Journal of Microbiology

The Microbiological Society of Korea (한국미생물학회)
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The Effect of Transformation on the Virulence of Streptococcus pneumoniae

  • Zhang Xue-Mei (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Yin Yi-Bing (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Zhu Dan (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Chen Bao-De (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Luo Jin-Yong (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Deng Vi-Ping (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Liu Ming-Fang (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Chen Shu-Hui (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Meng Jiang-Ping (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Lan Kai (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Huang Yuan-Shuai (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Kang Ge-Fei (Faculty of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences)
  • Published : 2005.08.01
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Abstract

Although pneumococcus is one of the most frequently encountered opportunistic pathogen in the world, the mechanisms responsible for its infectiveness have not yet been fully understood. In this paper, we have attempted to characterize the effects of pneumococcal transformation on the pathogenesis of the organism. We constructed three transformation-deficient pneumococcal strains, which were designated as Nos. 1d, 2d, and 22d. The construction of these altered strains was achieved via the insertion of the inactivated gene, comE, to strains 1, 2 and 22. We then conducted a comparison between the virulence of the transformation-deficient strains and that of the wild-type strains, via an evaluation of the ability of each strain to adhere to endothelial cells, and also assessed psaA mRNA expression, and the survival of hosts after bacterial challenge. Compared to what was observed with the wild-type strains, our results indicated that the ability of all of the transformation-deficient strains to adhere to the ECV304 cells had been significantly reduced (p < 0.05), the expression of psaA mRNA was reduced significantly (p < 0.05) in strains 2d and 22d, and the median survival time of mice infected with strains Id and 2d was increased significantly after intraperitoneal bacterial challenge (p < 0.05). The results of our study also clearly indicated that transformation exerts significant effects on the virulence characteristics of S. pneumoniae, although the degree to which this effect is noted appears to depend primarily on the genetic background of the bacteria.

Keywords

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