Loss of social behaviours in populations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infecting lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis.

ABSTRACT: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is an opportunistic, bacterial pathogen causing persistent and frequently fatal infections of the lung in patients with cystic fibrosis. Isolates from chronic infections differ from laboratory and environmental strains in a range of traits and this is widely interpreted as the result of adaptation to the lung environment. Typically, chronic strains carry mutations in global regulation factors that could effect reduced expression of social traits, raising the possibility that competitive dynamics between cooperative and selfish, cheating strains could also drive changes in P. aeruginosa infections. We compared the expression of cooperative traits - biofilm formation, secretion of exo-products and quorum sensing (QS) - in P. aeruginosa isolates that were estimated to

SUBMITTER: Jiricny N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3891558 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature