cag1-deficient mutant has partial influence on CagA translocation; while the protein itself was not injected into host cells. Our data indicated that Cag1 is located in the bacterial membrane and is associated with the function of T4SS.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (81271795), the Specialized Fund for Clinical Medicine in Jiangsu Province (BL2012047), the Innovation Fund for candidate of doctor in Jiangsu Province (CX10B_280Z), the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (2013M531290), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20123227110008), the science fund for youth of Suzhou (KJXW2014050), and the Postdoctoral Fund of Jiangsu Province (1501110B).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Pathogenic Biology, School of Medical Science, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, Jiangsu, China

      Xiaochun Wang, Hua Wang, Min Yu, Hong Zhu, Cheng Chen, Jingyi Qian, Chang Liu, Yuanyuan Zhang & Shihe Shao

    2. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Kunshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kunshan, 215300, Jiangsu, China

      Feng Ling

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    1. Xiaochun Wang
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    Correspondence to Shihe Shao.

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    Xiaochun Wang and Feng Ling contributed equally to this work.

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    Wang, X., Ling, F., Wang, H. et al. The Helicobacter pylori Cag Pathogenicity Island Protein Cag1 is Associated with the Function of T4SS. Curr Microbiol 73, 22–30 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-016-1016-x

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