Establishment of a Host-to-Host Transmission Model for Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis Using Caenorhabditis elegans and Identification of Colonization-Associated Genes

Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis (M. avium) is a member of the non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), and is a common cause of lung infection in patients with chronic NTM lung conditions. M. avium is an environmental bacterium believed to be transmitted from environmental sources. In this work we used a recently developed model in Caenorhabditis elegans to ask whether M. avium can be transmitted from host-to-host, and the bacterial genes associated with host colonization. Infection of C. elegans was carried out by placing the nematode in cultured with M. avium. Bacteria eliminated from the intestines of infected C. elegans were used to infect naïve nematodes. In parallel experiments, to identify colonization associated genes, a transposon library of M. avium was screened for the ability to bind to HEp-2 mucosal cells. Thirty clones were identified and five selected clones with impaired adherence to HEp-2 epithelial cells were used to infect C. elegans to determine the degree of colonization. It was determined that M. avium eliminated from infected C. elegans were able to colonize a naïve C. elegans with high efficiency. Thirty of the most adherence-deficient M. avium clones obtained from the HEp-2 cell screening were sequenced to identify the location of the transposon. Many of the genes associated with the bacterial cell wall synthesis were shown to be inactivated in the selected mutants. Five out of the 30 bacterial clones were then used to infect C. elegans. All five mutants had impaired ability to colonize C. elegans compared with the wild type bacteria (decrease of 1.5–2.0 logs, p < 0.05). The limitation of this work is that the model can be used for initial screening, but other more complex systems should be used to confirm the findings. C. elegans can be used as a model to test for M. avium adherence/colonization-associated virulence determinants. All the tested adherence-deficient clones that were examined had impaired ability to colonize the host C. elegans, and some can be potentially used to prevent colonization.