Precocious neuronal differentiation and disrupted oxygen responses in Kabuki syndrome.

Chromatin modifiers act to coordinate gene expression changes critical to neuronal differentiation from neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs). Lysine-specific methyltransferase 2D (KMT2D) encodes a histone methyltransferase that promotes transcriptional activation and is frequently mutated in cancers and in the majority (>70%) of patients diagnosed with the congenital, multisystem intellectual disability disorder Kabuki syndrome 1 (KS1). Critical roles for KMT2D are established in various non-neural tissues, but the effects of KMT2D loss in brain cell development have not been described. We conducted parallel studies of proliferation, differentiation, transcription, and chromatin profiling in KMT2D-deficient human and mouse models to define KMT2D-regulated functions in neurodevelopmental contexts, including adult-born hippocampal NSPCs in vivo and in vitro. We report cell-autonomous defects in proliferation, cell cycle, and survival, accompanied by early NSPC maturation in several KMT2D-deficient model systems. Transcriptional suppression in KMT2D-deficient cells indicated strong perturbation of hypoxia-responsive metabolism pathways. Functional experiments confirmed abnormalities of cellular hypoxia responses in KMT2D-deficient neural cells and accelerated NSPC maturation in vivo. Together, our findings support a model in which loss of KMT2D function suppresses expression of oxygen-responsive gene programs important to neural progenitor maintenance, resulting in precocious neuronal differentiation in a mouse model of KS1.

VgrG-5 is a Burkholderia type VI secretion system-exported protein required for multinucleated giant cell formation and virulence.

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) has emerged as a critical virulence factor for the group of closely related Burkholderia spp. that includes Burkholderia pseudomallei, B. mallei, and B. thailandensis. While the genomes of these bacteria, referred to as the Bptm group, appear to encode several T6SSs, we and others have shown that one of these, type VI secretion system 5 (T6SS-5), is required for virulence in mammalian infection models. Despite its pivotal role in the pathogenesis of the Bptm group, the effector repertoire of T6SS-5 has remained elusive. Here we used quantitative mass spectrometry to compare the secretome of wild-type B. thailandensis to that of a mutant harboring a nonfunctional T6SS-5. This analysis identified VgrG-5 as a novel secreted protein whose export depends on T6SS-5 function. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that VgrG-5 is a specialized VgrG protein that harbors a C-terminal domain (CTD) conserved among Bptm group species. We found that a vgrG-5 ΔCTD mutant is avirulent in mice and is unable to stimulate the fusion of host cells, a hallmark of the Bptm group previously shown to require T6SS-5 function. The singularity of VgrG-5 as a detected T6SS-5 substrate, taken together with the essentiality of its CTD for virulence, suggests that the protein is critical for the effector activity of T6SS-5. Intriguingly, we show that unlike the bacterial-cell-targeting T6SSs characterized so far, T6SS-5 localizes to the bacterial cell pole. We propose a model whereby the CTD of VgrG-5-, propelled by T6SS-5-, plays a key role in inducing membrane fusion, either by the recruitment of other factors or by direct participation.

The role of NOD2 in murine and human melioidosis.

Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2 (NOD2) is a cytosolic pathogen recognition receptor that regulates susceptibility to a variety of infections and chronic diseases. Burkholderia pseudomallei, a facultative intracellular bacterium, causes the tropical infection melioidosis. We hypothesized that NOD2 may participate in host defense in melioidosis. We performed a series of in vitro assays and in vivo experiments and analyzed the association of human genetic variation with infection to delineate the contribution of NOD2 to the host response to B. pseudomallei. We found that transfection with NOD2 mediated NF-κB activation induced by B. pseudomallei stimulation of HEK293 cells. After low-dose inoculation with aerosolized B. pseudomallei, Nod2-deficient mice showed impaired clinical responses and permitted greater bacterial replication in the lung and dissemination to the spleen compared with wild-type mice. IL-6 and KC levels were higher in the lungs of Nod2-deficient mice. In a cohort of 1562 Thai subjects, a common genetic polymorphism in the NOD2 region, rs7194886, was associated with melioidosis, and this effect was most pronounced in women. rs7194886 was not associated with differences in cytokine production induced by whole-blood stimulation with the NOD2 ligand, muramyl dipeptide, or B. pseudomallei. To our knowledge, these findings are the first to characterize the role of NOD2 in host defense in mammalian melioidosis.