Jb. Goldberg et al., AVIRULENCE OF A PSEUDOMONAS-AERUGINOSA ALGC MUTANT IN A BURNED-MOUSE MODEL OF INFECTION, Infection and immunity, 63(10), 1995, pp. 4166-4169
The virulence of wild-type Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and that of a g
enetically defined algC mutant, PAO1 algC::tet, were compared in a bur
ned-mouse model of infection. Unlike PAO1, PAO1 algC::tet was avirulen
t, grew less well in the eschar, and did not disseminate to the liver
of challenged animals. We have previously shown that the P. aeruginosa
algC gene is required for biosynthesis of alginate and lipopolysaccha
ride (M. J. Coyne, Jr., K. S. Russell, C. L. Coyle, and J. B. Goldberg
, J. Bacteriol. 176:3500-3507, 1994). In order to determine whether th
e alginate or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) defect was responsible for the
avirulence of this strain, we constructed a strain with a mutation in
an alginate-specific gene, algD. PAO1-algD was virulent in the burned-
mouse model, thus implicating the LPS defect in PAO1 algC::tet as the
relevant alteration responsible for the avirulence of this strain.