title: Assessing Pseudomonas virulence with the nonmammalian host model: Arabidopsis thaliana.
abstract: The popular plant model, Arabidopsis thaliana, has been used to successfully identify novel Pseudomonas aeruginosa genes that are involved in virulence. These genes have also been shown to be important for mammalian infection, demonstrating that this bacterium has a conserved set of virulence factors with broad range. This chapter describes using A. thaliana as a plant model for P. aeruginosa infection and describes obtaining the plants, preparing the inoculum, infecting the leaves, and collecting and interpreting the data. This protocol allows for both a qualitative assessment of symptoms and a quantitative measurement of the bacterial growth inside the leaves.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Regina L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Baldini
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Starkey
authors.forename: Laurence G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Rahme
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology*; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D008322:Mammals; D008954:Models, Biological; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000254:growth & development / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence