Journal article
Genome-Wide Identification of Francisella tularensis Virulence Determinants
Infection and immunity, Vol.75(6), pp.3089-3101
06/2007
DOI: 10.1128/IAI.01865-06
PMCID: PMC1932872
PMID: 17420240
Abstract
Francisella tularensis
is a gram-negative pathogen that causes life-threatening infections in humans and has potential for use as a biological weapon. The genetic basis of the
F. tularensis
virulence is poorly understood. This study screened a total of 3,936 transposon mutants of the live vaccine strain for infection in a mouse model of respiratory tularemia by signature-tagged mutagenesis. We identified 341 mutants attenuated for infection in the lungs. The transposon disruptions were mapped to 95 different genes, virtually all of which are also present in the genomes of other
F. tularensis
strains, including human pathogenic
F. tularensis
strain Schu S4. A small subset of these attenuated mutants carried insertions in the genes encoding previously known virulence factors, but the majority of the identified genes have not been previously linked to
F. tularensis
virulence. Among these are genes encoding putative membrane proteins, proteins associated with stress responses, metabolic proteins, transporter proteins, and proteins with unknown functions. Several attenuated mutants contained disruptions in a putative capsule locus which partially resembles the poly-γ-glutamate capsule biosynthesis locus of
Bacillus anthracis
, the anthrax agent. Deletional mutation analysis confirmed that this locus is essential for
F. tularensis
virulence.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Genome-Wide Identification of Francisella tularensis Virulence Determinants
- Creators
- Jingliang Su - Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York 12208Jun Yang - Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York 12208Daimin Zhao - Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York 12208Thomas H Kawula - Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York 12208Jeffrey A Banas - Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York 12208Jing-Ren Zhang - Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York 12208
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Infection and immunity, Vol.75(6), pp.3089-3101
- DOI
- 10.1128/IAI.01865-06
- PMID
- 17420240
- PMCID
- PMC1932872
- NLM abbreviation
- Infect Immun
- ISSN
- 0019-9567
- eISSN
- 1098-5522
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/2007
- Academic Unit
- Pediatric Dentistry; Dental Research
- Record Identifier
- 9984066083602771
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