When bugs meet cells. Conference: frontiers of cellular microbiology and cell biology.

Abstract

This new conference was organized by Pascale Cossart and Jean Gruenberg with support from the European Science Foundation, EMBO, INTAS and L'Oreal. A second meeting in this series will be held in San Feliu de Guixols (Spain) in October 2002. ![][1] Early research into microbiological pathogenesis attempted to determine which microbial properties make micro‐organisms pathogenic. Over time, however, a growing number of research projects began to focus on the intimate relationships between microbes and their hosts and, more precisely, on the consequences of infection for the cell biology of the host. This approach has brought together two traditional disciplines—microbiology and cell biology. Signs of the recent successes of this merger include a new journal— Cellular Microbiology —and several meetings on the subject, including the Euresco/EMBO workshop held in Giens, France (October 7–12, 2000) entitled ‘Frontiers of cellular microbiology and cell biology’. Progress in understanding a number of cellular processes was discussed at this meeting, with special emphasis on cytoskeleton plasticity and signaling. Here we highlight several of the fundamental questions of cell biology that were addressed by cellular microbiologists. ### Lipidic microdomains in microbial host cell invasion and endocytosis It is now clear from the work of several laboratories during the last decade, that the organization of the plasma membrane is more complex than the fluid mosaic model proposed by Singer and Nicholson 30 years ago (reviewed by Simons and Toomre, 2000). Lipid rafts, consisting mainly of dynamic assemblies of cholesterol and sphingolipids, form in the exoplasmic leaflet of the bilayer, conferring an intrinsic heterogeneity to the plasma membrane. In turn, according to their affinities for different lipids, proteins can also be heterogeneously distributed in various microdomains. In particular, molecules that are used as receptors for the binding of pathogens may associate with membrane microdomains, causing a preferential association of pathogens with these domains. Jean Pieters (Basel, Switzerland) showed that cholesterol … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif