Random transposon insertion libraries have proven invaluable in studying bacterial genomes. Libraries that approach saturation must be large, with multiple insertions per gene, making comprehensive genome-wide scanning difficult. To facilitate genome-scale study of the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA14, we constructed a nonredundant library of PA14 transposon mutants (the PA14NR Set) in which nonessential PA14 genes are represented by a single transposon insertion chosen from a comprehensive library of insertion mutants. The parental library of PA14 transposon insertion mutants was generated by using MAR2xT7 , a transposon compatible with transposon-site hybridization and based on mariner . The transposon-site hybridization genetic footprinting feature broadens the utility of the library by allowing pooled MAR2xT7 mutants to be individually tracked under different experimental conditions. A public, internet-accessible database (the PA14 Transposon Insertion Mutant Database, http://ausubellab.mgh.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/pa14/home.cgi ) was developed to facilitate construction, distribution, and use of the PA14NR Set. The usefulness of the PA14NR Set in genome-wide scanning for phenotypic mutants was validated in a screen for attachment to abiotic surfaces. Comparison of the genes disrupted in the PA14 transposon insertion library with an independently constructed insertion library in P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 provides an estimate of the number of P. aeruginosa essential genes.

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is responsible for systemic infections in immunocompromised individuals and chronic respiratory disease in patients with cystic fibrosis. Cyclic nucleotides are known to play a variety of roles in the regulation of virulence-related factors in pathogenic bacteria. A set of P. aeruginosa genes, encoding proteins that contain putative domains characteristic of diguanylate cyclases (DGCs) and phosphodiesterases (PDEs) that are responsible for the maintenance of cellular levels of the second messenger bis-(3′-5′)-cyclic dimeric GMP (c-di-GMP) was identified in the annotated genomes of P. aeruginosa strains PAO1 and PA14. Although the majority of these genes are components of the P. aeruginosa core genome, several are located on presumptive horizontally acquired genomic islands. A comprehensive analysis of P. aeruginosa genes encoding the enzymes of c-di-GMP metabolism (DGC- and PDE-encoding genes) was carried out to analyze the function of c-di-GMP in two disease-related phenomena, cytotoxicity and biofilm formation. Analysis of the phenotypes of DGC and PDE mutants and overexpressing clones revealed that certain virulence-associated traits are controlled by multiple DGCs and PDEs through alterations in c-di-GMP levels. A set of mutants in selected DGC- and PDE-encoding genes exhibited attenuated virulence in a mouse infection model. Given that insertions in different DGC and PDE genes result in distinct phenotypes, it seems likely that the formation or degradation of c-di-GMP by these enzymes is in highly localized and intimately linked to particular targets of c-di-GMP action.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence

Sequencing of a highly virulent strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and comparison to a previously sequenced, less pathogenic, strain, together with experimental testing in a C. elegans model, suggests that Pseudomonas virulence is multifactorial and combinatorial.

