Transit through the flea vector induces a pretransmission innate immunity resistance phenotype in Yersinia pestis

Viveka Vadyvaloo; Clayton Jarrett; Daniel E Sturdevant; Florent Sebbane; B Joseph Hinnebusch

doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000783

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Transit through the flea vector induces a pretransmission innate immunity resistance phenotype in Yersinia pestis

Journal article

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Transit through the flea vector induces a pretransmission innate immunity resistance phenotype in Yersinia pestis

Viveka Vadyvaloo, Clayton Jarrett, Daniel E Sturdevant, Florent Sebbane and B Joseph Hinnebusch

PLoS pathogens, Vol.6(2), pp.e1000783-e1000783

02/26/2010

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1000783

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https://hdl.handle.net/2376/116453

PMCID: PMC2829055

PMID: 20195507

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Abstract

Adaptation, Physiological

Genes, Bacterial

Gene Expression

Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis

Siphonaptera - parasitology

Immunity, Innate - genetics

Insect Vectors - immunology

Gene Expression Profiling

Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Phenotype

Animals

Biofilms

Insect Vectors - genetics

Yersinia pestis - pathogenicity

Yersinia pestis - physiology

Yersinia pestis, the agent of plague, is transmitted to mammals by infected fleas. Y. pestis exhibits a distinct life stage in the flea, where it grows in the form of a cohesive biofilm that promotes transmission. After transmission, the temperature shift to 37 degrees C induces many known virulence factors of Y. pestis that confer resistance to innate immunity. These factors are not produced in the low-temperature environment of the flea, however, suggesting that Y. pestis is vulnerable to the initial encounter with innate immune cells at the flea bite site. In this study, we used whole-genome microarrays to compare the Y. pestis in vivo transcriptome in infective fleas to in vitro transcriptomes in temperature-matched biofilm and planktonic cultures, and to the previously characterized in vivo gene expression profile in the rat bubo. In addition to genes involved in metabolic adaptation to the flea gut and biofilm formation, several genes with known or predicted roles in resistance to innate immunity and pathogenicity in the mammal were upregulated in the flea. Y. pestis from infected fleas were more resistant to phagocytosis by macrophages than in vitro-grown bacteria, in part attributable to a cluster of insecticidal-like toxin genes that were highly expressed only in the flea. Our results suggest that transit through the flea vector induces a phenotype that enhances survival and dissemination of Y. pestis after transmission to the mammalian host.

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Title: Transit through the flea vector induces a pretransmission innate immunity resistance phenotype in Yersinia pestis
Creators: Viveka Vadyvaloo - Laboratory of Zoonotic Pathogens, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America
Clayton Jarrett
Daniel E Sturdevant
Florent Sebbane
B Joseph Hinnebusch
Publication Details: PLoS pathogens, Vol.6(2), pp.e1000783-e1000783
Academic Unit: Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health
Publisher: United States
Grant note: Intramural NIH HHS
Identifiers: 99900547789901842
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article