A Macrophage Subversion Factor Is Shared by Intracellular and Extracellular Pathogens.

ABSTRACT: Pathogenic bacteria have developed strategies to adapt to host environment and resist host immune response. Several intracellular bacterial pathogens, including Salmonella enterica and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, share the horizontally-acquired MgtC virulence factor that is important for multiplication inside macrophages. MgtC is also found in pathogenic Pseudomonas species. Here we investigate for the first time the role of MgtC in the virulence of an extracellular pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A P. aeruginosa mgtC mutant is attenuated in the systemic infection model of zebrafish embryos, and strikingly, the attenuated phenotype is dependent on the presence of macrophages. In ex vivo experiments, the P. aeruginosa mgtC mutant is more sensitive to macrophage killing than the wild-type

SUBMITTER: Belon C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4469704 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature