Differential Gene Expression Patterns of Yersinia pestis and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis during Infection and Biofilm Formation in the Flea Digestive Tract.

ABSTRACT: Yersinia pestis, the etiologic agent of plague, emerged as a fleaborne pathogen only within the last 6,000 years. Just five simple genetic changes in the Yersinia pseudotuberculosis progenitor, which served to eliminate toxicity to fleas and to enhance survival and biofilm formation in the flea digestive tract, were key to the transition to the arthropodborne transmission route. To gain a deeper understanding of the genetic basis for the development of a transmissible biofilm infection in the flea foregut, we evaluated additional gene differences and performed in vivo transcriptional profiling of Y. pestis, a Y. pseudotuberculosis wild-type strain (unable to form biofilm in the flea foregut), and a Y. pseudotuberculosis mutant strain (able to produce foregut-blocking biofilm in flea

SUBMITTER: Chouikha I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6381227 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature