Previous Article | Next Article 
Infection and Immunity, February 2005, p. 1260-1264, Vol. 73, No. 2
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.73.2.1260-1264.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
A Type IV Pilin, PilA, Contributes to Adherence of Burkholderia pseudomallei and Virulence In Vivo
Angela E. Essex-Lopresti,1,
*
Justin A. Boddey,2,
Richard Thomas,1
Martin P. Smith,1
M. Gill Hartley,1
Timothy Atkins,1
Nat F. Brown,2,
Chuk Hai Tsang,1
Ian R. A. Peak,2
Jim Hill,1
Ifor R. Beacham,2 and
Richard W. Titball1
Dstl Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom,1
Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia2
Received 28 June 2004/
Returned for modification 28 July 2004/
Accepted 30 September 2004

ABSTRACT
The
Burkholderia pseudomallei K96243 genome contains multiple
type IV pilin-associated loci, including one encoding a putative
pilus structural protein (
pilA). A
pilA deletion mutant has
reduced adherence to human epithelial cells and is less virulent
in the nematode model of virulence and the murine model of melioidosis,
suggesting a role for type IV pili in
B. pseudomallei virulence.

TEXT
Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis,
a disease endemic to southeast Asia and northern Australia (
9,
21,
42). Infections occur via inhalation or percutaneous inoculation,
and clinical manifestations include subclinical infections,
acute septicemia, and chronic disease (
42).
B. pseudomallei can infect almost any host organ, is resistant to many antibiotics,
and can persist for long periods (
6). Both
B. pseudomallei and
its close relative
Burkholderia mallei are potential bioterrorist
agents listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(
17,
42).
A number of factors are associated with B. pseudomallei virulence, including products secreted by the general secretory pathway, type III secretory systems, flagella, lipopolysaccharide, and capsule (1, 7, 11-13, 29, 30, 35, 36). Despite these studies, little is known about how B. pseudomallei causes disease.
Adherence is an important virulence mechanism mediated by carbohydrate molecules, pilus, and nonpilus adhesins (14, 16, 20, 34, 37). Type IV pili (TFP) are important for virulence in many gram-negative bacteria and are divided into two subclasses, IVA and IVB, based on the presence of conserved motifs (38). The Flp subgroup of type IVB pili are shorter than other pilins and have a characteristic Flp motif (18).
B. pseudomallei adheres to human epithelial cell lines, but the molecular basis for this adherence is unknown (5). We describe the identification of multiple TFP-associated loci in B. pseudomallei and show that a TFP gene homologue is required for efficient adherence of B. pseudomallei to cultured cells and for virulence in vivo.
B. pseudomallei TFP genes.
We identified eight TFP-associated loci (designated TFP1 to TFP8) in the B. pseudomallei K96243 genome (http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Projects/B_pseudomallei/) by in silico probing with multiple pilin homologues and biogenesis proteins; five such loci contain one or more type IV pilin subunits (Table 1). The presence of two type IVB subunits in TFP7 and TFP8 suggests that B. pseudomallei K96243 may synthesize pili with a composite architecture (41, 43).
Analysis of TFP1 and PilA.
B. pseudomallei K96243 open reading frame (ORF) BPSL0782 was
designated
pilA because the full-length predicted gene product
shares 49% similarity (32% identity) to PilA from
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (GenBank accession no.
AAL12242). This locus was
designated TFP1 (Table
1). While ORFs downstream of
pilA in
P. aeruginosa are clearly pilus associated (reviewed in reference
10), ORFs flanking
pilA in
B. pseudomallei K96243 differ substantially
and may not be involved with pilin biogenesis.
pilA is predicted to encode the only type IVA pilin in B. pseudomallei K96243; it possesses the conserved glycine and phenylalanine residues of type IVA pilins, between which is the predicted leader sequence cleavage site, and also the invariant glutamic acid residue 5 amino acids from the mature N terminus, associated with most pilin types (Fig. 1) (38). The PilA leader is predicted to be 40 amino acids long, based on an upstream Shine-Dalgarno sequence; this sets it apart from other IVA pilins, which have shorter leader sequences (Fig. 1). Alternative pilA start codons are not associated with Shine-Dalgarno sequences. Ralstonia solanacearum, also from the family Burkholderiaceae, has a type IVA pilin with a longer leader sequence (15 amino acid residues) (19).
