Importance of twitching and surface-associated motility in the virulence of Acinetobacter baumannii
Corral, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia)
Pérez-Varela, María (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia)
Sánchez-Osuna, Miquel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia)
Cortés Garmendia, M. Pilar (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia)
Barbé García, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia)
Aranda Rodríguez, Jesús (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia)

Fecha:	2021
Resumen:	Acinetobacter baumannii is a pathogen of increasing clinical importance worldwide, especially given its ability to readily acquire resistance determinants. Motile strains of this bacterium can move by either or both of two types of motility: (i) twitching, driven by type IV pili, and (ii) surface-associated motility, an appendage-independent form of movement. A. baumannii strain MAR002 possesses both twitching and surface-associated motility. In this study, we isolated spontaneous rifampin-resistant mutants of strain MAR002 in which point mutations in the rpoB gene were identified that resulted in an altered motility pattern. Transcriptomic analysis of mutants lacking twitching, surface-associated motility, or both led to the identification of deregulated genes within each motility phenotype, based on their level of expression and their biological function. Investigations of the corresponding knockout mutants revealed several genes involved in the motility of A. baumannii strain MAR002, including two involved in twitching (encoding a minor pilin subunit and an RND [resistance nodulation division] component), one in surface-associated motility (encoding an amino acid permease), and eight in both (encoding RND and ABC components, the energy transducer TonB, the porin OprD, the T6SS component TagF, an IclR transcriptional regulator, a PQQ-dependent sugar dehydrogenase, and a putative pectate lyase). Virulence assays showed the reduced pathogenicity of mutants with impairments in both types of motility or in surface-associated motility alone. By contrast, the virulence of twitching-affected mutants was not affected. These results shed light on the key role of surface-associated motility and the limited role of twitching in the pathogenicity of A. baumannii.
Ayudas:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BIO2016-77011-R
Derechos:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Materia:	A. baumannii ; Twitching ; Surface-associated motility ; Virulence
Publicado en:	Virulence, Vol. 12, Issue 1 (Dec. 2021) , p. 2201-2213, ISSN 2150-5608

DOI: 10.1080/21505594.2021.1950268
PMID: 34515614

13 p, 1.0 MB

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