Abstract
Francisella tularensis is one of the most virulent bacteria known and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Category A select agent. It is able to infect a variety of animals and insects and can persist in the environment, thus Francisella spp. must be able to survive in diverse environmental niches. However, F. tularensis has a surprising dearth of sensory and regulatory factors. Recent advancements in the field have identified new functions of encoded transcription factors and greatly expanded our understanding of virulence gene regulation. Here we review the current knowledge of environmental adaptation by F. tularensis, its transcriptional regulators and their relationship to animal virulence.
Highlights
Francisella tularensis is one of the most virulent bacteria known and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Category A select agent
Most of our current understanding about the genetics of F. tularensis pathogenesis have been acquired with F. novicida, as this subspecies can be genetically manipulated with relative ease and causes a disease in mice similar to that caused by the human virulent F. tularensis subsp. tularensis
Guanosine pentaphosphate, an alarmone that is the global regulator of gene expression during the stringent response, is involved in F. tularensis virulence gene expression by promoting the interaction of FevR/PigR with the MglA–SspA–RNA polymerase (RNAP) complex (Charity et al, 2009)
Summary
Francisella tularensis is one of the most virulent bacteria known and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Category A select agent. FPI genes were the first identified Francisella virulence factors and are affected by essentially all environmental cues and transcriptional virulence regulators identified far, demonstrating their importance in F. tularensis virulence.
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