A number of consecutive arginine residues occur in the putative
signal sequence, reminiscent of a twin-arginine translocation
secretion signal; however, a consensus motif (
26) is not evident,
or the arginine residues are too close to the putative cleavage
site.
PCR with pilA-flanking primers amplified the gene in B. pseudomallei strains of diverse origin (Table 2 shows the strains studied). The predicted amino acid sequence was conserved in all strains where sequencing was undertaken (results not shown).
Construction of an unmarked pilA deletion mutant strain, JAB16.
An allelic-exchange mutant (JAB16) was generated which contains
an unmarked in-frame 546-bp deletion in the
pilA gene (
32).
Briefly, the deleted
pilA allele was constructed by PCR and
transferred to the suicide vector pDM4 to give pAEH16. This
was conjugated from JABEC16 to
B. pseudomallei K96243, and merodiploid
integrants were selected. One such colony, JAB16.1x, was cultured
without selection and plated onto medium lacking sodium chloride
but containing 15% sucrose to enrich for excision of integrated
vector DNA (
2), resulting in either a wild-type or deleted
pilA allele. Chloramphenicol sensitivity (Cm
s) was assessed, and
Cm
s colonies were analyzed by PCR (data not shown) and Southern
blotting (Fig.
2) to distinguish
pilA mutants from wild type.
Three of the first eight Cm
s colonies screened contained the
deleted
pilA allele, and one was designated JAB16.
JAB16 has reduced adherence to human epithelial cell lines.
The interaction of
B. pseudomallei K96243 or JAB16 with human
respiratory cell lines was studied. Cell lines were cultured
and prepared as previously described (
40). Bacterial inocula
were prepared from overnight cultures grown in nutrient broth,
incubated statically for 16 h at 37°C. Monolayers were infected
with diluted bacterial cultures (

10
5 CFU/ml) for 1 h at 37°C,
and inocula were enumerated by plate counts. Nonadherent bacteria
were removed by five washes with phosphate-buffered saline.
Monolayers were lysed with 0.1% (vol/vol) Triton X-100 for 30
min at 37°C, and adherent-cell-associated bacteria were
enumerated by plate counts. JAB16 adhered significantly less
than the K96243 parent to A549, BEAS-2B, and RPMI-2650 cell
lines (
P < 0.01) (Fig.
3A). These data suggest a role for
pilA in the adherence of
B. pseudomallei in vitro.
JAB16 exhibits reduced virulence in nematode worms.
The soil nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans is susceptible to
B. pseudomallei (
15).
C. elegans strain N2 nematodes which had
been synchronized to the L4 stage (
39) and suspended in K medium
(
33) were exposed to a lawn of JAB16 or K96243 at 25°C on
nematode growth medium agar, and nematode survival was recorded.
C. elegans started to die by 32 h postinfection, regardless
of the infecting strain, but worms infected with JAB16 survived
significantly longer than K96243-infected worms (Fig.
3B), 99%
of which were dead by 58 and 40 h, respectively (
P < 0.001).
A
P. aeruginosa pilA mutant displayed reduced piliation and
was also deficient for secretion of proteins by the general
secretory pathway (
23). While this could be the case with JAB16,
O'Quinn et al. showed that a
B. pseudomallei general secretory
pathway mutant, deficient in secretion, was unable to delay
the time to death of
C. elegans (
27). Since JAB16 adheres less
in cell culture, we suggest that the mechanism by which JAB16
delays the time to death of nematodes is due to a reduced-adherence
phenotype.
JAB16 is attenuated in a murine model of infection.
