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Screening for Virulence-Related Genes via a Transposon Mutant Library of Streptococcus suis Serotype 2 Using a Galleria mellonella Larvae Infection Model

Screening for Virulence-Related Genes via a Transposon Mutant Library of Streptococcus suis Serotype 2 Using a Galleria mellonella Larvae Infection Model

Authors :
Jingyan Fan
Lelin Zhao
Qiao Hu
Siqi Li
Haotian Li
Qianqian Zhang
Geng Zou
Liangsheng Zhang
Lu Li
Qi Huang
Rui Zhou
Source :
Microorganisms, Vol 10, Iss 5, p 868 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

Streptococcus suis (S. suis) is a zoonotic bacterial pathogen causing lethal infections in pigs and humans. Identification of virulence-related genes (VRGs) is of great importance in understanding the pathobiology of a bacterial pathogen. To identify novel VRGs, a transposon (Tn) mutant library of S. suis strain SC19 was constructed in this study. The insertion sites of approximately 1700 mutants were identified by Tn-seq, which involved 417 different genes. A total of 32 attenuated strains were identified from the library by using a Galleria mellonella larvae infection model, and 30 novel VRGs were discovered, including transcription regulators, transporters, hypothetical proteins, etc. An isogenic deletion mutant of hxtR gene (ΔhxtR) and its complementary strain (CΔhxtR) were constructed, and their virulence was compared with the wild-type strain in G. mellonella larvae and mice, which showed that disruption of hxtR significantly attenuated the virulence. Moreover, the ΔhxtR strain displayed a reduced survival ability in whole blood, increased sensitivity to phagocytosis, increased chain length, and growth defect. Taken together, this study performed a high throughput screening for VRGs of S. suis using a G. mellonella larvae model and further characterized a novel critical virulence factor.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
10050868 and 20762607
Volume :
10
Issue :
5
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Microorganisms
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.31c53f1f84a04984bc1b3bc41222f91e
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10050868