An ancestral mycobacterial effector promotes dissemination of infection.

The human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis typically causes lung disease but can also disseminate to other tissues. We identified a M. tuberculosis (Mtb) outbreak presenting with unusually high rates of extrapulmonary dissemination and bone disease. We found that the causal strain carried an ancestral full-length version of the type VII-secreted effector EsxM rather than the truncated version present in other modern Mtb lineages. The ancestral EsxM variant exacerbated dissemination through enhancement of macrophage motility, increased egress of macrophages from established granulomas, and alterations in macrophage actin dynamics. Reconstitution of the ancestral version of EsxM in an attenuated modern strain of Mtb altered the migratory mode of infected macrophages, enhancing their motility. In a zebrafish model, full-length EsxM promoted bone disease. The presence of a derived nonsense variant in EsxM throughout the major Mtb lineages 2, 3, and 4 is consistent with a role for EsxM in regulating the extent of dissemination.

A non-canonical type 2 immune response coordinates tuberculous granuloma formation and epithelialization.

The central pathogen-immune interface in tuberculosis is the granuloma, a complex host immune structure that dictates infection trajectory and physiology. Granuloma macrophages undergo a dramatic transition in which entire epithelial modules are induced and define granuloma architecture. In tuberculosis, relatively little is known about the host signals that trigger this transition. Using the zebrafish-Mycobacterium marinum model, we identify the basis of granuloma macrophage transformation. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis of zebrafish granulomas and analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected macaques reveal that, even in the presence of robust type 1 immune responses, countervailing type 2 signals associate with macrophage epithelialization. We find that type 2 immune signaling, mediated via stat6, is absolutely required for epithelialization and granuloma formation. In mixed chimeras, stat6 acts cell autonomously within macrophages, where it is required for epithelioid transformation and incorporation into necrotic granulomas. These findings establish the signaling pathway that produces the hallmark structure of mycobacterial infection.

Decoding the tuberculous granuloma.

In this issue of Immunity,Gideon et al. (2022) couple sophisticated single-cell analyses with detailed in vivo measurements of Mycobacterium tuberculosis granulomas to define the cellular and transcriptional properties of a successful host immune response during tuberculosis.

Coordination of NMCP1- and NMCP2-class proteins within the plant nucleoskeleton.

Plants lack lamin proteins but contain a class of coiled-coil proteins that serve as analogues to form a laminal structure at the nuclear periphery. These nuclear matrix constituent proteins (NMCPs) play important roles in regulating nuclear morphology and are partitioned into two distinct groups. We investigated Arabidopsis NMCPs (called CRWNs) to study the interrelationship between the three NMCP1-type paralogues (CRWN1, 2, and 3) and the lone NMCP2-type paralogue, CRWN4. An examination of crwn mutants using protein immunoblots demonstrated that CRWN4 abundance depends on the presence of the NMCP1-type proteins, particularly CRWN1. The possibility that CRWN4 is coimported into the nucleus with nuclear localization signal (NLS)-bearing paralogues in the NMCP1-clade was discounted based on recovery of a crwn4-2 missense allele that disrupts a predicted NLS and lowers the abundance of CRWN4 in the nucleus. Further, a screen for mutations that suppress the effects of the crwn4-2 mutation led to the discovery of a missense allele, impa-1G146E, in one of the nine importin-α genes in the Arabidopsis genome. Our results indicate that the CRWN4 carries a functional NLS that interacts with canonic nuclear import machinery. Once imported, the level of CRWN4 within the nucleus is modulated by the abundance of NMCP1 proteins.