Inorganic polyphosphate and pyoverdine synthesis are essential for the virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 in zebrafish larvae
Ortiz-Severin, J. P.; Lecaros, C.; Perez, I.; Varas, M.; Allende, M. L.; Chavez, F.
Show abstract
Understanding how bacterial metabolism shapes virulence requires infection models that are both biologically informative and experimentally accessible. Here, we used zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae infection by static immersion as a simple and robust vertebrate model to study Pseudomonas aeruginosa host-pathogen interactions and virulence regulation. Using this approach, we show that disruption of polyphosphate (polyP) synthesis by loss of ppk1 gene ({tau}1ppk1) leads to marked attenuation of virulence, whereas interrupting ppk2 gene ({tau}1ppk2) results in a hypervirulent phenotype. Phenotypic assays and quantitative proteomics revealed that loss of polyP selectively impairs pyoverdine production, with minimal effects on other canonical virulence factors. Consistently, a pyoverdine-deficient mutant ({tau}1pvdF) exhibited reduced virulence in zebrafish, validating the capacity of the zebrafish model to functionally resolve key virulence factors. Together, our results highlight polyphosphate metabolism as a central regulator of P. aeruginosa virulence and position zebrafish immersion assays as an efficient and ethically aligned alternative to mammalian models for studying bacterial pathogenesis.
Matching journals
The top 9 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Revisiting oxygen toxicity: evolution and adaptation to superoxide in a SOD-deficient bacterial pathogen 94%
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa leucine aminopeptidase influences early biofilm composition and structure via vesicle-associated anti-biofilm activity 93%
- NirA is an alternative nitrite reductase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa with potential as an anti-virulence target 93%
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- The Salmonella LysR family regulator, RipR, activates the SPI-13 encoded itaconate degradation cluster 94%
- Catalase Activity is Critical for Proteus mirabilis Biofilm Development, EPS Composition, and Dissemination During Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection 93%
- Enterococcus faecalis manganese exporter MntE alleviates manganese toxicity and is required for mouse gastrointestinal colonization 92%
Similar papers in this journal
- Vibrio cholerae alkalizes its environment via citrate metabolism to inhibit enteric growth 93%
- Thermal endurance by a hot-spring-dwelling phylogenetic relative of the mesophilic Paracoccus 92%
- (p)ppGpp and DksA play crucial role in reducing the efficacy of b-lactam antibiotics by modulating bacterial membrane permeability 92%
Similar papers in this journal
- Human serum triggers antibiotic tolerance in Staphylococcus aureus 93%
- Resolving the conflict between antibiotic production and rapid growth by recognition of peptidoglycan of susceptible competitors 93%
- Convergent within-host evolution alters key virulence factors in a Klebsiella pneumoniae clone during a large hospital outbreak 92%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.