The lipopolysaccharide outer core transferase genes pcgD and hptE contribute differently to the virulence of Pasteurella multocida in ducks

Fowl cholera caused by Pasteurella multocida exerts a massive economic burden on the poultry industry. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is essential for the growth of P. multocida genotype L1 strains in chickens and specific truncations to the full length LPS structure can attenuate bacterial virulence. Here we further dissected the roles of the outer core transferase genes pcgD and hptE in bacterial resistance to duck serum, outer membrane permeability and virulence in ducks. Two P. multocida mutants, ΔpcgD and ΔhptE, were constructed, and silver staining confirmed that they all produced truncated LPS profiles. Inactivation of pcgD or hptE did not affect bacterial susceptibility to duck serum and outer membrane permeability but resulted in attenuated virulence in ducks to some extent. After high-dose inoculation, ΔpcgD showed remarkably reduced colonization levels in the blood and spleen but not in the lung and liver and caused decreased injuries in the spleen and liver compared with the wild-type strain. In contrast, the ΔhptE loads declined only in the blood, and ΔhptE infection caused decreased splenic lesions but also induced severe hepatic lesions. Furthermore, compared with the wild-type strain, ΔpcgD was significantly attenuated upon oral or intramuscular challenge, whereas ΔhptE exhibited reduced virulence only upon oral infection. Therefore, the pcgD deletion caused greater virulence attenuation in ducks, indicating the critical role of pcgD in P. multocida infection establishment and survival.