skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Interrogation of the Burkholderia pseudomallei genome to address differential virulence among isolates

Journal Article · · PLoS ONE
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];
  1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, MD (United States)
  3. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Fort Belvoir, VA (United States)

Infection by the Gram-negative pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei results in the disease melioidosis, acquired from the environment in parts of southeast Asia and northern Australia. Clinical symptoms of melioidosis range from acute (fever, pneumonia, septicemia, and localized infection) to chronic (abscesses in various organs and tissues, most commonly occurring in the lungs, liver, spleen, kidney, prostate and skeletal muscle), and persistent infections in humans are difficult to cure. Understanding the basic biology and genomics of B. pseudomallei is imperative for the development of new vaccines and therapeutic interventions. This formidable task is becoming more tractable due to the increasing number of B. pseudomallei genomes that are being sequenced and compared. Here, we compared three B. pseudomallei genomes, from strains MSHR668, K96243 and 1106a, to identify features that might explain why MSHR668 is more virulent than K96243 and 1106a in a mouse model of B. pseudomallei infection. Our analyses focused on metabolic, virulence and regulatory genes that were present in MSHR668 but absent from both K96243 and 1106a. We also noted features present in K96243 and 1106a but absent from MSHR668, and identified genomic differences that may contribute to variations in virulence noted among the three B. pseudomallei isolates. While this work contributes to our understanding of B. pseudomallei genomics, more detailed experiments are necessary to characterize the relevance of specific genomic features to B. pseudomallei metabolism and virulence. Functional analyses of metabolic networks, virulence and regulation shows promise for examining the effects of B. pseudomallei on host cell metabolism and will lay a foundation for future prediction of the virulence of emerging strains. Continued emphasis in this area will be critical for protection against melioidosis, as a better understanding of what constitutes a fully virulent Burkholderia isolate may provide for better diagnostic and medical countermeasure strategies.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1193442
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1201465
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-14-28692
Journal Information:
PLoS ONE, Vol. 9, Issue 12; ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher:
Public Library of ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 15 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (73)

