Common Virulence Factors for Bacterial Pathogenicity in Plants and Animals

Abstract

A Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain (UCBPP-PA14) is infectious both in an Arabidopsis thaliana leaf infiltration model and in a mouse full-thickness skin burn model. UCBPP-PA14 exhibits ecotype specificity for Arabidopsis, causing a range of symptoms from none to severe in four different ecotypes. In the mouse model, UCBPP-PA14 is as lethal as other well-studied P. aeruginosa strains. Mutations in the UCBPP-PA14 toxA, plcS, and gacA genes resulted in a significant reduction in pathogenicity in both hosts, indicating that these genes encode virulence factors required for the full expression of pathogenicity in both plants and animals.