Inside the enterocyte: STY localization and survival.
(A) Immunostaining of STY-infected biopsies with cytoskeletal protein tubulin, intracellular early endosome marker Rab5, STY and genomic material (DAPI). STY colocalizes with tubulin during biopsy invasion but exists independent of Rab5. Inset images demonstrating co-localization are marked with a blue arrow; independent STY are marked with a pink arrow.
(B) Loss of intracellular early endosome marker indicates masking of cellular localization by STY. RNAseq data predicts inhibition of phagosome formation and maturation; downregulated genes are in red, upregulated genes are in green.
(C) Inhibition of phagosome maturation critically impairs antigen harvest and bacterial clearance, which are overarching themes in disease pathways predicted to be downregulated in response to STY infection of terminal ileum biopsies.
(D) Predicted deactivated disease states related to the immune response deciphered from downregulation of genes during STY infection. The negative Z-score indicates a downregulation of pathways; the number of genes refers to the number of genes downregulated during STY infection that corresponds to the pathway listed. Notable deactivated disease states include quantity of phagocytes, activation of lymphocytes, localization of mononuclear cells, activation of lymphocytes and leukocyte migration.