title: The new strains Brucella inopinata BO1 and Brucella species 83-210 behave biologically like classic infectious Brucella species and cause death in murine models of infection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, novel atypical Brucella strains isolated from humans and wild rodents have been reported. They are phenotypically close to Ochrobactrum species but belong to the genus Brucella, based on genetic relatedness, although genetic diversity is higher among the atypical Brucella strains than between the classic species. They were classified within or close to the novel species Brucella inopinata. However, with the exception of Brucella microti, the virulence of these novel strains has not been investigated in experimental models of infection.
  
  
  METHODS
  The type species B. inopinata strain BO1 (isolated from a human) and Brucella species strain 83-210 (isolated from a wild Australian rodent) were investigated. A classic infectious Brucella reference strain, B. suis 1330, was also used. BALB/c, C57BL/6, and CD1 mice models and C57BL/6 mouse bone-marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) were used as infection models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Strains BO1 and 83-210 behaved similarly to reference strain 1330 in all mouse infection models: there were similar growth curves in spleens and livers of mice and similar intracellular replication rates in BMDMs. However, unlike strain 1330, strains BO1 and 83-210 showed lethality in the 3 mouse models.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The novel atypical Brucella strains of this study behave like classic intracellular Brucella pathogens. In addition, they cause death in murine models of infection, as previously published for B. microti, another recently described environmental and wildlife species.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria, Unidad de Sanidad Animal.
authors.forename: María P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Jiménez de Bagüés
authors.affiliation: Departamento Bioquímica, Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza.
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iturralde
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria, Unidad de Sanidad Animal Departamento Bioquímica, Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza.
authors.forename: Maykel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Arias
authors.affiliation: Departamento Bioquímica, Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza Fundación Aragon I+D, Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: Julián
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pardo
authors.affiliation: INRA, UMR1282 Infectiologie et Santé Publique, Nouzilly Université François Rabelais de Tours, UMR1282 Infectiologie et Santé Publique, Tours, France.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cloeckaert
authors.affiliation: INRA, UMR1282 Infectiologie et Santé Publique, Nouzilly Université François Rabelais de Tours, UMR1282 Infectiologie et Santé Publique, Tours, France.
authors.forename: Michel S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Zygmunt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002002:Brucella / Q000145:classification* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000401:mortality*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D008264:Macrophages / Q000382:microbiology; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D014774:Virulence
keywords: Australian rodent; Brucella inopinata; macrophages; mice; pathogenicity