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Journal of Bacteriology, February 2006, p. 1301-1309, Vol. 188, No. 4
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.188.4.1301-1309.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

The dltABCD Operon of Bacillus anthracis Sterne Is Required for Virulence and Resistance to Peptide, Enzymatic, and Cellular Mediators of Innate Immunity

Nathan Fisher,1 Lynne Shetron-Rama,1 Amy Herring-Palmer,1 Brian Heffernan,1 Nicholas Bergman,1,2 and Philip Hanna1*

Department of Microbiology and Immunology,1 Program in Bioinformatics, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 481042

Received 17 October 2005/ Accepted 23 November 2005

In the environment, the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus anthracis persists as a metabolically dormant endospore. Upon inoculation into the host the endospores germinate and outgrow into vegetative bacilli able to cause disease. The dramatic morphogenic changes to the bacterium during germination and outgrowth are numerous and include major rearrangement of and modifications to the bacterial surface. Such modifications occur during a time in the B. anthracis infectious cycle when the bacterium must guard against a multitude of innate immune mediators. The dltABCD locus of B. anthracis encodes a cell wall D-alanine esterification system that is initiated by transcriptional activation during endospore outgrowth. The level of transcription from the dltABCD operon determined B. anthracis resistance to cationic antibacterial peptides during vegetative growth and cationic peptide, enzymatic, and cellular mediators of innate immunity during outgrowth. Mutation of dltABCD was also attenuating in a mouse model of infection. We propose that the dltABCD locus is important for protection of endosporeforming bacteria from environmental assault during outgrowth and that such protection may be critical during the establishment phase of anthrax.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, 5641 Medical Science Building II, Box 0620, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. Phone: (734) 615-3706. Fax: (734) 764-3562. E-mail: pchanna{at}umich.edu.

Journal of Bacteriology, February 2006, p. 1301-1309, Vol. 188, No. 4
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.188.4.1301-1309.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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