The Shigella flexneri OmpA amino acid residues 188EVQ190 are essential for the interaction with the virulence factor PhoN2

Shigella flexneri is an intracellular pathogen that deploys an arsenal of virulence factors promoting host cell invasion, intracellular multiplication and intra- and inter-cellular dissemination. We have previously reported that the interaction between apyrase (PhoN2), a periplasmic ATP-diphosphohydrolase, and the C-terminal domain of the outer membrane (OM) protein OmpA is likely required for proper IcsA exposition at the old bacterial pole and thus for full virulence expression of Shigella flexneri (Scribano et al., 2014). OmpA, that is the major OM protein of Gram-negative bacteria, is a multifaceted protein that plays many different roles both in the OM structural integrity and in the virulence of several pathogens. Here, by using yeast two-hybrid technology and by constructing an in silico 3D model of OmpA from S. flexneri 5a strain M90T, we observed that the OmpA residues 188EVQ190 are likely essential for PhoN2-OmpA interaction. The 188EVQ190 amino acids are located within a flexible region of the OmpA protein that could represent a scaffold for protein-protein interaction.