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Members of the  Burkholderia cepacia  complex (Bcc) have emerged in recent decades as problematic pulmonary pathogens of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, with severe infections progressing to acute necrotizing pneumonia and sepsis. This study presents evidence that  Lemna minor  (Common duckweed) is useful as a plant model for the Bcc infectious process, and has potential as a model system for bacterial pathogenesis in general. To investigate the relationship between Bcc virulence in duckweed and  Galleria mellonella  (Greater wax moth) larvae, a previously established Bcc infection model, a duckweed survival assay was developed and used to determine LD 50  values. A strong correlation (R 2  = 0.81) was found between the strains’ virulence ranks in the two infection models, suggesting conserved pathways in these vastly different hosts. To broaden the application of the duckweed model, enteropathogenic  Escherichia coli  (EPEC) and five isogenic mutants with previously established LD 50  values in the larval model were tested against duckweed, and a strong correlation (R 2  = 0.93) was found between their raw LD 50  values. Potential virulence factors in  B. cenocepacia  K56-2 were identified using a high-throughput screen against single duckweed plants. In addition to the previously characterized antifungal compound (AFC) cluster genes, several uncharacterized genes were discovered including a novel  lysR  regulator, a histidine biosynthesis gene  hisG , and a gene located near the gene encoding the recently characterized virulence factor SuhB  Bc  . Finally, to demonstrate the utility of this model in therapeutic applications, duckweed was rescued from Bcc infection by treating with bacteriophage at 6-h intervals. It was observed that phage application became ineffective at a timepoint that coincided with a sharp increase in bacterial invasion of plant tissue. These results indicate that common duckweed can serve as an effective infection model for the investigation of bacterial virulence factors and therapeutic strategies to combat them.

Common Duckweed (Lemna minor) Is a Versatile High-Throughput Infection Model For the Burkholderia cepacia Complex and Other Pathogenic Bacteria