Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae does not require urease activity to produce acute swine pleuropneumonia.
The role in virulence of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae urease activity was investigated. A urease-negative mutant was isolated following transposon mutagenesis with a mini-Tn10 derivative. Both the parent strain and the urease-negative mutant exhibited identical LD50 values in a murine infection model. Pig challenge confirmed that the urease-negative mutant was fully virulent, since experimental inoculation with 5 x 10(7) colony forming units resulted in an acute disease indistinguishable from that produced by the wild-type strain at the same dose. Our results demonstrate that urease activity is not required for the development of acute pleuropneumonia.
Tascón Cabrero
R I
RI
Departamento de Patologia Animal-Sanidad Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de León, Spain. dsartc@isidoro.unileon.es
Vázquez-Boland
J A
JA
Gutiérrez
C B
CB
Rodríguez-Barbosa
J I
JI
Rodríguez-Ferri
E F
EF
D016977:Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity; D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D016296:Mutagenesis; D011001:Pleuropneumonia / Q000382:microbiology*; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D014510:Urease / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014774:Virulence
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D014510:Urease