Preadaptation of Yersinia pestis to resist mammalian innate immunity during transit through the flea vector

ABSTRACT: Yersinia pestis, the agent of plague, is transmitted to mammals by infected fleas. Y. pestis exhibits a distinct life stage in the flea, where it grows in the form of a cohesive biofilm that promotes transmission. After transmission, the temperature shift to 37°C induces many known virulence factors of Y. pestis that confer resistance to innate immunity. These factors are not produced in the low-temperature environment of the flea, however, suggesting that Y. pestis is vulnerable to the initial encounter with innate immune cells at the flea bite site. In this study, we used whole-genome microarrays to compare the Y. pestis in vivo transcriptome in infective fleas to in vitro transcriptomes in temperature-matched biofilm and planktonic cultures, and to the previously characterized in vivo g

ORGANISM(S): Yersinia pestis

SUBMITTER: Dan Sturdevant 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-16493 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress