Fuse and Conquer

Hijacking the host cytoskeleton is a popular pathogen trick, but the bacterium Burkholderia thailandensis takes this strategy even further. Once inside a host cell, B. thailandensis (in green) uses the host’s actin fibres (in red) to promote fusion with other cells, forming giant cells in which it rapidly replicates. Studying this behaviour in mouse macrophages, researchers uncovered how the immune system fights back: activated by type I interferon, molecules known as guanylate-binding proteins (GBPs) prevent the bacteria from manipulating actin, ultimately hindering cell fusion. Without GBPs, the macrophages are more likely to fuse when infected by B. thailandensis, and mice lacking GBPs are more susceptible to infection. Closely-related pathogens B. mallei and B. pseudomallei, which cause serious diseases in humans, also rely on cell fusion to spread, so unpicking this process in B. thailandensis is a useful step towards understanding their strategies.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Emmanuelle Briolat

Writer

A researcher specialising in visual signals in Lepidoptera, camouflage and the effects of light pollution, Emmanuelle’s writing covers a range of topics, from biomedical research to children’s books about moth defences.

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• Image from work by David E. Place and colleagues, published on the cover of PLOS Pathogens
• Department of Immunology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Pathogens, April 2020