B.pseudomallei bioterrorism and quorum sensing

描述（申请人提供）：生物恐怖袭击，虽然曾经被认为是一个遥远的可能性在美国，现在是一个非常真实的和可怕的威胁，所有美国人的生命。一个令人关切的主要领域是病原菌在湖泊、河流、溪流、游泳池、我们的供水系统和土壤中的分布和生存。类鼻疽伯克霍尔德氏菌（BP）是一种生物安全3级病原体，通常是东南亚热带地区土壤和水的污染物，并导致称为类鼻疽病的类腺体疾病。类鼻疽病可以以良性肺部形式存在，但也可能发展成迅速致命的败血症。如果不治疗，>95%的病例在接触后2天内死亡。根据美国农业部的数据，1934年，美国动物种群中的鼻疽被根除。然而，生物恐怖分子可以很容易地将这种生物体带入我国，并将其散布到许多水体、储水罐和人口稠密地区，在这些地方可以产生大量的气溶胶。更复杂的问题是，细菌作为生物膜生长对杀生物剂和抗生素具有显著的抵抗力。在相关生物铜绿假单胞菌中，群体感应（QS）过程（细胞间通讯的一种形式）对于生物膜的形成、毒力和对杀菌剂的抗性至关重要。由于BP基因组含有已知QS基因的同源物，我们假设它也参与QS，并将其用于最佳生物膜形成和对杀菌剂的抗性。这些研究将提供重要的信息，从而导致对潜在的生物恐怖袭击的对策，使用潜在的致命革兰氏阴性细菌，B。假鼻疽

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A bioterrorist attack, although once thought to be a remote possibility in the United States, is now a very real and terrifying threat to the lives of all Americans. A major area of concern is the distribution and survival of pathogenic bacteria in lakes, rivers, streams, swimming pools, our water supply and soils. Burkholderia pseudomallei (BP) is a Biosafety level 3 pathogen that is normally a saprophyte of soil and water in tropical areas of Southeast Asia, and causes a glanders-like disease called mellioidosis. Mellioidosis can exist as a benign pulmonary form, but may also develop into a rapidly fatal septicemia. If left untreated, >95% of all cases are fatal within 2 days of exposure. According to the US Department of Agriculture, glanders was eradicated from the US animal population in 1934. However, bioterrorists can easily bring such organisms into our country and distribute the organism into many bodies of water, water holding tanks and heavily populated areas where significant aerosols can be produced. Further complicating matters is the fact that bacteria growing as a biofilm are remarkably recalcitrance to biocides and antibiotics. The processes of quorum sensing (QS), a form of cell-cell communication, in the related organism Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is critical for biofilm formation, virulence and resistance to biocides. Because the BP genome harbors homologs to known QS genes, we hypothesize that it, too, participates in QS and uses it for optimal biofilm formation and resistance to biocides. These studies will provide important information that will lead to countermeasures against a potential bioterrorist attack using the potentially lethal gram-negative bacterium, B. pseudomallei.