ROLE OF FUCOSE UTILIZATION ON KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE GUT COLONIZATION AND PATHOGENESIS
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Item Details
- title
- ROLE OF FUCOSE UTILIZATION ON KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE GUT COLONIZATION AND PATHOGENESIS
- author
- Hudson, Andrew Wesley
- abstract
- Klebsiella pneumoniae is a leading cause of nosocomial infections in the U.S., owing to its broad antibiotic resistance and many potential infection sites. K. pneumoniae colonizes the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract asymptomatically, from where it can translocate within a host or transmit to another. While poorly understood, knowledge of this first step toward infection and spread is critical for combatting K. pneumoniae’s pathogenesis and transmission. To colonize the gut, K. pneumoniae must overcome colonization resistance provided by the host microbiota in the form of nutrient competition. Enteric pathogens are known to metabolize fucose, present in intestinal mucus, to avoid competition and successfully colonize. Using our murine model for K. pneumoniae GI colonization, we show that fucose metabolism is critical for K. pneumoniae to acquire a metabolic niche, bypass colonization resistance, and establish itself in the gut. Because alternative nutrient sources can allow pathogens to coordinate virulence, we investigated the role of fucose utilization on several established virulence phenotypes and observed positive modulation of hypermucoviscosity, autoaggregation, and biofilm formation. These insights lend a stronger understanding of the role of alternative carbon sources on K. pneumoniae GI colonization, as well as the complex relationship between metabolism and virulence in this important pathogen.
- subject
- Biofilm
- Colonization Resistance
- Enteric Pathogen
- Fucose
- Klebsiella pneumoniae
- Virulence
- contributor
- Zafar, Muhammad A (committee chair)
- Zafar, Muhammad A (committee member)
- Walker, Kimberly A (committee member)
- Grayson, Jason M (committee member)
- date
- 2022-05-24T08:36:20Z (accessioned)
- 2022-11-23T09:30:13Z (available)
- 2022 (issued)
- degree
- Biomedical Science – MS (discipline)
- embargo
- 2022-11-23 (terms)
- identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10339/100784 (uri)
- language
- en (iso)
- publisher
- Wake Forest University
- type
- Thesis