Adaptation of Francisella tularensis to the mammalian environment is governed by cues which can be mimicked in vitro.

ABSTRACT: The intracellular bacterium Francisella tularensis survives in mammals, arthropods, and freshwater amoeba. It was previously established that the conventional media used for in vitro propagation of this microbe do not yield bacteria that mimic those harvested from infected mammals; whether these in vitro-cultivated bacteria resemble arthropod- or amoeba-adapted Francisella is unknown. As a foundation for our goal of identifying F. tularensis outer membrane proteins which are expressed during mammalian infection, we first sought to identify in vitro cultivation conditions that induce the bacterium's infection-derived phenotype. We compared Francisella LVS grown in brain heart infusion broth (BHI; a standard microbiological medium rarely used in Francisella research) to that grown in Mueller

SUBMITTER: Hazlett KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2546835 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature