ArticleEnvironmental microbiology2015
PrfA regulation offsets the cost of Listeria virulence outside the host.
Article in Environmental microbiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed.
- Regulatory roles of the LysR-type transcriptional regulator GltC in metabolism, stress tolerance, and virulence ofMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Host methylglyoxal activates theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Impact of virulence factors overexpression on Listeria monocytogenes F2365 epidemic strain fitness and the limitations of surrogate species in UHT and raw milk.NPJ science of food · 2025Article
- Transcriptome Sequencing Reveals Distinct Stress Response of Listeria monocytogenes 6179 During Logarithmic and Stationary Growth Phases.MicrobiologyOpen · 2025Article
- The pcnB gene sustains Shigella flexneri virulence.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Transcriptional responses of Listeria monocytogenes to low-temperature stress reveal distinct adaptive mechanisms in the absence of BKD and PrfA activation.Microbial pathogenesis · 2025Article
- A scalable gut epithelial organoid model reveals the genome-wide colonization landscape of a human-adapted pathogen.Nature genetics · 2025Article
- Article
- Differential stress responsiveness determines intraspecies virulence heterogeneity and host adaptation in Listeria monocytogenes.Nature microbiology · 2024Article
- Listeriosis: Characteristics, Occurrence in Domestic Animals, Public Health Significance, Surveillance and Control.Microorganisms · 2024Review
- Article
- An insight into the role of branched-chain α-keto acid dehydrogenase (BKD) complex in branched-chain fatty acid biosynthesis and virulence ofJournal of bacteriology · 2024Article
- Article
- Characterisation of the growth behaviour of Listeria monocytogenes in Listeria synthetic media.Environmental microbiology reports · 2023Article
- Human Listeriosis.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2023Review
- Long Chain Fatty Acids and Virulence Repression in Intestinal Bacterial Pathogens.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Review
- Identification of Listeria monocytogenes Genes Contributing to Oxidative Stress Resistance under Conditions Relevant to Host Infection.Infection and immunity · 2021Article
- Free Fatty Acids Interfere with the DNA Binding Activity of the Virulence Regulator PrfA of Listeria monocytogenes.Journal of bacteriology · 2020Article
- Chitin Attenuates Expression ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
- A Cross-Protective Vaccine Against 4b and 1/2bFrontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Virulence traits are essential for pathogen fitness, but whether they affect microbial performance in the environment, where they are not needed, remains experimentally unconfirmed. We investigated this question with the facultative pathogen Listeria monocytogenes and its PrfA virulence regulon. PrfA-regulated genes are activated intracellularly (PrfA 'ON') but shut down outside the host (PrfA 'OFF'). Using a mutant PrfA regulator locked ON (PrfA*) and thus causing PrfA-controlled genes to be constitutively activated, we show that virulence gene expression significantly impairs the listerial growth rate (μ) and maximum growth (A) in rich medium. Deletion analysis of the PrfA regulon and complementation of a L. monocytogenes mutant lacking all PrfA-regulated genes with PrfA* indicated that the growth reduction was specifically due to the unneeded virulence determinants and not to pleiotropic regulatory effects of PrfA ON. No PrfA*-associated fitness disadvantage was observed in infected eukaryotic cells, where PrfA-regulated virulence gene expression is critical for survival. Microcosm experiments demonstrated that the constitutively virulent state strongly impaired L. monocytogenes performance in soil, the natural habitat of these bacteria. Our findings provide empirical proof that virulence carries a significant cost to the pathogen. They also experimentally substantiate the assumed, although not proven, key role of virulence gene regulation systems in suppressing the cost of bacterial virulence outside the host.
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