title: Common virulence factors for Pseudomonas tolaasii pathogenesis in Agaricus and Arabidopsis.
abstract: Brown blotch of cultivatable mushrooms is a disease caused by the small peptide toxin (tolaasin) secreted by Pseudomonas tolaasii. Here we found that the wild type tolassin-producing P. tolaasii stain 6264 was capable of infection in Arabidopsis thaliana cotyledons, causing chlorotic symptoms and growth arrest as a result of bacterial proliferation. Seven virulence-attenuated mutants of P. tolaasii were isolated from the Agaricus bisporus screen using 2512 mariner-based transposon insertion mutants, and all of them displayed reduced virulence and bacterial proliferation in Arabidopsis infection as well. The transposon was inserted within the genes for tolassin biosynthesis and amino acid biosynthesis, and within an intergenic region between the genes of unknown function. The finding that some virulence factors are commonly required for both Agaricus and Arabidopsis infections suggests that Arabidopsis could be exploited to study the host-pathogen interaction involving P. tolaasii.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, CHA University, Gyeonggi 463-840, South Korea.
authors.forename: In-Young
authors.initials: IY
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Biological Chemistry, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Chungbuk 361-763, South Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Kee
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, CHA University, Gyeonggi 463-840, South Korea. Electronic address: youhee@cha.ac.kr.
authors.forename: You-Hee
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Cho
mesh_terms: D000364:Agaricus; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000382:microbiology*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways / Q000235:genetics; D018548:Cotyledon / Q000382:microbiology; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D037521:Virulence Factors
keywords: Agaricus; Arabidopsis; Pseudomonas tolaasii; Tolaasin; Virulence factor