Legionella pneumophila is an intravacuolar pathogen. In order to accommodate the growing number of offspring it needs to enlarge its surrounding vacuole during intracellular replication.
The recent paper studies the mechanism L. pneumophila uses to adapt to the vacuole expansion by fine-tuning the generation of lysophospholipids within the vacuolar membrane. Quantitative lipidomics confirmed an increase in several types of lysophospholipids during infection.
This study provides an important insight into the molecular mechanisms L. pneumophilla uses to regulate the size of vacuoles, suggesting that intravacuolar pathogens use phospholipase effectors to modify lipid metabolism in order to proliferate effectively.
Read more about the exact mechanism here:
#Lysophospholipid #lipid #TeamMassSpec #legionellosis #vacuole #lipidomics