Groups of six BALB/c mice were challenged with different doses of JAB16 and K96243, by either the intraperitoneal route or the intranasal route (22). JAB16 was not attenuated compared to K96243 via the intraperitoneal challenge route (data not shown). In contrast, JAB16 was less virulent than K96243 via the intranasal route but only at low challenge doses (P < 0.05) (Fig. 3C). This may be due to expression of other pili (Table 1) or other putative adhesins present in the genome (results not shown). Differences in the attenuation of pilus mutants according to the route of challenge have been reported previously with Yersinia pseudotuberculosis (8). As bacterial adhesins often recognize specific receptors (20, 34, 37), attenuation differences for JAB16 due to route of challenge may be due to differential distribution and/or expression of the cognate host receptor.
Concluding remarks.
The identification of eight loci encoding a total of seven putative type IV pilin subunits, and many accessory genes, may be related to the capacity of B. pseudomallei to exist and replicate in the environment and infect various animal hosts and tissues. It is possible that different pili are required to mediate interactions with specific host receptors or that the expression of B. pseudomallei pili is regulated in a complex manner. Work to further characterize the role of TFP loci is in progress.
An unmarked in-frame deletion of pilA in B. pseudomallei decreases adherence to cultured respiratory cell lines, decreases the time to death of C. elegans, and reduces the killing of BALB/c mice. Since the mutation in JAB16 is an in-frame deletion, it should not affect the expression of downstream genes, making it highly likely that the phenotypes observed for JAB16 are due to the absence of pilA. Our data suggest that PilA may be an important mediator of the pathogenic process in humans and should be considered as a target in future attempts to generate a protective vaccine against melioidosis.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Bryan Lingard for technical assistance and Thomas Laws
for helpful discussion and statistical analysis.
The nematode strains used in this work were provided by the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center (CGC), which is funded by the NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). Justin Boddey and Nat Brown acknowledge Australian Postgraduate Awards.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dstl Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JQ, United Kingdom. Phone: (44) 01980 613179. Fax: (44) 01980 614307. E-mail:
aeelopresti{at}dstl.gov.uk.

Editor: J. B. Bliska
A.E.E.-L. and J.A.B. contributed equally to the work described in this paper. 
Present address: Biotechnology Laboratory, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 

REFERENCES
1 - Atkins, T., R. Prior, K. Mack, P. Russell, M. Nelson, J. Prior, J. Ellis, P. C. F. Oyston, G. Dougan, and R. W. Titball. 2002. Characterisation of an acapsular mutant of Burkholderia pseudomallei identified by signature tagged mutagenesis. J. Med. Microbiol. 51:539-547.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2 - Blomfield, I. C., V. Vaughn, R. F. Rest, and B. I. Eisenstein. 1991. Allelic exchange in Escherichia coli using the Bacillus subtilis sacB gene and a temperature-sensitive pSC101 replicon. Mol. Microbiol. 5:1447-1457.[Medline]
3 - Brenner, S. 1974. The genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics 77:71-94.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
4 - Brown, N. F., and I. R. Beacham. 2000. Cloning and analysis of genomic differences unique to Burkholderia pseudomallei by comparison with B. thailandensis. J. Med. Microbiol. 49:993-1001.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
5 - Brown, N. F., J. A. Boddey, C. P. Flegg, and I. R. Beacham. 2002. Adherence of Burkholderia pseudomallei cells to cultured human epithelial cell lines is regulated by growth temperature. Infect. Immun. 70:974-980.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
6 - Chaowagul, W. 2000. Recent advances in the treatment of severe melioidosis. Acta Trop. 74:133-137.[CrossRef][Medline]
