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Article Addendum
Autophagosomes: A Fast-Food Joint for Unexpected Guests
Maximiliano G. Gutierrez and María I. Colombo
volume 1 | issue 3
October/November/December 2005Pages: 179 - 181
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Coxiella burnetii is a Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterium that infects a wide range of hosts including humans, causing Q fever, a disease characterized by high fever and flu-like symptoms. After its internalization the Coxiella-containing phagosomes interact with intracellular compartments and generate a large replicative vacuole that displays certain characteristics of a phagolysosome. We have shown that this bacterially-customized replicative vacuole also has the hallmarks of an autophagosomal compartment. Furthermore, in a recent publication we have reported that induction of autophagy is beneficial for the replication and survival of Coxiella. Different morphological forms of this bacterium have been described during its developmental cycle. Here we present additional data and discuss a model indicating that induction of autophagy favors the differentiation of the Coxiella small cell variants to the metabolically active large cells variants. We postulate that nutrient acquisition, likely by fusion with the nutrient-rich autophagic vacuoles, triggers the development of the LCVs, which actively multiply in the host cell.
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.