Journal article
Within-host evolution of Burkholderia pseudomallei in four cases of acute melioidosis
PLoS Pathogens, Vol.6(1), e1000725
2010
Abstract
Little is currently known about bacterial pathogen evolution and adaptation within the host during acute infection. Previous studies of Burkholderia pseudomallei, the etiologic agent of melioidosis, have shown that this opportunistic pathogen mutates rapidly both in vitro and in vivo at tandemly repeated loci, making this organism a relevant model for studying short-term evolution. In the current study, B. pseudomallei isolates cultured from multiple body sites from four Thai patients with disseminated melioidosis were subjected to fine-scale genotyping using multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA). In order to understand and model the in vivo variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) mutational process, we characterized the patterns and rates of mutations in vitro through parallel serial passage experiments of B. pseudomallei. Despite the short period of infection, substantial divergence from the putative founder genotype was observed in all four melioidosis cases. This study presents a paradigm for examining bacterial evolution over the short timescale of an acute infection. Further studies are required to determine whether the mutational process leads to phenotypic alterations that impact upon bacterial fitness in vivo. Our findings have important implications for future sampling strategies, since colonies in a single clinical sample may be genetically heterogeneous, and organisms in a culture taken late in the infective process may have undergone considerable genetic change compared with the founder inoculum. © 2010 Price et al.
Details
- Title
- Within-host evolution of Burkholderia pseudomallei in four cases of acute melioidosis
- Authors
- Erin P Price (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesH M Hornstra (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesD Limmathurotsakul (Author) - Mahidol University, ThailandT L Max (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesDerek S Sarovich (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesA J Vogler (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesJ L Dale (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesJ L Ginther (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesB Leadem (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesR E Colman (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesJ T Foster (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesA Tuanyok (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesD M Wagner (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesS J Peacock (Author) - Mahidol University, ThailandT Pearson (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United StatesP Keim (Author) - Northern Arizona University, United States
- Publication details
- PLoS Pathogens, Vol.6(1), e1000725
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science
- Date published
- 2010
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.ppat.1000725
- ISSN
- 1553-7366
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2010 Price et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451082502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Microbiology
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