Dynamics of Listeria intravacuolar life and its relevance to infection – LiVaLife

Intracellular pathogens adopt two distinct strategies to survive in their host cells: either hijacking the cellular endomembrane system and replicating inside membrane-enclosed vacuoles, or accessing the cytosol. The foodborne, facultative intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes has been described to rapidly escape the internalisation vacuole and replicate in the host cell cytoplasm after its uptake by mammalian cells. Nevertheless, in certain cell types we have observed that it could remain durably in intravacuolar niches, replicate therein or activate signalling pathway favouring the survival of infected cells. Using cellular microbiology, live microscopy and modelling approaches, we propose to characterize the mechanisms of biogenesis and maintenance of these novel replication and signalling compartments, and their contribution to the infectious process, in vitro and in vivo.