Nonvertebrate model hosts represent valuable tools for the study of host-pathogen interactions because they facilitate the identification of bacterial virulence factors and allow the discovery of novel components involved in host innate immune responses. In this report, we determined that the greater wax moth caterpillar Galleria mellonella is a convenient nonmammalian model host for study of the role of the type III secretion system (TTSS) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenesis. Based on the observation that a mutation in the TTSS pscD gene of P. aeruginosa strain PA14 resulted in a highly attenuated virulence phenotype in G. mellonella, we examined the roles of the four known effector proteins of P. aeruginosa (ExoS, ExoT, ExoU, and ExoY) in wax moth killing. We determined that in P. aeruginosa strain PA14, only ExoT and ExoU play a significant role in G. mellonella killing. Strain PA14 lacks the coding sequence for the ExoS effector protein and does not seem to express ExoY. Moreover, using ⌬exoU ⌬exoY, ⌬exoT ⌬exoY, and ⌬exoT ⌬exoU double mutants, we determined that individual translocation of either ExoT or ExoU is sufficient to obtain nearly wild-type levels of G. mellonella killing. On the other hand, data obtained with a ⌬exoT ⌬exoU ⌬exoY triple mutant and a ⌬pscD mutant suggested that additional, as-yet-unidentified P. aeruginosa components of type III secretion are involved in virulence in G. mellonella. A high level of correlation between the results obtained in the G. mellonella model and the results of cytopathology assays performed with a mammalian tissue culture system validated the use of G. mellonella for the study of the P. aeruginosa TTSS.The human opportunistic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa has proven to be a particularly versatile pathogen that is capable of causing diseases in plants, nematodes, and insects as well as in mice and humans (13,31,36,47,51). One particular P. aeruginosa strain, PA14, originally isolated from a human burn wound patient, has been used to demonstrate that P. aeruginosa virulence-related genes important for mouse pathogenesis can be identified by screening for less virulent mutants in plants or nematodes (36, 48, 52). In general, the use of nonvertebrate model hosts has facilitated the identification of bacterial virulence factors in a number of human bacterial pathogens in addition to P. aeruginosa and has led to the identification of new components involved in host innate immune responses (1,9,14,24,35,36,38,41,48,52).In gram-negative plant and animal pathogens, a highly conserved feature of pathogenesis is the so-called type III secretion system (TTSS) required for the translocation of effector proteins (virulence factors) directly into the cytosol of target eukaryotic cells (22,29,34). In mammals, the main targets of the translocated effector proteins include the host cytoskeleton and innate immune response pathways of macrophages and epithelial cells. For example, in Yersinia spp. and P. aeruginosa, TTSS effector proteins alter the normal actin cyto...

To further understand how the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans defends itself against pathogen attack, we analyzed enhanced pathogen resistance (epr) mutants obtained from a forward genetic screen. We also examined several well-characterized sterile mutants that exhibit an Epr phenotype. We found that sterility and pathogen resistance are highly correlated and that resistance in both epr and sterile mutants is dependent on DAF-16 activity. Our data indicate that a DAF-16-dependent signaling pathway distinct from previously described pathways is involved in the activation of genes that confer resistance to bacterial pathogens. The timing of DAF-16-dependent gene activation in sterile mutants coincides with the onset of embryonic development in wild-type animals, suggesting that signals from developing embryos normally downregulate the immune response.

Background Trichinella spiralis is a zoonotic parasitic nematode that causes trichinellosis, a disease that has been identified on all continents except Antarctica. During chronic infection, T. spiralis larvae infect skeletal myofibres, severely disrupting their differentiation state.Methodology and ResultsAn activity-based probe, HA-Ub-VME, was used to identify deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) activity in lysate of T. spiralis L1 larvae. Results were analysed by immuno-blot and immuno-precipitation, identifying a number of potential DUBs. Immuno-precipitated proteins were subjected to LC/MS/MS, yielding peptides with sequence homology to 5 conserved human DUBs: UCH-L5, UCH-L3, HAUSP, OTU 6B and Ataxin-3. The predicted gene encoding the putative UCH-L5 homologue, TsUCH37, was cloned and recombinant protein was expressed and purified. The deubiquitinating activity of this enzyme was verified by Ub-AMC assay. Co-precipitation of recombinant TsUCH37 showed that the protein associates with putative T. spiralis proteasome components, including the yeast Rpn13 homologue ADRM1. In addition, the UCH inhibitor LDN-57444 exhibited specific inhibition of recombinant TsUCH37 and reduced the viability of cultured L1 larvae.ConclusionsThis study reports the identification of the first T. spiralis DUB, a cysteine protease that is putatively orthologous to the human protein, hUCH-L5. Results suggest that the interaction of this protein with the proteasome has been conserved throughout evolution. We show potential for the use of inhibitor compounds to elucidate the role of UCH enzymes in T. spiralis infection and their investigation as therapeutic targets for trichinellosis.

For the article ''Regulation of chromosome stability by the histone H2A variant Htz1, the Swr1 chromatin remodeling complex, and the histone acetyltransferase NuA4,'' by Nevan J.