7 - Chua, K. L., Y. Y. Chan, and Y. H. Gan. 2003. Flagella are virulence determinants of Burkholderia pseudomallei. Infect. Immun. 71:1622-1629.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
8 - Collyn, F., M. A. Lety, S. Nair, V. Escuyer, A. Ben Younes, M. Simonet, and M. Marceau. 2002. Yersinia pseudotuberculosis harbors a type IV pilus gene cluster that contributes to pathogenicity. Infect. Immun. 70:6196-6205.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
9 - Dance, D. A. 2000. Melioidosis as an emerging global problem. Acta Trop. 74:115-119.[CrossRef][Medline]
10 - Darzins, A., and M. A. Russell. 1997. Molecular genetic analysis of type-4 pilus biogenesis and twitching motility using Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model systema review. Gene 192:109-115.[CrossRef][Medline]
11 - DeShazer, D., P. J. Brett, M. N. Burtnick, and D. E. Woods. 1999. Molecular characterization of genetic loci required for secretion of exoproducts in Burkholderia pseudomallei. J. Bacteriol. 181:4661-4664.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
12 - DeShazer, D., P. J. Brett, R. Carlyon, and D. E. Woods. 1997. Mutagenesis of Burkholderia pseudomallei with Tn5-OT182: isolation of motility mutants and molecular characterization of the flagellin structural gene. J. Bacteriol. 179:2116-2125.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
13 - DeShazer, D., P. J. Brett, and D. E. Woods. 1998. The type II O-antigenic polysaccharide moiety of Burkholderia pseudomallei lipopolysaccharide is required for serum resistance and virulence. Mol. Microbiol. 30:1081-1100.[CrossRef][Medline]
14 - Finlay, B. B., and S. Falkow. 1997. Common themes in microbial pathogenicity revisited. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 61:136-169.[Abstract]
15 - Gan, Y. H., K. L. Chua, H. H. Chua, B. P. Liu, C. S. Hii, H. L. Chong, and P. Tan. 2002. Characterization of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection and identification of novel virulence factors using a Caenorhabditis elegans host system. Mol. Microbiol. 44:1185-1197.[CrossRef][Medline]
16 - Hultgren, S. J., S. Abraham, M. Caparon, P. Falk, J. W. St. Geme III, and S. Normark. 1993. Pilus and nonpilus bacterial adhesins: assembly and function in cell recognition. Cell 73:887-901.[CrossRef][Medline]
17 - Jeddeloh, J. A., D. L. Fritz, D. M. Waag, J. M. Hartings, and G. P. Andrews. 2003. Biodefense-driven murine model of pneumonic melioidosis. Infect. Immun. 71:584-587.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
18 - Kachlany, S. C., P. J. Planet, R. DeSalle, D. H. Fine, D. H. Figurski, and J. B. Kaplan. 2001. flp-1, the first representative of a new pilin gene subfamily, is required for non-specific adherence of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans. Mol. Microbiol. 40:542-554.[CrossRef][Medline]
19 - Kang, Y. W., H. L. Liu, S. Genin, M. A. Schell, and T. P. Denny. 2002. Ralstonia solanacearum requires type 4 pili to adhere to multiple surfaces and for natural transformation and virulence. Mol. Microbiol. 46:427-437.[CrossRef][Medline]
20 - Klemm, P., and M. A. Schembri. 2000. Bacterial adhesins: function and structure. Int. J. Med. Microbiol. 290:27-35.[Medline]
21 - Leelarasamee, A., and S. Bovornkitti. 1989. Melioidosis: review and update. Rev. Infect. Dis. 11:413-425.[Medline]
22 - Liu, B. P., G. C. Koo, E. H. Yap, K. L. Chua, and Y. H. Gan. 2002. Model of differential susceptibility to mucosal Burkholderia pseudomallei infection. Infect. Immun. 70:504-511.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
23 - Lu, H. M., S. T. Motley, and S. Lory. 1997. Interactions of the components of the general secretion pathway: role of Pseudomonas aeruginosa type IV pilin subunits in complex formation and extracellular protein secretion. Mol. Microbiol. 25:247-259.[CrossRef][Medline]
24 - Madden, T. L., R. L. Tatusov, and J. H. Zhang. 1996. Applications of network BLAST server. Methods Enzymol. 266:131-141.[Medline]
25 - Milton, D. L., R. O'Toole, P. Horstedt, and H. Wolf-Watz. 1996. Flagellin A is essential for the virulence of Vibrio anguillarum. J. Bacteriol. 178:1310-1319.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
