title: Potential of metabolomics to reveal Burkholderia cepacia complex pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance.
abstract: The Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) is a collection of closely related, genetically distinct, ecologically diverse species known to cause life-threatening infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. By virtue of a flexible genomic structure and diverse metabolic activity, Bcc bacteria employ a wide array of virulence factors for pathogenesis in CF patients and have developed resistance to most of the commonly used antibiotics. However, the mechanism of pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance is still not fully understood. This mini review discusses the established and potential virulence determinants of Bcc and some of the contemporary strategies including transcriptomics and proteomics used to identify these traits. We also propose the application of metabolic profiling, a cost-effective modern-day approach to achieve new insights.
authors.affiliation: Biochemistry Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Nusrat S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Shommu
authors.affiliation: Biochemistry Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Hans J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Vogel
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Douglas G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Storey
keywords: Burkholderia cepacia complex; antibiotic resistance; cystic fibrosis; metabolomics; virulence