Abstract

Doc number: 327

Abstract

Background : Haemophilus influenzae requires heme for aerobic growth and possesses multiple mechanisms to obtain this essential nutrient.

Methods : An insertional mutation in tonB was constructed and the impact of the mutation on virulence and fitness in a chinchilla model of otitis media was determined. The tonB insertion mutant strain was significantly impacted in both virulence and fitness as compared to the wildtype strain in this model.

Conclusions : The tonB gene of H. influenzae is required for the establishment and maintenance of middle ear infection in this chinchilla model of bacterial disease.

Details

Title
A functional tonB gene is required for both virulence and competitive fitness in a chinchilla model of Haemophilus influenzae otitis media
Author
Morton, Daniel J; Hempel, Randy J; Seale, Thomas W; Whitby, Paul W; Stull, Terrence L
Pages
327
Publication year
2012
Publication date
2012
Publisher
BioMed Central
e-ISSN
17560500
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1034550456
Copyright
© 2012 Morton et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.