Carbon metabolism of intracellular bacterial pathogens and possible links to virulence journal May 2010
The MetaCyc database of metabolic pathways and enzymes and the BioCyc collection of pathway/genome databases journal October 2009
Antibiotic susceptibility of 65 isolates of Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei to 35 antimicrobial agents journal December 2004
The Regulation of Transcription Initiation in Bacteria journal December 1985
KEGG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes journal January 2000
Mauve: Multiple Alignment of Conserved Genomic Sequence With Rearrangements journal June 2004
Microbial quest for food in vivo : ‘Nutritional virulence’ as an emerging paradigm : Microbial nutritional virulence journal April 2013
How Phosphotransferase System-Related Protein Phosphorylation Regulates Carbohydrate Metabolism in Bacteria journal December 2006
Growth and Survival of Pseudomonas Pseudomallei in Acidic Environments journal January 1991
The alternative sigma factor katF (rpoS) regulates Salmonella virulence. journal December 1992
VFDB 2012 update: toward the genetic diversity and molecular evolution of bacterial virulence factors journal November 2011
Burkholderia pseudomallei RpoS regulates multinucleated giant cell formation and inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in mouse macrophage cell line (RAW 264.7) journal April 2006
The integrated microbial genomes (IMG) system journal January 2006
The type II O-antigenic polysaccharide moiety of Burkholderia pseudomallei lipopolysaccharide is required for serum resistance and virulence journal December 1998
The Epidemiology and Clinical Spectrum of Melioidosis: 540 Cases from the 20 Year Darwin Prospective Study journal November 2010
Feast or famine: the host-pathogen battle over amino acids: Host-pathogen battle over amino acids journal April 2013
 - : Exploring the outer limits of bacterial pseudogenes journal November 2004
Brucella adaptation and survival at the crossroad of metabolism and virulence journal August 2011
SEED Servers: High-Performance Access to the SEED Genomes, Annotations, and Metabolic Models journal October 2012
Variable Virulence Factors in Burkholderia pseudomallei (Melioidosis) Associated with Human Disease journal March 2014
Genomic plasticity of the causative agent of melioidosis, Burkholderia pseudomallei journal September 2004
The RAST Server: Rapid Annotations using Subsystems Technology journal January 2008
Metabolic adaptation of human pathogenic and related nonpathogenic bacteria to extra- and intracellular habitats journal March 2012
Regulation of a quorum sensing system by stationary phase sigma factor RpoS and their co-regulation of target genes
 in Burkholderia pseudomallei: Regulation of RpoS on QS in B. pseudomallei journal April 2012
Cutaneous Melioidosis in a Man Who Was Taken as a Prisoner of War by the Japanese during World War II journal February 2005
Identification of differentially expressed proteins from Burkholderia pseudomallei isolated during primary and relapsing melioidosis journal April 2012
The Core and Accessory Genomes of Burkholderia pseudomallei: Implications for Human Melioidosis journal October 2008
Interplay between CRP-cAMP and PII-Ntr systems forms novel regulatory network between carbon metabolism and nitrogen assimilation in Escherichia coli journal January 2007
Melioidosis: Recrudescence Associated with Bronchogenic Carcinoma Twenty-six Years following Initial Geographic Exposure journal August 1975
Regulation of histidine and proline degradation enzymes by amino acid availability in Bacillus subtilis. journal September 1990
Regulation of nitrogen metabolism in Bacillus subtilis: vive la difference! journal April 1999
Pathema: a clade-specific bioinformatics resource center for pathogen research journal October 2009
RegPrecise: a database of curated genomic inferences of transcriptional regulatory interactions in prokaryotes journal October 2009
Carbon Catabolite Control of the Metabolic Network in Bacillus subtilis journal February 2009
Genomic islands from five strains of Burkholderia pseudomallei journal January 2008
Genome wide transcriptome profiling of a murine acute melioidosis model reveals new insights into how Burkholderia pseudomallei overcomes host innate immunity journal January 2010
Melioidosis: a clinical overview journal May 2011
The Condition-Dependent Transcriptional Landscape of Burkholderia pseudomallei journal September 2013
A Genomic Survey of Positive Selection in Burkholderia pseudomallei Provides Insights into the Evolution of Accidental Virulence journal April 2010
A cluster of melioidosis cases from an endemic region is clonal and is linked to the water supply using molecular typing of Burkholderia pseudomallei isolates. journal September 2001
Sigma factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa journal January 2008
Burkholderia pseudomallei genome plasticity associated with genomic island variation journal January 2008
Recognizing the pseudogenes in bacterial genomes journal June 2005
Out of the ground: aerial and exotic habitats of the melioidosis bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei in grasses in Australia: Burkholderia pseudomallei in grasses in Australia journal December 2011
Burkholderia pseudomallei transcriptional adaptation in macrophages journal January 2012
Seasonal variation of soil environmental characteristics affect the presence of Burkholderia pseudomallei in Khon Kaen, Thailand [English] journal May 2013
PHIDIAS: a pathogen-host interaction data integration and analysis system journal January 2007
The rhizosphere microbiome: significance of plant beneficial, plant pathogenic, and human pathogenic microorganisms journal September 2013
Control of bacterial virulence by AraC-like regulators that respond to chemical signals journal March 2011
Phylogeographic reconstruction of a bacterial species with high levels of lateral gene transfer journal January 2009
The Survival of Burkholderia pseudomallei in Liquid Media journal January 2010
Molecular Insights into Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei Pathogenesis journal October 2010
The rhizosphere as a reservoir for opportunistic human pathogenic bacteria journal November 2005
Involvement of B. pseudomallei RpoS in apoptotic cell death in mouse macrophages journal March 2008
Melioidosis: an important cause of pneumonia in residents of and travellers returned from endemic regions journal September 2003
Contamination of hand wash Detergent Linked to Occupationally Acquired Melioidosis journal September 2004
Melioidosis: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Management journal July 2007
The MetaCyc database of metabolic pathways and enzymes and the BioCyc collection of pathway/genome databases journal November 2011
How Phosphotransferase System-Related Protein Phosphorylation Regulates Carbohydrate Metabolism in Bacteria journal September 2008
In vitro antimicrobial susceptibility of clinical and environmental strains of Burkholderia pseudomallei from Brazil journal October 2013
Animal melioidosis in Australia journal February 2000
Basic local alignment search tool journal October 1990
Melioidosis journal May 2003
Characterization and mutagenesis of fur gene from Burkholderia pseudomallei journal August 2000
The Pathway Tools software journal July 2002
Highly Sensitive Direct Detection and Quantification of Burkholderia pseudomallei Bacteria in Environmental Soil Samples by Using Real-Time PCR journal July 2011
Randomized Soil Survey of the Distribution of Burkholderia pseudomallei in Rice Fields in Laos journal November 2010
Melioidosis: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Management journal April 2005
Cytokine Gene Expression in Innately Susceptible BALB/c Mice and Relatively Resistant C57BL/6 Mice during Infection with Virulent Burkholderia pseudomallei journal April 2000
Global Map of Growth-Regulated Gene Expression in Burkholderia pseudomallei, the Causative Agent of Melioidosis journal September 2006
A Horizontal Gene Transfer Event Defines Two Distinct Groups within Burkholderia pseudomallei That Have Dissimilar Geographic Distributions journal October 2007
Isolates of Burkholderia pseudomallei from Northern Australia Are Distinct by Multilocus Sequence Typing, but Strain Types Do Not Correlate with Clinical Presentation journal December 2004
The public health implications of melioidosis journal January 2009

Cited By (8)

Genome rearrangements and selection in multi-chromosome bacteria Burkholderia spp. journal December 2018
Phylogeographic, genomic, and meropenem susceptibility analysis of Burkholderia ubonensis journal September 2017
A Human Lung-Associated Streptomyces sp. TR1341 Produces Various Secondary Metabolites Responsible for Virulence, Cytotoxicity and Modulation of Immune Response journal January 2020
Genome rearrangements and selection in multi-chromosome bacteria Burkholderia spp posted_content October 2018
Intracellular replication of the well-armed pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei journal February 2016
Pulmonary melioidosis presenting with pleural effusion: A case report and review of literature journal January 2015
Characterization of pathogenesis of and immune response to Burkholderia pseudomallei K96243 using both inhalational and intraperitoneal infection models in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice journal February 2017
Increased Neurotropic Threat from Burkholderia pseudomallei Strains with a B. mallei–like Variation in the bimA Motility Gene, Australia journal May 2017

Similar Records

Genomic islands from five strains of Burkholderia pseudomallei
Journal Article · Thu Nov 27 00:00:00 EST 2008 · BMC Genomics · OSTI ID:1193442

φX216, a P2-like bacteriophage with broad Burkholderia pseudomallei and B. mallei strain infectivity
Journal Article · Fri Dec 07 00:00:00 EST 2012 · BMC Microbiology · OSTI ID:1193442

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of BipD, a virulence factor from Burkholderia pseudomallei
Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2006 · Acta Crystallographica. Section F · OSTI ID:1193442

Related Subjects