Diverse pathogenicity of Burkholderia cepacia complex strains in the Caenorhabditis elegans host model

A fast screening method was developed to assess the pathogenicity of a diverse collection of environmental and clinical Burkholderia cepacia complex isolates in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The method was validated by comparison with the standard slow-killing assay. We observed that the pathogenicity of B. cepacia complex isolates in C elegans was strain-dependent but species-independent. The wide range of observed pathogenic phenotypes agrees with the high degree of phenotypic variation among species of the R cepacia complex and suggests that the taxonomic classification of a given strain within the complex cannot predict pathogenicity. (c) 2005 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.