This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Storey, D G Articles by Rabin, H R Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Storey, D G Articles by Rabin, H R

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infect Immun. 1992 November; 60(11): 4687-4694

Population transcript accumulation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A and elastase in sputa from patients with cystic fibrosis.

Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

ABSTRACT

The in vivo regulation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence factors during the chronic lung infections associated with cystic fibrosis is poorly understood. We have developed an approach for the analysis of transcript accumulation of individual virulence factors from the P. aeruginosa populations found in the sputa of patients with cystic fibrosis. This method has been named population transcript accumulation, since we examine the transcript accumulation patterns in RNA extracted from the total bacterial population found in the sputum samples. DNA probes specific for P. aeruginosa elastase (lasB) and exotoxin A (toxA) were used to examine the population transcript accumulation of 21 sputum samples taken from 10 patients. We detected three patterns of population transcript accumulation: lasB and toxA, lasB alone, and neither lasB nor toxA. We also measured the relative levels of elastase and exotoxin A transcript accumulation in 19 of these samples. In the six samples containing both toxA and lasB transcripts, we found that the levels of lasB transcripts were consistently higher than those of toxA. Differences in the stability of the two mRNA species could not completely account for the higher level of lasB population transcript accumulation, since we showed that the mRNA half-life of lasB (11 min) was similar to that of toxA (10 min). Finally, we showed that elastase transcripts could be detected in some samples which contained only mucoid isolates. This finding suggests that both mucoid and nonmucoid populations may be transcribing lasB in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Son, M. S., Matthews, W. J. Jr., Kang, Y., Nguyen, D. T., Hoang, T. T. (2007). In Vivo Evidence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Nutrient Acquisition and Pathogenesis in the Lungs of Cystic Fibrosis Patients. Infect. Immun. 75: 5313-5324 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Schaber, J. A., Carty, N. L., McDonald, N. A., Graham, E. D., Cheluvappa, R., Griswold, J. A., Hamood, A. N. (2004). Analysis of quorum sensing-deficient clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. J Med Microbiol 53: 841-853 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Alcorn, J. F., Wright, J. R. (2004). Degradation of Pulmonary Surfactant Protein D by Pseudomonas aeruginosa Elastase Abrogates Innate Immune Function. J. Biol. Chem. 279: 30871-30879 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Kim, E.-J., Sabra, W., Zeng, A.-P. (2003). Iron deficiency leads to inhibition of oxygen transfer and enhanced formation of virulence factors in cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. Microbiology 149: 2627-2634 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hunt, T. A., Peng, W.-T., Loubens, I., Storey, D. G. (2002). The Pseudomonas aeruginosa alternative sigma factor PvdS controls exotoxin A expression and is expressed in lung infections associated with cystic fibrosis. Microbiology 148: 3183-3193 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Erickson, D. L., Endersby, R., Kirkham, A., Stuber, K., Vollman, D. D., Rabin, H. R., Mitchell, I., Storey, D. G. (2002). Pseudomonas aeruginosa Quorum-Sensing Systems May Control Virulence Factor Expression in the Lungs of Patients with Cystic Fibrosis. Infect. Immun. 70: 1783-1790 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Goerke, C., Bayer, M. G., Wolz, C. (2001). Quantification of Bacterial Transcripts during Infection Using Competitive Reverse Transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) and LightCycler RT-PCR. CVI 8: 279-282 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Yang, H., Matewish, M., Loubens, I., Storey, D. G., Lam, J. S., Jin, S. (2000). migA, a quorum-responsive gene of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is highly expressed in the cystic fibrosis lung environment and modifies low-molecular-mass lipopolysaccharide. Microbiology 146: 2509-2519 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Gallant, C. V., Raivio, T. L., Olson, J. C., Woods, D. E., Storey, D. G. (2000). Pseudomonas aeruginosa cystic fibrosis clinical isolates produce exotoxin A with altered ADP-ribosyltransferase activity and cytotoxicity. Microbiology 146: 1891-1899 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Anderson, R. M., Zimprich, C. A., Rust, L. (1999). A Second Operator Is Involved in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Elastase (lasB) Activation. J. Bacteriol. 181: 6264-6270 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Storey, D. G., Ujack, E. E., Rabin, H. R., Mitchell, I. (1998). Pseudomonas aeruginosa lasR Transcription Correlates with the Transcription of lasA, lasB, and toxA in Chronic Lung Infections Associated with Cystic Fibrosis. Infect. Immun. 66: 2521-2528 [Abstract] [Full Text]