Bordetella Pertussis Or Whooping Cough

“You think the safest place in the world for your baby is wrapped in your arms, but it can also be one of the most dangerous because parents most often spread pertussis,” ([elizabethpg1], 2010). These words come from a popular television commercial from a few years past. The commercial was used to promote the adult pertussis vaccine to help prevent the spread of the illness to infants. Many people recall this commercial because it was filled with constant infant coughs, but many don’t know the cause of pertussis, or whooping cough. Whooping cough is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis (“Causes and Transmission”, 2015). Bordetella pertussis is a pathogen that belongs to the domain bacteria. The species name, Bordetella pertussis,
To put this in perspective, one millimeter consists of 1000 micrometers, so bacteria are extraordinarily small (“Size and Scale”, n.d.) As stated before, Bordetella pertussis is a gram-negative bacterium. Gram-negative bacteria have an outer membrane which makes them more resistant to certain antibiotics. Gram-negative bacteria also have less peptidoglycan in their cell walls than gram-positive bacteria do (Aryal, 2015). Bordetella pertussis is also a coccobacillus, which is a short rod shape that may be mistaken for a coccus (Mertsola & He, n.d.). The pathogen is arranged singularly, meaning the cells aren’t together in a chain, cluster, or pair (CITATION) This pathogen is non-motile; therefore, it does not have flagella. It also does not have a capsule, which is a polysaccharide layer outside of the cell membrane (“BORDETELLA”, n.d.). Bordetella pertussis does release toxins. The toxin released by this pathogen is adenylate cyclase (Finger & von Koenig, 1996). When released, adenylate cyclase damages cilia in the respiratory tract. This can lead to swollen airways (“Causes and Transmission”, 2015). This toxin is also responsible for binding the pathogen to the cell extracellularly. Adenylate cyclase works as an adhesion, which is what allows it to bind Bordetella pertussis to respiratory cells (Finger & von Koenig, 1996). Bordetella pertussis also consists of pili (Todar, n.d). The pili on this pathogen work with the toxin, adenylate cyclase, to bind Bordetella pertussis to human respiratory epithelium (Hartsock, n.d.) While this pathogen does produce toxins, it does not form endospores (Finger & von Koenig, 1996). Endospores allow cells to survive in very complex environments, and they are dormant cells. This means that Bordetella pertussis isn’t capable of surviving in harsh environments. Spores are