Journal Cover & Description
Cover image

Cover photograph (Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.): Micrograph of a wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite that was grown on a pathogenic strain of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (JCMS) engineered to express green fluorescent protein (GFP). S. maltophilia is an emerging nosocomial pathogen that is also virulent to C. elegans. Interestingly, S. maltophilia JCMS is virulent to normally pathogen-resistant C. elegans DAF-2/16 insulin-like signaling pathway mutants. This animal had been feeding on S. maltophilia JCMS-GFP for 6 days and cleared on non-GFP-expressing bacteria for 1 h. Anterior is to the left. This micrograph is an overlay of differential interference contrast and fluorescent images at×1,000 magnification. Visible are the posterior portion of the C. elegans pharynx and the anterior portion of the intestine that has become distended with accumulated GFP-expressing S. maltophilia bacteria. Intestinal distention is a hallmark of bacterial pathogenesis in C. elegans. (See related article on page 524.)