Novel genes involved in survival in vivo in the environmental pathogen Burkholderia cenocepacia

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Environmental pathogens are defined as microorganisms that normally spend their lifecycle outside the human host but when introduced to humans cause disease with measurable frequency. Some of them affect only immunocompromised patients or people with underlying diseases. Burkholderia cepacia complex are a group of environmental bacteria with an extraordinary capacity to survive in diverse environments and also to degrade certain pollutants. Unfortunately B. cepacia complex has become a major health risk for children and young adults with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis (CF). CF is the most common, fatal genetic disease in young Canadians affecting mainly the lungs and the digestive system. B. cepacia complex infect these patients and its presence is associated with a deterioration of the lung function that ultimately can cause death. Some of the ways B. cepacia complex has found to colonize and persist in the human lung may be related to their capacity to survive in the soil, and other ever-changing environments. It is possible that some of the genes that confer advantages allowing the bacteria to thrive in different conditions also have a function in the survival of these bacteria as pathogens. This project will investigate if certain metabolic and essential functions known to be required for survival in vitro are relevant for survival in vivo. For this purpose  C. elegans, a worm commonly found in the soil will be used as an infection model. The worm is an ideal model for genetic studies, because it is easy to manipulate specific genes, and in contrast to other animal models, large quantities of the worms can be grown quickly and can even be frozen and used later. C. elegans lives in the soil, so it continually comes into contact with bacteria and other microbes and has a highly developed system for not only recognizing bacteria, but also responding to them. The ability of its innate immune system to respond appropriately to specific bacteria is very similar to that of mammals so the system will help us to understand in the long term how B. cepacia overcome the immune response in the lungs and causes infection.