Urinary tract colonization is enhanced by a plasmid that regulates uropathogenic Acinetobacter baumannii chromosomal genes

Acinetobacter baumannii is generally considered an opportunistic pathogen. Here, Di Venanzio et al. develop a mouse model of catheter-associated urinary tract infection and show that a plasmid confers niche specificity to an A. baumannii urinary isolate by regulating the expression of chromosomal genes.