Caenorhabditis elegans is a model host for Listeria monocytogenes

Abstract

Here we report that Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes fed Listeria monocytogenes die over the course of several days, as a consequence of an accumulation of bacteria in the worm intestine. Mutant strains previously shown to be important for virulence in mammalian models were also found to be attenuated in their virulence in C. elegans. However, ActA, which is required for actin-based intracellular motility, appears to be dispensable during infection of C. elegans, indicating that L. monocytogenes remains extracellular in C. elegans.

FIG. 1.

Survival of C. elegans pha-1(e2123ts) fed on E. coli and Listeria. (A) Worms fed E. coli OP50 (dotted lines, diamonds), Listeria innocua (triangles), L. monocytogenes 10403S (solid squares), or L. monocytogenes 10403S ΔactA (dashed lines, open squares). (B) Worms fed E. coli OP50 (dotted lines, diamonds), L. monocytogenes EGDe (dashed lines, solid circles), L. monocytogenes EGDe ΔprfA (dashed lines, open circles), L. monocytogenes EGD (BUG600) (solid squares), or L. monocytogenes EGD (BUG600) ΔdegU (open squares).