Granato, Elisa T., Harrison, Freya, Kümmerli, Rolf and Ross-Gillespie, Adin (2016) Do bacterial “virulence factors” always increase virulence? A meta-analysis of pyoverdine production in pseudomonas aeruginosa as a test case. Frontiers in Microbiology, 7 . doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.01952

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Abstract

Bacterial traits that contribute to disease are termed “virulence factors” and there is much interest in therapeutic approaches that disrupt such traits. What remains less clear is whether a virulence factor identified as such in a particular context is also important in infections involving different host and pathogen types. Here, we address this question using a meta-analytic approach. We statistically analyzed the infection outcomes of 81 experiments associated with one well-studied virulence factor—pyoverdine, an iron-scavenging compound secreted by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We found that this factor is consistently involved with virulence across different infection contexts. However, the magnitude of the effect of pyoverdine on virulence varied considerably. Moreover, its effect on virulence was relatively minor in many cases, suggesting that pyoverdine is not indispensable in infections. Our works supports theoretical models from ecology predicting that disease severity is multifactorial and context dependent, a fact that might complicate our efforts to identify the most important virulence factors. More generally, our study highlights how comparative approaches can be used to quantify the magnitude and general importance of virulence factors, key knowledge informing future anti-virulence treatment strategies.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QR Microbiology
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- )
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Virulence (Microbiology), Siderophores
Journal or Publication Title:	Frontiers in Microbiology
Publisher:	Frontiers Research Foundation
ISSN:	1664-302X
Official Date:	12 December 2016
Dates:	Date Event 12 December 2016 Published 21 November 2016 Accepted 8 August 2016 Submitted
Date of first compliant deposit:	12 December 2016
Volume:	7
DOI:	10.3389/fmicb.2016.01952
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Universität Zürich, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung [Swiss National Science Foundation] (SNSF), Novartis foundation, University of Warwick
Grant number:	PP00P3-139164 (SNSF)

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