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1: J Cell Biol. 2004 Aug 30;166(5):645-51.Click here to read Click here to read Links

Membrane insertion of anthrax protective antigen and cytoplasmic delivery of lethal factor occur at different stages of the endocytic pathway.

Abrami L, Lindsay M, Parton RG, Leppla SH, van der Goot FG.

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Geneva, 1 rue Michel Servet, Geneva, Switzerland 1211.

The protective antigen (PA) of anthrax toxin binds to a cell surface receptor, undergoes heptamerization, and binds the enzymatic subunits, the lethal factor (LF) and the edema factor (EF). The resulting complex is then endocytosed. Via mechanisms that depend on the vacuolar ATPase and require membrane insertion of PA, LF and EF are ultimately delivered to the cytoplasm where their targets reside. Here, we show that membrane insertion of PA already occurs in early endosomes, possibly only in the multivesicular regions, but that subsequent delivery of LF to the cytoplasm occurs preferentially later in the endocytic pathway and relies on the dynamics of internal vesicles of multivesicular late endosomes.

PMID: 15337774 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC2172425