pH-responsive substrate switching in mycobacterial Type VII ESX secretion

Pathogenic mycobacteria cause chronic and acute disease. Mycobacterial pathogens promote infection by transporting bacterial proteins into the host using ESX/Type VII secretion systems. The ESX-1 system secretes proteins into the phagosome that release the bacteria into the cytoplasm and promote bacterial survival in the macrophage. We show that <i>Mycobacterium marinum,</i> an animal pathogen and model for studying ESX-1 and tuberculosis, switches which ESX-1 proteins are secreted in response to acidic pH, an infection relevant signal. We demonstrate that protein secretion reflects changes in substrate transcripts and in substrate and chaperone protein levels. Finally, we leveraged two infection models to support that ESX-1 substrate switching likely occurs during infection. Our findings support a model in which mycobacterial pathogens use different proteins to lyse macrophage phagosomes of different pH.