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Infection and Immunity, September 2002, p. 5202-5207, Vol. 70, No. 9
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.9.5202-5207.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Hydrogen Peroxide-Mediated Killing of Caenorhabditis elegans by Streptococcus pyogenes

W. T. M. Jansen,1* M. Bolm,1 R. Balling,1 G. S. Chhatwal,1 and R. Schnabel2

GBF-National Research Center for Biotechnology, 38124 Braunschweig,1 Institut für Genetik, TU Braunschweig, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany2

Received 22 March 2002/ Returned for modification 26 April 2002/ Accepted 23 May 2002

Caenorhabditis elegans is currently introduced as a new, facile, and cheap model organism to study the pathogenesis of gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. The mechanisms of killing involve either diffusible exotoxins or infection-like processes. Recently, it was shown that also some gram-positive bacteria kill C. elegans, although the precise mechanisms of killing remained open. We examined C. elegans as a pathogenesis model for the gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, a major human pathogen capable of causing a wide spectrum of diseases. We demonstrate that S. pyogenes kills C. elegans, both on solid and in liquid medium. Unlike P. aeruginosa and S. enterica serovar Typhimurium, the killing by S. pyogenes is solely mediated by hydrogen peroxide. Killing required live streptococci; the killing capacity depends on the amount of hydrogen peroxide produced, and killing can be inhibited by catalase. Major exotoxins of S. pyogenes are not involved in the killing process as confirmed by using specific toxin inhibitors and knockout mutants. Moreover, no accumulation of S. pyogenes in C. elegans is observed, which excludes the involvement of infection-like processes. Preliminary results show that S. pneumoniae can also kill C. elegans by hydrogen peroxide production. Hydrogen peroxide-mediated killing might represent a common mechanism by which gram-positive, catalase-negative pathogens kill C. elegans.

* Corresponding author. Permanent address: University Medical Center, GO4-614, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands. Phone: 31-30-250-7637. Fax: 31-30-254-1770. E-mail: W.T.M.Jansen{at}lab.azu.nl.

Editor: S. H. E. Kaufmann

Infection and Immunity, September 2002, p. 5202-5207, Vol. 70, No. 9
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.9.5202-5207.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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