Zinc Uptake System (znuA Locus) of Brucella abortus is Essential for Intracellular Survival and Virulence in Mice

• DOI: 10.1292/jvms.66.1059
• Publication Date: 2004-10-07T06:03:43Z
• Authors: Suk KIM; Kenta WATANABE; Toshikazu SHIRAHATA; Masahisa WATARAI
• Keywords: Wild type; HeLa; Internalization; Intracellular parasite

Brucella spp. are facultative intracellular pathogens that have the ability to survive and multiply in professional nonprofessional phagocytes, cause abortion domestic animals undulant fever humans. The mechanism factors of virulence not fully understood. High-affinity zinc uptake system protein mutant (znuA mutant) showed reduced growth chelated medium, failed replicate HeLa cells mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages. Transformation znuA with a shuttle vector pBBR1MCS-4 containing gene restored medium replication macrophages level comparable wild-type strain. Bacterial internalization into co-localization either late endosomes or lysosomes were different from those These results suggest does contribute trafficking B. abortus, but contributes utilization required for growth.