Abstract
We have used microarray analysis to study the transcriptome of the bacterial pathogen Bordetella bronchiseptica over the course of five time points representing distinct stages of biofilm development. The results suggest that B. bronchiseptica undergoes a coordinately regulated gene expression program similar to a bacterial developmental process. Expression and subsequent production of the genes encoding flagella, a classical Bvg− phase phenotype, occurs and is under tight regulatory control during B. bronchiseptica biofilm development. Using mutational analysis, we demonstrate that flagella production at the appropriate stage of biofilm development, i.e. production early subsequently followed by repression, is required for robust biofilm formation and maturation. We also demonstrate that flagella are necessary and enhance the initial cell-surface interactions, thereby providing mechanistic information on the initial stages of biofilm development for B. bronchiseptica. Biofilm formation by B. bronchiseptica involves the production of both Bvg-activated and Bvg-repressed factors followed by the repression of factors that inhibit formation of mature biofilms.
Highlights
Bordetella bronchiseptica is a gram negative bacterial pathogen with a broad host range that naturally infects a wide variety of farm and companion animals [1,2,3]
We have demonstrated that biofilm development in B. bronchiseptica is a microscopically observable sequential process that can be separated into distinct stages [14,15]
Biofilm formation has been proposed to be a process of microbial development similar to that observed in cell cyclecontrolled swarmer-to-stalk cell transition in Caulobacter crescentus, sporulation in Bacillus subtilis, and fruiting-body formation by Myxococcus xanthus [41,51]
Summary
Bordetella bronchiseptica is a gram negative bacterial pathogen with a broad host range that naturally infects a wide variety of farm and companion animals [1,2,3]. It is the etiological agent or a cocontributor to a number of veterinary syndromes such as kennel cough in dogs, atrophic rhinitis (AR) and pneumonia in pigs and bronchopneumonia in guinea pigs, rabbits, horses, rats, mice, cats and nonhuman primates. A hallmark of B. bronchiseptica infections is long-term to life-long asymptomatic carriage. Despite vaccination, these bacteria continue to circulate and persist in animals. We have isolated B. bronchiseptica from the rat nasopharynx even after 85 days of inoculation (our unpublished results) and the nasal cavity of laboratory mice remains colonized by B. bronchiseptica for the life of the animal [11]
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