Pseudomonas aeruginosa killing of Caenorhabditis elegans used to identify P. aeruginosa virulence factors.
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.
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School and Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
M W
MW
Tan
L G
LG
Rahme
J A
JA
Sternberg
R G
RG
Tompkins
F M
FM
Ausubel
D000818:Animals; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000382:microbiology; D016948:Azotobacter vinelandii / Q000235:genetics; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000382:microbiology*; D017931:DNA Primers; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D005809:Genes, Regulator; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000235:genetics; D011552:Pseudomonas Infections / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C091100:GacA protein, Bacteria; C080365:LasR protein, Pseudomonas aeruginosa; D015534:Trans-Activators; D014157:Transcription Factors; C074165:lemA protein, bacterial