As we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Campylobacter, Helicobacter and Related Organisms (CHRO) workshops with this special Frontiers edition, we look back upon three decades of research and provide some highlights from the 16th International CHRO meeting. As Martin Skirrow noted, Elizabeth King was the first to isolate campylobacters in the 1950’s, although Escherich...
One key aspect of S. aureus virulence lies in its ability to target the host cell membrane with a large number of membrane-damaging toxins and peptides. In this review, we describe the hemolysins, the bi-component leukocidins, which include the Panton Valentine Leukocidin, LukAB/GH, LukED and the cytolytic peptides (Phenol Soluble Modulins). While at first glance, all these...
The gastrointestinal pathogen Campylobacter jejuni is able to colonize numerous different hosts and compete against the gut microbiota. To do this, it must be able to efficiently acquire sufficient nutrients from its environment to support its survival and rapid growth in the intestine. However, despite almost 50 years of research, many aspects as to how C. jejuni accomplishes...
Glycan based interactions between host and pathogen are critical in many bacterial and viral diseases. Glycan interactions range from initial receptor based adherence to protecting the infective agent from the host’s immune response through molecular mimicry. Campylobacter jejuni is an ideal model for studying the role of glycans in host-pathogen interactions, as well as the role...
Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of infective endocarditis (IE) and sepsis. In addition, 50% of IE survivors develop strokes and metastatic abscesses due to the release of emboli from infected valves. Both methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive (MSSA) strains cause IE and sepsis, and they may be categorized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, for example...
Escherichia coli O157:H7 and other pathogenic E. coli strains are enteric pathogens associated with food safety threats and which remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In the current study, we investigated whether enterohemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC), Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) strains can be rapidly and...
Mucus colonization is the first step towards the establishment of infection and disease by mucosal pathogens. There is an emerging literature implicating specific mucin subtypes and mucin modifications in protecting the host from Campylobacter jejuni infection. However, mucosal pathogens have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to breach the mucus layer and C. jejuni in particular...
Campylobacter jejuni remains a major cause of bacterial diarrhea worldwide and is associated with numerous sequelae, including Guillain Barre Syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, reactive arthritis, and irritable bowel syndrome. C. jejuni is unusual for an intestinal pathogen in its ability to coat its surface with a polysaccharide capsule (CPS). These capsular polysaccharides...
Over the last decade Campylobacter concisus, a highly fastidious member of the Campylobacter genus has been described as an emergent pathogen of the human intestinal tract. Historically, C. concisus was associated with the human oral cavity and has been linked with periodontal lesions, including gingivitis and periodontitis, although currently its role as an oral pathogen remains...
Since the first case of brucellosis detected in a dolphin aborted fetus, an increasing number of Brucella ceti isolates has been reported in members of the two suborders of cetaceans: Mysticeti and Odontoceti. Serological surveys have shown that cetacean brucellosis may be distributed worldwide in the oceans. Although all B. ceti isolates have been included within the same...
Brucella spp. are facultative intracellular Gram negative bacteria with specific tropism for monocytes/macrophages. Clinical manifestations of brucellosis are primarily immune-mediated and not thought to be due to bacterial virulence factors. Acquired immunity to brucellosis has been studied through observations of naturally infected hosts (cattle, goats), laboratory mouse models...
Brucella is a Gram-negative, facultative intracellular bacterium that causes zoonotic brucellosis in humans and various animals. Out of ten classified Brucella species, B. melitensis, B. abortus, B. suis, and B. canis are pathogenic to humans. In the past decade, the mechanisms of Brucella pathogenesis and host immunity have been extensively investigated using the cutting edge...
Helicobacter pylori lives within the mucus layer of the human stomach, in close proximity to gastric epithelial cells. While a great deal is known about the effects of H. pylori on human cells and the specific bacterial products that mediate these effects, relatively little work has been done to investigate alterations in H. pylori that may be triggered by bacterial contact with...
Since the 1980s, the incidence of severe pulmonary hemorrhage caused by Leptospira spp. infection has increased. The mild, non-specific symptoms or the more classical form of severe disease with hepatorenal manifestations, Weil’s syndrome, predominate world-wide. However, several regions of the world have seen increases in numbers of patients with pulmonary hemorrhage attributed...
Trimeric autotransporter adhesins (TAAs) are multimeric surface proteins, involved in various biological traits of pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria including adherence, biofilm formation, invasion, survival within eukaryotic cells, serum resistance and cytotoxicity. TAAs have a modular architecture composed by a conserved membrane-anchored C-terminal domain and a variable number...
Host cell entry by the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni has been reported as one of the primary reasons of tissue damage in infected humans, however, molecular invasion mechanisms and cellular factors involved in this process are widely unclear. Here we used knockout cell lines derived from fibronectin-/-, integrin-beta1-/- and focal adhesion kinase (FAK)-/- deficient mice...
Long-term respiratory infections with Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) bacteria in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients generally lead to a more rapid decline in lung function and, in some cases, to a fatal necrotizing pneumonia known as the cepacia syndrome. Bcc bacteria are ubiquitous in the environment and are recognized as serious opportunistic pathogens that are virtually...
Staphylococcus aureus is an important human pathogen commonly infecting nearly every host tissue. The ability of S. aureus to resist innate immunity is critical to its success as a pathogen, including its propensity to grow in the presence of host nitric oxide (NO·). Upon exogenous NO· exposure, S. aureus immediately excretes copious amounts of L-lactate to maintain redox balance...
Ehrlichia chaffeensis has type 1 and 4 secretion systems (T1SS and T4SS), but the substrates have not been identified. Potential substrates include secreted tandem repeat protein (TRP) 47, TRP120, and TRP32, and the ankyrin repeat protein, Ank200, that are involved in molecular host-pathogen interactions including DNA binding and a network of protein-protein interactions with...
IntroductionOrganisms of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) are important pathogens in cystic fibrosis (CF). The majority of those who acquire BCC develop chronic infection but it can also result in rapid decline in a significant minority. In addition, chronic infection with B. cenocepacia in particular is regarded as a contraindication to lung transplantation in many units...
Alpha-1 antitrypsin, a small glycoprotein clade A serpine serine protease inhibitor of neutrophil elastase has been shown to increase in humans following bacterial and viral infection. However, we report here significant reduction of this major inhibitor of elastase in plasma of F. tularensis LVS and SCHU S4 (Type A strain) following pulmonary challenge. Consistent with an...
The phenylacetic acid (PA) degradative pathway is the central pathway by which complex aromatic compounds (e.g. styrene) get degraded. Upper pathways for different aromatic compounds converge at common intermediate phenylacetyl-CoA, which is then metabolized to succinyl-CoA and acetyl-CoA. We previously made a link in Burkholderia cenocepacia between phenylacetic acid (PA...
Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen of the human respiratory tract and is a leading cause of respiratory infections in children and adults. NTHI is considered to be an extracellular pathogen, but has consistently been observed within and between human respiratory epithelial cells and macrophages, in vitro and ex vivo. Until recently...
Brucella abortus is a Gram-negative, facultative intracellular pathogen for several mammals, including humans. Live attenuated B. abortus strain RB51 is currently the official vaccine used against bovine brucellosis in the United States and several other countries. Overexpression of protective B. abortus antigen Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD) in a recombinant strain of RB51...
Many of the definitions in microbiology are factually false. We have revised the great denominations of microbiology and attempted to free microorganisms from the theories of the 20th century. The presence of compartmentation and a nucleoid in Planctomycetes clearly calls into question the accuracy of the definitions of eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Archaea are viewed as...