Raynaud Catherine, Meibom Karin L, Lety Marie-Annick, Dubail Iharilalao, Candela Thomas, Frapy Eric, Charbit Alain
Université Paris Descartes, Faculté de Médecine René Descartes, Paris F-75015, France.
Infect Immun. 2007 Jan;75(1):536-41. doi: 10.1128/IAI.01429-06. Epub 2006 Oct 9.
Francisella tularensis is a highly infectious bacterial pathogen, responsible for the zoonotic disease tularemia. We screened a bank of transposon insertion mutants of F. tularensis subsp. holarctica LVS for colony morphology alterations and selected a mutant with a transposon insertion in wbtA, the first gene of the predicted lipopolysaccharide O-antigen gene cluster. Inactivation of wbtA led to the complete loss of O antigen, conferred serum sensitivity, impaired intracellular replication, and severely attenuated virulence in the mouse model. Notably, this mutant afforded protection against a challenge against virulent LVS.
土拉弗朗西斯菌是一种具有高度传染性的细菌病原体，可引发人畜共患疾病兔热病。我们筛选了土拉弗朗西斯菌亚种全北区LVS的转座子插入突变体文库，以寻找菌落形态改变的突变体，并挑选出一个在wbtA基因（预测的脂多糖O抗原基因簇的第一个基因）中有转座子插入的突变体。wbtA基因的失活导致O抗原完全缺失，赋予血清敏感性，损害细胞内复制，并在小鼠模型中严重减弱毒力。值得注意的是，该突变体对强毒株LVS的攻击提供了保护。