26 - Ochsner, U. A., A. Snyder, A. I. Vasil, and M. L. Vasil. 2002. Effects of the twin-arginine translocase on secretion of virulence factors, stress response, and pathogenesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99:8312-8317.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
27 - O'Quinn, A. L., E. M. Wiegand, and J. A. Jeddeloh. 2001. Burkholderia pseudomallei kills the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans using an endotoxin-mediated paralysis. Cell. Microbiol. 3:381-393.[CrossRef][Medline]
28 - Penfold, R. J., and J. M. Pemberton. 1992. An improved suicide vector for construction of chromosomal insertion mutations in bacteria. Gene 118:145-146.[CrossRef][Medline]
29 - Rainbow, L., C. A. Hart, and G. Winstanley. 2002. Distribution of type III secretion gene clusters in Burkholderia pseudomallei, B. thailandensis and B. mallei. J. Med. Microbiol. 51:374-384.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
30 - Reckseidler, S. L., D. DeShazer, P. A. Sokol, and D. E. Woods. 2001. Detection of bacterial virulence genes by subtractive hybridization: identification of capsular polysaccharide of Burkholderia pseudomallei as a major virulence determinant. Infect. Immun. 69:34-44.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
31 - Rutherford, K., J. Parkhill, J. Crook, T. Horsnell, P. Rice, M. A. Rajandream, and B. Barrell. 2000. Artemis: sequence visualization and annotation. Bioinformatics 16:944-945.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
32 - Sambrook, J. F., D. W. Russell, and N. Irwin. 2000. Molecular cloning: a laboratory manual, 3rd ed. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
33 - Smith, M. P., T. R. Laws, T. P. Atkins, P. C. F. Oyston, D. I. de Pomerai, and R. W. Titball. 2002. A liquid-based method for the assessment of bacterial pathogenicity using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 210:181-185.[CrossRef][Medline]
34 - Soto, G. E., and S. J. Hultgren. 1999. Bacterial adhesins: common themes and variations in architecture and assembly. J. Bacteriol. 181:1059-1071.[Free Full Text]
35 - Stevens, M. P., A. Friebel, L. A. Taylor, M. W. Wood, P. J. Brown, W. D. Hardt, and E. E. Galyov. 2003. A Burkholderia pseudomallei type III secreted protein, BopE, facilitates bacterial invasion of epithelial cells and exhibits guanine nucleotide exchange factor activity. J. Bacteriol. 185:4992-4996.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
36 - Stevens, M. P., M. W. Wood, L. A. Taylor, P. Monaghan, P. Hawes, P. W. Jones, T. S. Wallis, and E. E. Galyov. 2002. An Inv/Mxi-Spa-like type III protein secretion system in Burkholderia pseudomallei modulates intracellular behaviour of the pathogen. Mol. Microbiol. 46:649-659.[CrossRef][Medline]
37 - St. Geme, J. W., III. 1997. Bacterial adhesins: determinants of microbial colonization and pathogenicity. Adv. Pediatr. 44:43-72.[Medline]
38 - Strom, M. S., and S. Lory. 1993. Structure-function and biogenesis of the type IV pili. Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 47:565-596.[CrossRef][Medline]
39 - Sulston, J., and J. Hodgkin. 1988. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
40 - Thomas, R. J., and T. J. Brooks. 2004. Oligosaccharide receptor mimics inhibit Legionella pneumophila attachment to human respiratory epithelial cells. Microb. Pathog. 36:83-92.[CrossRef][Medline]
41 - Toma, C., H. Kuroki, N. Nakasone, M. Ehara, and M. Iwanaga. 2002. Minor pilin subunits are conserved in Vibrio cholerae type IV pili. FEMS Immun. Med. Microbiol. 33:35-40.[CrossRef][Medline]
42 - White, N. J. 2003. Melioidosis. Lancet 361:1715-1722.[CrossRef][Medline]
43 - Yoshida, T., N. Furuya, M. Ishikura, T. Isobe, K. Haino-Fukushima, T. Ogawa, and T. Komano. 1998. Purification and characterization of thin pili of IncI1 plasmids ColIb-P9 and R64: formation of PilV-specific cell aggregates by type IV pili. J. Bacteriol. 180:2842-2848.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
Infection and Immunity, February 2005, p. 1260-1264, Vol. 73, No. 2
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.73.2.1260-1264.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Warawa, J. M., Long, D., Rosenke, R., Gardner, D., Gherardini, F. C.
