The Challenging Life of Mutators: How Pseudomonas aeruginosa Survives between Persistence and Evolution in Cystic Fibrosis Lung.

ABSTRACT: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening genetic disease characterised by chronic lung infections sustained by opportunistic pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. During the chronic long-lasting lung infections, P. aeruginosa adapts to the host environment. Hypermutability, mainly due to defects in the DNA repair system, resulting in an increased spontaneous mutation rate, represents a way to boost the rapid adaptation frequently encountered in CF P. aeruginosa isolates. We selected 609 isolates from 51 patients with CF chronically colonised by P. aeruginosa to study, by full-length genome sequencing, the longitudinal evolution of the bacterium. We recovered at least one hypermutable (mutator) isolate in 57% of patients. By combining genomic information an

SUBMITTER: Rossitto M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11509988 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature