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PMID: 10051655 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Pseudomonas aeruginosa killing of Caenorhabditis elegans used to identify P. aeruginosa virulence factors.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 96 ·No. 5 ·1999-03-02 ·Pages 2408-13

Tan MW, Rahme LG, Sternberg JA, Tompkins RG, Ausubel FM

Abstract

We reported recently that the human opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA14 kills Caenorhabditis elegans and that many P. aeruginosa virulence factors (genes) required for maximum virulence in mouse pathogenicity are also required for maximum killing of C. elegans. Here we report that among eight P. aeruginosa PA14 TnphoA mutants isolated that exhibited reduced killing of C. elegans, at least five also exhibited reduced virulence in mice. Three of the TnphoA mutants corresponded to the known virulence-related genes lasR, gacA, and lemA. Three of the mutants corresponded to known genes (aefA from Escherichia coli, pstP from Azotobacter vinelandii, and mtrR from Neisseria gonorrhoeae) that had not been shown previously to play a role in pathogenesis, and two of the mutants contained TnphoA inserted into novel sequences. These data indicate that the killing of C. elegans by P. aeruginosa can be exploited to identify novel P. aeruginosa virulence factors important for mammalian pathogenesis.

MeSH Terms
Animals Arabidopsis/microbiology Azotobacter vinelandii/genetics Bacterial Proteins/genetics Base Sequence Caenorhabditis elegans/microbiology DNA Primers DNA Transposable Elements DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics Escherichia coli/genetics Genes, Regulator Genetic Complementation Test Humans Mammals Mice Molecular Sequence Data Mutagenesis, Insertional Neisseria gonorrhoeae/genetics Pseudomonas Infections/physiopathology Pseudomonas aeruginosa/genetics,pathogenicity Trans-Activators/genetics Transcription Factors/genetics Virulence/genetics
Chemicals
Bacterial Proteins DNA Primers DNA Transposable Elements DNA-Binding Proteins GacA protein, Bacteria LasR protein, Pseudomonas aeruginosa Trans-Activators Transcription Factors lemA protein, bacterial
Authors & Affiliations
5 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Tan M W
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School and Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Rahme L G
Sternberg J A
Tompkins R G
Ausubel F M
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.96.5.2408
Published
1999-03-02
Pages
2408-13
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC26797
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
AF116277, AF116278, AF116279, AF116280, AF116281, AF116282, AF116283, AF116284, AF116285
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.96.5.2408 PMC Full Text View journal details
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