(2009). Role for the Burkholderia pseudomallei Capsular Polysaccharide Encoded by the wcb Operon in Acute Disseminated Melioidosis. Infect. Immun.
77: 5252-5261
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Felgner, P. L., Kayala, M. A., Vigil, A., Burk, C., Nakajima-Sasaki, R., Pablo, J., Molina, D. M., Hirst, S., Chew, J. S. W., Wang, D., Tan, G., Duffield, M., Yang, R., Neel, J., Chantratita, N., Bancroft, G., Lertmemongkolchai, G., Davies, D. H., Baldi, P., Peacock, S., Titball, R. W.
(2009). A Burkholderia pseudomallei protein microarray reveals serodiagnostic and cross-reactive antigens. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
106: 13499-13504
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Salomonsson, E., Kuoppa, K., Forslund, A.-L., Zingmark, C., Golovliov, I., Sjostedt, A., Noppa, L., Forsberg, A.
(2009). Reintroduction of Two Deleted Virulence Loci Restores Full Virulence to the Live Vaccine Strain of Francisella tularensis. Infect. Immun.
77: 3424-3431
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Holden, M. T. G., Seth-Smith, H. M. B., Crossman, L. C., Sebaihia, M., Bentley, S. D., Cerdeno-Tarraga, A. M., Thomson, N. R., Bason, N., Quail, M. A., Sharp, S., Cherevach, I., Churcher, C., Goodhead, I., Hauser, H., Holroyd, N., Mungall, K., Scott, P., Walker, D., White, B., Rose, H., Iversen, P., Mil-Homens, D., Rocha, E. P. C., Fialho, A. M., Baldwin, A., Dowson, C., Barrell, B. G., Govan, J. R., Vandamme, P., Hart, C. A., Mahenthiralingam, E., Parkhill, J.
(2009). The Genome of Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315, an Epidemic Pathogen of Cystic Fibrosis Patients. J. Bacteriol.
191: 261-277
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Barrett, A. R., Kang, Y., Inamasu, K. S., Son, M. S., Vukovich, J. M., Hoang, T. T.
(2008). Genetic Tools for Allelic Replacement in Burkholderia Species. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
74: 4498-4508
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Choi, K.-H., Mima, T., Casart, Y., Rholl, D., Kumar, A., Beacham, I. R., Schweizer, H. P.
(2008). Genetic Tools for Select-Agent-Compliant Manipulation of Burkholderia pseudomallei. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
74: 1064-1075
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Pang, B., Yan, M., Cui, Z., Ye, X., Diao, B., Ren, Y., Gao, S., Zhang, L., Kan, B.
(2007). Genetic Diversity of Toxigenic and Nontoxigenic Vibrio cholerae Serogroups O1 and O139 Revealed by Array-Based Comparative Genomic Hybridization. J. Bacteriol.
189: 4837-4849
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Fernandes, P. J., Guo, Q., Waag, D. M., Donnenberg, M. S.
(2007). The Type IV Pilin of Burkholderia mallei Is Highly Immunogenic but Fails To Protect against Lethal Aerosol Challenge in a Murine Model. Infect. Immun.
75: 3027-3032
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Boddey, J. A., Flegg, C. P., Day, C. J., Beacham, I. R., Peak, I. R.
(2006). Temperature-Regulated Microcolony Formation by Burkholderia pseudomallei Requires pilA and Enhances Association with Cultured Human Cells. Infect. Immun.
74: 5374-5381
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Alice, A. F., Lopez, C. S., Lowe, C. A., Ledesma, M. A., Crosa, J. H.
(2006). Genetic and Transcriptional Analysis of the Siderophore Malleobactin Biosynthesis and Transport Genes in the Human Pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei K96243. J. Bacteriol.
188: 1551-1566
[Abstract]
[Full Text]