[Outer membrane remodeling of Salmonella typhimurium and host innate immunity]

Pathogenic gram-negative bacteria, including Salmonella typhimurium, remodel their outer membrane to survive within host tissues and phagosomes. The remodeling includes modifications of lipid A, a membrane anchor portion of lipopolysaccharide. Lipid A modifications, such as palmitoylation, deacylation, addition of aminoarabinose, and addition of phosphoethanolamine, are beneficial for salmonellae to resist host innate immunity. Aminoarabinose attachment, phosphoethanolamine attachment, and palmitoylation of lipid A increase salmonellae resistance to cationic antimicrobial peptides. Lipid A deacylation and palmitoylation reduce its ability to activate the Toll-like receptor 4-MD-2 complex, suggesting that these modifications are beneficial for salmonellae to evade host innate immune recognition. These modifications are regulated transcriptionally by the two-component regulatory system PhoP-PhoQ, which is essential for S. typhimurium virulence. Lipid A modifications are also regulated posttranslationally. Aminoarabinose modification of lipid A represses deacylation of lipid A by PagL. The posttranslational regulation may be involved in S. typhimurium pathogenesis.