Spatial transcriptomics identifies novel Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence factors.

ABSTRACT: To examine host-pathogen interactions, we leveraged a dual spatial transcriptomics approach that simultaneously captures the expression of Pseudomonas aeruginosa genes alongside the entire host transcriptome using a murine model of ocular infection. This method revealed differential pathogen- and host-specific gene expression patterns in infected corneas, which generated a unified transcriptional map of infection. By integrating these data, we developed a predictive ridge regression model trained on images from infected tissues. The model achieved an R² score of 0.923 in predicting bacterial burden distributions and identifying novel biomarkers associated with disease severity. Among iron acquisition pathogen-specific gene transcripts that showed significant enrichment at the ho

SUBMITTER: Zhou H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11960532 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature