Date of Completion
7-19-2016
Embargo Period
7-18-2016
Keywords
Mycoplasma gallisepticum, RNA-seq, Phase variation
Major Advisor
Steven J. Geary, PhD
Associate Advisor
Joerg Graf, PhD
Associate Advisor
Lawrence K. Silbart, PhD
Associate Advisor
J. Peter Gogarten, PhD
Field of Study
Pathobiology
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Open Access
Open Access
Abstract
Mycoplasma gallisepticum is the primary etiologic agent of chronic respiratory disease (CRD) in poultry, a disease largely affecting the respiratory tract of poultry, and causing significant economic losses world-wide. Proteins of the variable lipoprotein and hemagglutinin (vlhA) gene family are thought to be important for host interaction, pathogenesis and immune evasion, but the exact role and mechanisms are not well understood. To better understand the phase variation of vlhA genes, we have conducted large scale, next generation sequencing analysis of M. gallisepticum sampled directly from the tracheal mucosa of experimentally infected chickens and those recovered and passaged in-vitro.
In the first study, M. gallisepticum was recovered from the tracheal mucosa over a seven day infection. Of note, the data indicated that, at given time points, specific vlhAs were similarly dominant in multiple independent hosts, suggesting a non-stochastic temporal progression of dominant vlhA expression. Additionally we found that vlhA expression was not dependent on the presence of 12 GAA repeats, suggesting a previously unrecognized mechanism may be responsible, at least in part, for vlhA expression.
In the second study, we report the vlhA profile of M. gallisepticum recovered from the trachea of experimentally infected chickens when the input culture expressed an alternate dominant vlhA. Here we report that even when the culture is dominantly expressing vlhA 2.02, there is an immediate shift at one day post infection to the dominant expression of vlhA 3.03, suggesting the expression of this gene many be essential in the earliest stages of the infection process.
Recommended Citation
Pflaum, Katherine, "Global Changes in Mycoplasma gallisepticum Phase-variable Lipoprotein (vlhA) Gene Expression in the Natural Host" (2016). Doctoral Dissertations. 1215.
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/dissertations/1215