Deceiving The Big Eaters: Salmonella Typhimurium SopB subverts host cell Xenophagy through the Akt-TFEB axis in macrophages

Salmonella, a stealthy facultative intracellular pathogen, harbors an array of host immune evasion strategies. This facilitates successful survival and replicative niches establishment in otherwise hostile host innate immune cells such as macrophages. Salmonella survives and utilizes macrophages for effective dissemination throughout the host causing systemic infection. One of the central host defense mechanisms in macrophages is bacterial xenophagy or macro-autophagy. Here we report for the first time that Salmonella pathogenicity island-1 (SPI-1) effector SopB is involved in subverting host autophagy through dual mechanisms. SopB is known to act as a phosphoinositide phosphatase and thereby can alter the phosphoinositide dynamics of the host cell. Here we demonstrate that this activity helps the bacterium escape autophagy by inhibiting terminal fusion of Salmonella containing vacuole (SCV) with both lysosomes and autophagosomes. We also report the second mechanism, wherein SopB downregulates overall lysosomal biogenesis through Akt- transcription factor EB (TFEB) axis. TFEB is a master regulator of lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy, and SopB restricts the nuclear localization of TFEB. This reduces the overall lysosome content inside host macrophages, further facilitating survival in macrophages and systemic dissemination of Salmonella in the host.