Extracellular DNA: A Nutritional Trigger of Mycoplasma bovis Cytotoxicity.

ABSTRACT: Microbial access to host nutrients is a key factor of the host-pathogen interplay. With their nearly minimal genome, wall-less bacteria of the class Mollicutes have limited metabolic capacities and largely depend on host nutrients for their survival. Despite these limitations, host-restricted mycoplasmas are widely distributed in nature and many species are pathogenic for humans and animals. Yet, only partial information is available regarding the mechanisms evolved by these minimal pathogens to meet their nutrients and the contribution of these mechanisms to virulence. By using the ruminant pathogen Mycoplasma bovis as a model system, extracellular DNA (eDNA) was identified as a limiting nutrient for mycoplasma proliferation under cell culture conditions. Remarkably, the gro

SUBMITTER: Zhu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6895004 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature