Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Mar:92:50-53.
doi: 10.1016/j.micpath.2015.12.013. Epub 2015 Dec 25.

Survival protein A is essential for virulence in Yersinia pestis

Stephanie J Southern  1 , Andrew E Scott  2 , Dominic C Jenner  2 , Philip M Ireland  2 , Isobel H Norville  2 , Mitali Sarkar-Tyson  3
Affiliations
Free article

Survival protein A is essential for virulence in Yersinia pestis

Stephanie J Southern et al. Microb Pathog. 2016 Mar.
Free article

Abstract

Plague is a highly pathogenic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. There is currently no vaccine available for prophylaxis and antibiotic resistant strains have been isolated, thus there is a need for the development of new countermeasures to treat this disease. Survival protein A (SurA) is a chaperone that has been linked to virulence in several species of bacteria, including the close relative Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the role of SurA in virulence of the highly pathogenic Y. pestis by creating an unmarked surA deletion mutant. The Y. pestis ΔsurA mutant was found to be more susceptible to membrane perturbing agents and was completely avirulent in a mouse infection model when delivered up to 2.1 × 10(5) CFU by the subcutaneous route. This provides strong evidence that SurA would make a promising antimicrobial target.

Keywords: Mutant; Virulence; Yersinia pestis.

PubMed Disclaimer

LinkOut - more resources