MalF is essential for persistence of Mycoplasma gallisepticum in vivo

International audience; There is limited understanding of the molecular basis of virulence in the important avian pathogen Mycoplasma gallisepticum. To define genes that may be involved in colonization of chickens, a collection of mutants of the virulent Ap3AS strain of M. gallisepticum were generated by signature-tagged transposon mutagenesis. The collection included mutants with single insertions in the genes encoding the adhesin GapA and the cytadherence-related protein CrmA, and Western blotting confirmed that these mutants did not express these proteins. In two separate in vivo screenings, two GapA-deficient mutants (ST mutants 02-1 and 06-1) were occasionally recovered from birds, suggesting that GapA expression may not always be essential for persistence of strain Ap3AS. CrmA-deficient ST mutant 33-1 colonized birds poorly and had reduced virulence, indicating that CrmA was a significant virulence factor, but was not absolutely essential for colonization. ST mutant 04-1 contained a single transposon insertion in malF, a predicted ABC sugar transport permease, and could not be reisolated even when inoculated by itself into a group of birds, suggesting that expression of MalF was essential for persistence of M. galliseptium strain Ap3AS in infected birds.