A simple mung bean infection model for studying the virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Here we highlight the development of a simple and high-throughput mung bean model to study virulence in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The model is easy to set up, and infection and virulence can be monitored for up to 10 days. In a first test of the model, we found that mung bean seedlings infected with PAO1 showed poor development of roots and high mortality rates compared to uninfected controls. We also found that a quorum-sensing (QS) mutant was significantly less virulent when compared with the PAO1 wild-type. Our work introduces a new tool for studying virulence in P. aeruginosa that will allow for high-throughput virulence studies of mutants and testing of the in vivo efficacy of new therapies at a time when new antimicrobial drugs are desperately needed.