Unraveling <i>Burkholderia cenocepacia</i> H111 fitness determinants using two animal models

The opportunistic pathogen <i>Burkholderia cenocepacia</i> has been associated with nosocomial infections in healthcare facilities, where it can cause outbreaks involving infections of the bloodstream, respiratory tract, and urinary tract as well as severe complications in immunocompromised patients. With the aim to identify novel targets to fight <i>B. cenocepacia</i> infections, we have used a genome-wide approach to unravel fitness genes required for host colonization in a clinical strain, <i>B. cenocepacia</i> H111. Among the various determinants that we identified is a rare genomic island that modifies the bacterial lipopolysaccharide. Our results highlight the power of the transposon sequencing approach to identify new targets for infection treatment and show the importance of using different infection models.