The RNase J-Based RNA Degradosome Is Compartmentalized in the Gastric Pathogen Helicobacter pylori
Alejandro Tejada-Arranz, Eloïse Galtier, Lamya El Mortaji, Évelyne Turlin, Dmitry Ershov, Hilde De Reuse
Abstract
Helicobacter pylori is a bacterial pathogen that chronically colonizes the stomach of half of the human population worldwide. Infection by H. pylori can lead to the development of gastric pathologies such as ulcers and adenocarcinoma, which causes up to 800,000 deaths in the world each year. Persistent colonization by H. pylori relies on regulation of the expression of adaptation-related genes. One major level of such control is posttranscriptional regulation, which, in H. pylori , largely relies on a multiprotein molecular machine, an RNA degradosome, that we previously discovered. In this study, we established that the two protein partners of this machine are associated with the membrane of H. pylori . Using cutting-edge microscopy, we showed that these complexes assemble into hubs whose formation is regulated by free RNA and scaled with bacterial size and growth phase. Organelleless cellular compartmentalization of molecular machines into hubs emerges as an important regulatory level in bacteria.