2026-02-25 カリフォルニア大学サンタバーバラ校（UCSB）
The respiratory airway is lined with beating ciliated cells (the orange hairlike projections) over which a layer of mucus flows. The combination serves to trap and move foreign bodies, including bacteria, in the airway
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.ucsb.edu/2026/022406/new-look-old-protein-may-yield-therapy-contagious-respiratory-disease
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz2737
細菌は、コロニー形成を促進するために、微小管結合タンパク質を哺乳類細胞に送達します Bacteria deliver a microtubule-binding protein into mammalian cells to promote colonization
Michael S. Costello, Bryan Neumann, Mia W. Raimondi, Bonnie J. Cuthbert, […] , and Christopher S. Hayes
Science Published:19 Feb 2026
Editor’s summary
Bordetella bacteria infect the airways of animal hosts by sticking to tiny hair-like structures called cilia that line the respiratory tract. Costello et al. showed that these pathogens use a special adhesive protein that helps them attach to the host cell surface and that interacts with microtubules inside the cilia (see the Perspective by Jacob-Dubuisson). These interactions help the bacteria move from the tips of the cilia to the base. Bacteria in this basal niche are not swept away by normal airway cleaning mechanisms, explaining why Bordetella lacking this protein are unable to colonize the host respiratory tract effectively. —Stella M. Hurtley
Abstract
Pathogenic Bordetella bacteria use protein adhesins to infect the ciliated respiratory epithelia of vertebrate hosts. In this work, we show that the filamentous hemagglutinin FhaB adhesin of Bordetella carries a C-terminal microtubule-binding domain (FhaB-CT), which is translocated into host cells to promote colonization. FhaB-CT delivery is required to occupy a niche at the base of cilia in airway epithelia, and mutant bacteria lacking this domain are defective for nasal colonization. These observations suggest that FhaB-CT is transferred into motile respiratory cilia to interact with core axonemal microtubules. We propose that Bordetella adheres initially to the tips of cilia and then deploys multiple FhaB adhesins to migrate to the base of the cilia forest, where the bacteria resist removal by the mucociliary “escalator” that normally clears the respiratory tract of microbes.
