Caenorhabditis elegans: plague bacteria biofilm blocks food intake.
Bubonic plague is transmitted to mammals, including humans, by the bites of fleas whose digestive tracts are blocked by a mass of the bacterium Yersinia pestis. In these fleas, the plague-causing bacteria are surrounded by an extracellular matrix of unknown composition, and the blockage depends on a group of bacterial genes known as the hmsHFRS operon. Here we show that Y. pestis creates an hmsHFRS-dependent extracellular biofilm to inhibit feeding by the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Our results suggest that feeding obstruction in fleas is a biofilm-mediated process and that biofilms may be a bacterial defence against predation by invertebrates.
Darby
Creg
C
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA. cdarby@stanford.edu
Hsu
Jennifer W
JW
Ghori
Nafisa
N
Falkow
Stanley
S
D000818:Animals; D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004435:Eating; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D017238:Genes, Helminth / Q000235:genetics; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D007422:Intestines / Q000382:microbiology; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010930:Plague / Q000382:microbiology*; D015010:Yersinia pestis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins