Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 99, Issue 24, Pages 15699-15704Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.242343999
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NIAID NIH HHS [R56 AI019146, AI-19146, R01 AI019146] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A sensitive plant infection model was developed to identify virulence factors in nontypeable, alginate overproducing (mucoid) Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with chronic pulmonary disease. Nontypeable strains with defects in lipopolysaccharide O-side chains are common to CF and often exhibit low virulence in animal models of infection. However, 1,000 such bacteria were enough to show disease symptoms in the alfalfa infection. A typical mucoid CIF isolate, FRD1, and its isogenic mutants were tested for alfalfa seedling infection. Although defects in the global regulators Vfr, RpoS, PvdS, or LasR had no discernable effect on virulence, a defect in RhIR reduced the infection frequency by >50%. A defect in alginate biosynthesis resulted in plant disease with >3-fold more bacteria per plant, suggesting that alginate overproduction attenuated bacterial growth in planta. FRD1 derivatives lacking AlgT, a sigma factor required for alginate production, were reduced >50% in the frequency of infection. Thus, AlgT apparently regulates factors in FRD1, besides alginate, important for pathogenesis. In contrast, in a non-CF strain, PAO1, an algT mutation did not affect its virulence on alfalfa. Conversely, PAO1 virulence was reduced in a mucA mutant that overproduced alginate. These observations suggested that mucoid conversion in CIF may be driven by a selection for organisms with attenuated virulence or growth in the lung, which promotes a chronic infection. These studies also demonstrated that the wounded alfalfa seedling infection model is a useful tool to identify factors contributing to the persistence of P. aeruginosa in CF.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available