title: Hyperinfectivity of human-passaged Vibrio cholerae can be modeled by growth in the infant mouse.
abstract: It has previously been shown that passage of Vibrio cholerae through the human intestine imparts a transient hyperinfectious phenotype that may contribute to the epidemic spread of cholera. The mechanism underlying this human-passaged hyperinfectivity is incompletely understood, in part due to inherent difficulties in recovering and studying organisms that are freshly passed in human stool. Here, we demonstrate that passage of V. cholerae through the infant mouse intestine leads to an equivalent degree of hyperinfectivity as passage through the human host. We have used this infant mouse model of host-passaged hyperinfectivity to characterize the timing and the anatomic location of the competitive advantage of mouse-passaged V. cholerae as well as the contribution of three type IV pili to the phenotype.
authors.affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Ashfaqul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alam
authors.forename: Regina C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Larocque
authors.forename: Jason B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Cecily
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vanderspurt
authors.forename: Edward T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.forename: Firdausi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qadri
authors.forename: Stephen B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Calderwood
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002771:Cholera / Q000382:microbiology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007422:Intestines / Q000382:microbiology*; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D014734:Vibrio cholerae / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence / Q000502:physiology