Characteristics of an avirulent Campylobacter jejuni strain and its virulence-enhanced variants.
The virulence of Campylobacter jejuni for 11-day-old chick embryos is associated with the ability to invade the chorio-allantoic membrane, to resist phagocytosis and to survive and proliferate in vivo. The pathogenicity of a well characterised avirulent C. jejuni strain was enhanced by passaging it intravenously and chorio-allantoically through chick embryos. The resulting isogenic variants had greatly increased ability to survive in vivo. In this study, the morphological and cell-surface characteristics of the avirulent parental strain were compared with those of the more virulent variants to determine whether pathogenicity was associated with one or more cell-surface constituents. Changes associated with the increased virulence of the two variants included alterations in cultural and cellular morphology, loss of flagella, expression of a new outer-membrane protein, alterations in cell-surface carbohydrates and decreases in cell-surface hydrophobicity.
Field
L H
LH
Department of Microbiology, University of Texas, Austin 78712-1095.
Underwood
J L
JL
Payne
S M
SM
Berry
L J
LJ
D000372:Agglutination Tests; D000818:Animals; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology; D002465:Cell Movement; D002642:Chick Embryo; D005321:Extraembryonic Membranes / Q000382:microbiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D037102:Lectins / Q000378:metabolism; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000032:analysis; D037121:Plant Lectins; D012692:Serial Passage; D014774:Virulence
D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; C038095:Helix lectin; D037102:Lectins; C042962:Limax flavus agglutinin; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D037121:Plant Lectins