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Special Staining Techniques01:13

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Monitoring the Assembly of a Secreted Bacterial Virulence Factor Using Site-specific Crosslinking
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Published on: December 17, 2013

A simple model host for identifying Gram-positive virulence factors.

D A Garsin1, C D Sifri, E Mylonakis

  • 1Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|September 6, 2001
PubMed
Summary

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans serves as a model for studying Gram-positive bacterial pathogens. This research identifies E. faecalis virulence factors relevant to both nematode and mammalian infections.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Model Organisms

Background:

  • Gram-positive bacterial pathogens pose significant threats to human health.
  • Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a versatile model organism for studying host-pathogen interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate C. elegans as a model host for human Gram-positive bacterial pathogens.
  • To investigate the virulence factors of Enterococcus species in a nematode model.
  • To identify novel virulence factors relevant to mammalian pathogenesis.

Main Methods:

  • Infection of adult C. elegans and its developmental stages with various Gram-positive bacteria.
  • Quantification of bacterial growth and nematode survival.
  • Genetic manipulation of bacterial virulence factors (fsr, cytolysin, ScrB).

Main Results:

  • Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Staphylococcus aureus were found to be lethal to adult C. elegans.
  • E. faecalis and Enterococcus faecium caused mortality in C. elegans eggs and hatchlings.
  • E. faecalis established persistent intestinal infections in adult worms.
  • The E. faecalis fsr system and cytolysin were crucial for nematode killing.
  • The nematode model facilitated the identification of E. faecalis ScrB as a virulence factor relevant to mammalian pathogenesis.

Conclusions:

  • C. elegans is a facile and inexpensive model for studying Gram-positive bacterial infections.
  • Nematode infection models can reveal conserved virulence mechanisms applicable to mammalian pathogenesis.
  • This study identified E. faecalis ScrB as a potential target for therapeutic intervention.