Journal Article

Urinary tract colonization is enhanced by a plasmid that regulates uropathogenic Acinetobacter baumannii chromosomal genes

Feldman, Mario F., Skaar, Eric P., Flores-Mireles, Ana L., Dantas, Gautam, Hultgren, Scott J., Wang, Bin, Scott, Nichollas E., Palmer, Lauren D., Potter, Robert F., Friedman, Laura, Calix, Juan J., Di Venanzio, Gisela, Haurat, M. Florencia, Hibbing, Michael E.

2019

Overview

Multidrug resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii poses a growing threat to global health. Research on Acinetobacter pathogenesis has primarily focused on pneumonia and bloodstream infections, even though one in five A. baumannii strains are isolated from urinary sites. In this study, we highlight the role of A. baumannii as a uropathogen. We develop the first A. baumannii catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) murine model using UPAB1, a recent MDR urinary isolate. UPAB1 carries the plasmid pAB5, a member of the family of large conjugative plasmids that represses the type VI secretion system (T6SS) in multiple Acinetobacter strains. pAB5 confers niche specificity, as its carriage improves UPAB1 survival in a CAUTI model and decreases virulence in a pneumonia model. Comparative proteomic and transcriptomic analyses show that pAB5 regulates the expression of multiple chromosomally-encoded virulence factors besides T6SS. Our results demonstrate that plasmids can impact bacterial infections by controlling the expression of chromosomal genes. Acinetobacter baumannii is generally considered an opportunistic pathogen. Here, Di Venanzio et al. develop a mouse model of catheter-associated urinary tract infection and show that a plasmid confers niche specificity to an A. baumannii urinary isolate by regulating the expression of chromosomal genes.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 13/1 / 13/51 / 14/19 / 38/22 / 38/23 / 38/70 / 38/77 / 38/90 / 38/91 / 631/326/41/2531 / 631/326/421 / 631/337/2019 / 631/337/475 / 64/60 / 82/58 / Acinetobacter / Acinetobacter baumannii / Acinetobacter baumannii - genetics / Acinetobacter baumannii - isolation & purification / Acinetobacter baumannii - pathogenicity / Acinetobacter Infections - epidemiology / Acinetobacter Infections - microbiology / Animal models / Animals / Bacterial diseases / Bacterial Proteins - genetics / Bacterial Proteins - metabolism / Catheter-Related Infections - epidemiology / Catheter-Related Infections - microbiology / Coding / Colonization / Disease Models, Animal / Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial - genetics / Gene expression / Gene Expression Profiling / Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Genes / Global health / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / Medical instruments / Mice / multidisciplinary / Multidrug resistance / Pathogenesis / Plasmids / Plasmids - genetics / Pneumonia / Pneumonia, Bacterial - epidemiology / Pneumonia, Bacterial - microbiology / Proteomics / Retrospective Studies / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Secretion / Strains (organisms) / Type VI Secretion Systems - genetics / Type VI Secretion Systems - metabolism / Urinary Catheters - adverse effects / Urinary Catheters - microbiology / Urinary tract / Urinary Tract - microbiology / Urinary Tract Infections - epidemiology / Urinary Tract Infections - microbiology / Urogenital system / Virulence / Virulence - genetics / Virulence factors / Virulence Factors - genetics / Virulence Factors - metabolism