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Evaluating Virulence and Pathogenesis of Aeromonas Infection in a Caenorhabditis elegans Model
Published on: December 20, 2018
Pseudomonas donghuensis HYS virulence towards Caenorhabditis elegans is regulated by the Cbr/Crc system
Guanfang Xie1, Man Zeng1, Jia You1
1Hubei Key Laboratory of Cell Homeostasis, College of Life Sciences, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, P.R. China.
Abstract:
Pseudomonas donghuensis HYS is the type strain of a recently identified species, P. donghuensis, which has pathogenic potential with an unclear virulence mechanism. In this study, we used Caenorhabditis elegans as a host to explore the virulence mechanism of P. donghuensis HYS. Based on a correlation between P. donghuensis HYS virulence and its repellence property, we identified 68 potential virulence-related genes, among them the Cbr/Crc system, which regulates the virulence of prokaryotic microorganisms. Slow-killing assays indicated that cbrA, cbrB, or specific sRNA-encoding genes all affected P. donghuensis virulence positively, whereas crc affected it negatively. Transcriptome analyses demonstrated that the Cbr/Crc system played an important role in the pathogenesis of P. donghuensis. In addition, experiments using the worm mutant KU25 pmk-1(km25) showed a correlation between P. donghuensis HYS virulence and the PMK-1/p38 MAPK pathway in C. elegans. In conclusion, our data show that Crc plays a novel role in the Cbr/Crc system, and the P. donghuensis virulence phenotype therefore differs from that of P. aeruginosa. This process also involves C. elegans innate immunity. These findings significantly increase the available information about Cbr/Crc-based virulence mechanisms in the genus Pseudomonas.
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