Gasdermin offers insight into coral necrotic death

Gasdermin offers insight into coral necrotic death
Cleavage of GSDME by caspase 3. Credit: IOCAS

Pyroptosis is a highly inflammatory form of programmed necrotic cell death that acts as a defense mechanism against the infection of bacterial and viral pathogens. Pyroptosis is executed by gasdermin, a family of pore-forming proteins.

Gasdermin-mediated pyroptosis is characterized by rapid cell swelling, membrane disruption, and massive cytoplasmic content release. To date, pyroptosis-inducing gasdermins have only been reported in vertebrates. It remains unclear whether functional gasdermins exist in invertebrates.

Recently, a research team led by Prof. Sun Li from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), in collaboration with Prof. Zhou Zhi from Hainan University, has identified gasdermin E (GSDME) from the reef-building coral Orbicella faveolata and demonstrated that coral GSDME triggers pyroptosis and is involved in pathogen-induced coral death.

Their study was published in Science Immunology on Dec. 4, 2020.

Via biochemical and cellular studies, the researchers revealed that O. faveolata GSDME was activated by caspase 3, which cleaved GSDME at two different sites. This resulted in two forms of the N-terminal domain of GSDME, and both of them were able to induce pyroptosis.

"When co-present with caspase 3, GSDME switched cell fate from caspase 3-induced apoptosis to pyroptosis," said Dr. Jiang Shuai, the first author of the study.

Gasdermin offers insight into coral necrotic death
GSDME induces pyroptosis. Credit: IOCAS

Vibrio coralliilyticus is a coral pathogen found worldwide. In this study, the researchers demonstrated in a coral death model that V. coralliilyticus infection caused rapid tissue necrosis with activation of caspase 3 and GSDME, as well as subcellular structural damage including disorganization of mitochondria and Golgi apparatus.

Furthermore, inhibition of 3 was found to block GSDME cleavage and protect corals from necrotic death.

The researchers revealed the activation mechanism and pyroptosis-executing capacity of coral GSDME as well as its involvement in pathogen-induced coral necrotic death.

Gasdermin offers insight into coral necrotic death
GSDME is involved in pathogen-induced coral death. Credit: IOCAS

Their findings shed light on the evolution, function, and activation mechanism of gasdermins, and promote our understanding of coral caused by environmental stress.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Key Research and Development Project of China.

More information: S. Jiang el al., "Coral gasdermin triggers pyroptosis," Science Immunology (2020). immunology.sciencemag.org/look … 6/sciimmunol.abd2591

Journal information: Science Immunology
Citation: Gasdermin offers insight into coral necrotic death (2020, December 4) retrieved 19 March 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-gasdermin-insight-coral-necrotic-death.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Insights into a versatile molecular death switch

14 shares

Feedback to editors