Role of the Yersinia pestis Plasminogen Activator in the Incidence of Distinct Septicemic and Bubonic Forms of Flea-Borne Plague

Yersinia pestis is transmitted by fleas and causes bubonic plague, characterized by severe local lymphadenitis that progresses rapidly to systemic infection and life-threatening septicemia. Here, we show that although flea-borne transmission usually leads to bubonic plague in mice, it can also lead...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2006-04, Vol.103 (14), p.5526-5530
Main Authors: Sebbane, Florent, Jarrett, Clayton O., Gardner, Donald, Long, Daniel, Hinnebusch, B. Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Arthropod Vectors
Bacteria
Biological Sciences
Bubonic plague
Disease transmission
Fleas
Genes
Incidence
Infections
Lymph nodes
Lymphatic diseases
Mice
Microbiology
Parasites
Pathogens
Plague
Plague - microbiology
Plague - transmission
Plasminogen Activators - physiology
Salivary Glands
Sepsis - microbiology
Septicemic plague
Siphonaptera - microbiology
Virulence
Yersinia pestis
Yersinia pestis - classification
Yersinia pestis - pathogenicity
Yersinia pestis - physiology
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Summary:Yersinia pestis is transmitted by fleas and causes bubonic plague, characterized by severe local lymphadenitis that progresses rapidly to systemic infection and life-threatening septicemia. Here, we show that although flea-borne transmission usually leads to bubonic plague in mice, it can also lead to primary septicemic plague. However, intradermal injection of Y. pestis, commonly used to mimic transmission by fleabite, leads only to bubonic plague. A Y. pestis strain lacking the plasmid-encoded cell-surface plasminogen activator, which is avirulent by intradermal or s.c. injection, was able to cause fatal primary septicemic plague at low incidence, but not bubonic plague, when transmitted by fleas. The results clarify a long-standing uncertainty about the etiology of primary septicemic plague and support an evolutionary scenario in which plague first emerged as a flea-borne septicemic disease of limited transmissibility. Subsequent acquisition of the plasminogen activator gene by horizontal transfer enabled the bubonic form of disease and increased the potential for epidemic spread.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0509544103