A Role for Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase in Bacterial Invasion

Abstract
Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterial pathogen that invades cultured nonphagocytic cells. Inhibitors and a dominant negative mutation were used to demonstrate that efficient entry requires the phosphoinositide (PI) 3-kinase p85α-p110. Infection with L. monocytogenes caused rapid increases in cellular amounts of PI(3,4)P2 and PI(3,4,5)P3, indicating that invading bacteria stimulated PI 3-kinase activity. This stimulation required the bacterial protein InlB, host cell tyrosine phosphorylation, and association of p85α with one or more tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins. This role for PI 3-kinase in bacterial entry may have parallels in some endocytic events.