{"doi":"10.1128/aem.01244-22","title":"Yersinia pestis Δ <i>ail</i> Mutants Are Not Susceptible to Human Complement Bactericidal Activity in the Flea","abstract":"This work contributes to our understanding of how highly virulent Y. pestis evolved from its innocuous enteric predecessor. Among identified virulence factors is the attachment invasion locus protein, Ail, that is required to protect Y. pestis from serum complement in all mammals tested except mice. Murine sera is not bactericidal. In this study, we asked, is bactericidal sera from humans active in Y. pestis colonized fleas? We found it was not. The importance of this observation is that it identifies a protective niche for the growth of serum sensitive and nonsensitive Y. pestis strains.","journal":"Applied and Environmental Microbiology","year":2023,"id":402875,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9544,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1180691,"name":"Scott W. Bearden","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":313630,"name":"Sarah E. Maes","orcid":"0000-0002-4196-3466","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1180692,"name":"John M. Montenieri","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":383671,"name":"Kenneth L. Gage","orcid":"0000-0001-9314-3876","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432570,"name":"Carolyn J. Hovde","orcid":"0000-0002-7383-3033","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432569,"name":"Scott A. Minnich","orcid":"0000-0002-3202-9049","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":767647,"name":"Anna M. Kolodziejek","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":71,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:20:32.588152Z","pmid":"36744930","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}