The major membrane nuclease MnuA degrades neutrophil extracellular traps induced by Mycoplasma bovis

Mycoplasma bovis has been increasingly recognised worldwide as an economically important pathogen of cattle, causing a range of diseases, including pneumonia, mastitis, polyarthritis and otitis media. It is believed that M. bovis utilises a range of cell surface proteins, including nucleases, to evade the host immune response and survive. However, despite the importance of neutrophils in controlling pathogenic bacteria, the interaction between these cells and M. bovis is not well-characterised. In addition to phagocytosis, neutrophils combat pathogens through the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which are composed of their nuclear and granular components, including DNA. Here we investigated the effect of the major membrane nuclease MnuA of M. bovis, which in vitro is responsible for the majority of the nuclease activity of M. bovis, on NET formation. We quantified NET formation by bovine neutrophils 4 h after stimulation with wild-type M. bovis, an mnuA mutant and a mnuA-pIRR45 complemented mnuA mutant. NETs were detected following stimulation of neutrophils with the mnuA mutant but not after exposure to either the wild-type or the mnuA-pIRR45 complemented mutant, and NETs were degraded in the presence of even low concentrations of wild type M. bovis. Surprisingly, there was no increase in levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in neutrophils stimulated with M. bovis, even though these neutrophils produced NETs. These results clearly demonstrate that M. bovis can induce NET formation in bovine neutrophils, but that the major membrane nuclease MnuA is able to rapidly degrade NETs, and thus is likely to play a significant role in virulence. In addition, M. bovis appears to induce NETs even though ROS production seems to be suppressed.