Extensive in vivo resilience of persistent Salmonella.
Chronic infections caused by persistent pathogens represent an important health problem. Here, we establish a simple practical mouse Salmonella infection model for identifying bacterial maintenance functions that are essential for persistency. In this model, a substantial fraction of Salmonella survived even several days of treatment with a potent fluoroquinolone antibiotic indicating stringency of the model. Evaluation of twelve metabolic defects revealed dramatically different requirements for Salmonella during persistency as compared to acute infections. Disrupted synthesis of unsaturated/cyclopropane fatty acids was the only defect that resulted in rapid Salmonella clearance suggesting that this pathway might contain suitable targets for antimicrobial chemotherapy of chronic infection.
Focal Area Infection Biology, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Somedutta
S
Barat
Benjamin
B
Steeb
Alain
A
Mazé
Dirk
D
Bumann
D015099:3-Oxoacyl-(Acyl-Carrier-Protein) Synthase / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D007700:Kinetics; D008099:Liver / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D012475:Salmonella / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D012481:Salmonella Infections, Animal / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D013154:Spleen / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology
D015099:3-Oxoacyl-(Acyl-Carrier-Protein) Synthase