Abstract
The developing complementary technologies of DNA microarrays and proteomics are allowing the response of bacterial pathogens to different environments to be probed at the whole genome level. Although using these technologies to analyze pathogens within a host is still in its infancy, initial studies indicate that these technologies will be valuable tools for understanding how the pathogen reacts to the in vivo microenvironment. Some bacterial pathogens have been shown to substantially modify their surface components in response to the host immune system and modify their energy metabolism and transport pathways to allow efficient growth within the host. Further detailed analyses of these responses will increase understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis, identify new bacterial virulence factors, and aid in the design of new vaccines.
Highlights
How do bacteria respond to the host environment during an infection? Bacterial pathogens must be able to gain access to, persist in, and replicate in normally privileged sites within a host
We summarize the current application of DNA microarray and proteomics techniques to the understanding of how bacteria modify their expression profiles within an infected host
The first wave of DNA microarray experiments of relevance to bacterial pathogenesis focused on analyzing bacterial gene expression during growth in vitro under conditions chosen to mimic some aspect of infection
Summary
The developing complementary technologies of DNA microarrays and proteomics are allowing the response of bacterial pathogens to different environments to be probed at the whole genome level. The relationship to a specific condition that the bacteria will face during growth in the host is clear, and as the conditions are manipulated in vitro, the test conditions can be tightly controlled These studies have allowed a detailed description of bacterial pathogen response to iron limitation [3,4], nutrient limitation [5,6], acidic environments [7,8], low oxygen [9,10], bacterial density [11,12], and biofilm formation [11,12]. Many of these genes have been identified by signature-tagged mutagenesis studies as necessary for in vivo survival [25,26,27]
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