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
. 1986 Jun;1(3):229-40.
doi: 10.1016/0882-4010(86)90047-1.

Virulence plasmid-associated HeLa cell induced cytotoxicity of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

R Rosqvist  1 , H Wolf-Watz
Affiliations

Virulence plasmid-associated HeLa cell induced cytotoxicity of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

R Rosqvist et al. Microb Pathog. 1986 Jun.

Abstract

A virulent plasmid-containing strain and an isogenic plasmid-free avirulent derivative strain of Y. pseudotuberculosis were compared with respect to the interaction with cultured HeLa cells. No difference in the ability to adhere to HeLa cells was observed. Both strains invaded the HeLa cells to the same degree. The internalized bacteria did not multiply over a 24-h period. When incubated at 37 degrees C HeLa cells infected with the virulent plasmid-containing strain YPIII(pIB1) showed morphological changes in contrast to the avirulent plasmid-free strain YPIII which showed no such effect. This cytotoxic effect was recorded after about 2 hours of incubation at 37 degrees C. This event could be prevented by addition of gentamicin 1 hour before the predicted time of the morphological changes of the HeLa cells. A number of transposon Tn5 derived plasmid mutants were analyzed and a correlation was found between virulence and ability to induce cytotoxicity. The cytotoxic effect was not absolutely linked to Ca2+-dependence because one Ca2+-independent mutant was found to be cytotoxic. This mutant was able to express the temperature-inducible plasmid-coded outer membrane proteins (YOPs) as well as the V-antigen. On the molecular level a strong correlation was found between expression of some of the YOPs, the V-antigen and the cytotoxic effect. However, one of these YOPs, YOP1, could be eliminated as being an important determinant of cytotoxicity because an insertion mutant of the corresponding structural gene was still able to induce cytotoxicity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources