The multifaceted interactions between pathogens and host ESCRT machinery

• Published in: PLoS pathogens Vol. 19; no. 5; p. e1011344
• Main Authors: Rivera-Cuevas, Yolanda, Carruthers, Vern B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01-05-2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Abscission; Amino acids; Analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Biosynthesis; Budding; Carrier proteins; Cell Movement; Cytokinesis; Cytosol; Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport - metabolism; Exosomes; Exosomes - metabolism; Exploitation; Growth; HIV; Host-parasite relationships; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Intracellular; Kinases; Medicine and Health Sciences; Membranes; Mimicry; Parasites; Pathogenesis; Pathogenic microorganisms; Pathogens; Physiological aspects; Protein Transport; Proteins; Recruitment; Review; Virus Replication; Viruses; United States
• ISSN: 1553-7374; 1553-7366; 1553-7374
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011344

The Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport (ESCRT) machinery consists of multiple protein complexes that coordinate vesicle budding away from the host cytosol. ESCRTs function in many fundamental cellular processes including the biogenesis of multivesicular bodies and exosomes, membrane repair and restoration, and cell abscission during cytokinesis. Work over the past 2 decades has shown that a diverse cohort of viruses critically rely upon host ESCRT machinery for virus replication and envelopment. More recent studies reported that intracellular bacteria and the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii benefit from, antagonize, or exploit host ESCRT machinery to preserve their intracellular niche, gain resources, or egress from infected cells. Here, we review how intracellular pathogens interact with the ESCRT machinery of their hosts, highlighting the variety of strategies they use to bind ESCRT complexes using short linear amino acid motifs like those used by ESCRTs to sequentially assemble on target membranes. Future work exposing new mechanisms of this molecular mimicry will yield novel insight of how pathogens exploit host ESCRT machinery and how ESCRTs facilitate key cellular processes.