Project description:Using in vitro directed evolution, we show that mismatch repair-deficient Pseudomonas aeruginosa can engage novel resistance mechanisms to ceftazidime-avibactam.
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen which causes acute and chronic infections that are difficult to treat. Comparative genomic analysis has showed a great genome diversity among P. aeruginosa clinical strains and revealed important regulatory traits during chronic adaptation. While current investigation of epigenetics of P. aeruginosa is still lacking, understanding the epigenetic regulation may provide biomarkers for diagnosis and reveal important regulatory mechanisms. The present study focused on characterization of DNA methyltransferases (MTases) in a chronically adapted P. aeruginosa clinical strain TBCF10839. Single-molecule real-time sequencing (SMRT-seq) was used to characterize the methylome of TBCF. RCCANNNNNNNTGAR and TRGANNNNNNTGC were identified as target motifs of DNA MTases, M.PaeTBCFI and M.PaeTBCFII, respectively.
Project description:Circumventing or overwhelming the bacterial adaptation capabilities is key to combatting multidrug-resistant pathogens like Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In an effort to understand the physiological response of P. aeruginosa to clinically relevant antibiotics, we investigated the proteome after exposure to ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, rifampicin, gentamicin, tobramycin, azithromycin, tigecycline, polymyxin B, colistin, ceftazidime, meropenem, and piperacillin/tazobactam. We further investigated the response to CHIR-90, which represents a promising class of lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis inhibitors currently under evaluation. Radioactive pulse-labeling of newly synthesized proteins followed by 2D-PAGE was used to monitor the acute response of P. aeruginosa to antibiotic treatment. Marker proteins were excised from non-radioactive gels and identified by mass spectrometry. The proteomic profiles provide insights into the cellular defense strategies for each antibiotic. A mathematical comparison of these response profiles based on upregulated marker proteins revealed similarities of responses to antibiotics acting on the same target area.
Project description:Circumventing or overwhelming the bacterial adaptation capabilities is key to combatting multidrug-resistant pathogens like Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We investigated the physiological stress exerted by approved antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, rifampicin, gentamicin, tobramycin, azithromycin, tigecycline, polymyxin B, colistin, ceftazidime, meropenem, piperacillin/tazobactam), experimental antibiotics (CHIR-090) and NSAIDs (acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), diclofenac, ibuprofen), and studied the bacterial response on the proteome level. Radioactive pulse-labeling of newly synthesized proteins followed by 2D-PAGE was used to monitor the acute response of P. aeruginosa to antibiotic treatment. Subsequently, marker proteins were excised from non-radioactive gels and identified by mass spectrometry. We generated a reference library of P. aeruginosa proteomic responses and implemented a mathematical comparison of the profiles. Proteomic signatures were derived for clinically relevant target areas.
Project description:Analysis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 treated with 200 µM sphingomyelin. Results provide insight into the response to sphingomyelin in P. aeruginosa.
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most frequent pathogen dominant in complicated urinary tract infections (UTI). To unravel the adaptation strategies of P. aeruginosa to the conditions in the urinary tract and to define the underlying regulatory network an artificial growth system mimicking the conditions in the urinary tract was established. Transcriptome analyses were used to investigate the physiological status of P. aeruginosa under this conditions.
Project description:Representatives of two families of bacterial Par proteins, ParA and ParB, are encoded by the majority of bacterial chromosomes in the close vicinity of oriC. ParA(Soj) and ParB(Spo0J) proteins of Pseudomonas aeruginosa are both important for optimal growth, nucleoids segregation, cell division and different types of motility. Comparative transcriptome analysis of parAnull, parBnull mutants versus parental PAO1161 strain of P. aeruginosa demonstrated global changes in genes expression pattern in logarithmic phase of planktonic cultures grown on rich medium. The set of genes that were similarly regulated in both mutant strains as compared to the wild-type strain as well as two sets of genes uniquely affected in the particular mutant were defined suggesting that ParA and ParB may act in common and independently. In general, many genes involved in cell division, DNA and RNA processing and metabolic processes were down-regulated in mutant cells, in contrast genes which products play a role in adaptation, protection, motility, cell-to-cell signaling as well as signal transduction increased their expression in par mutant cells. Besides their role in chromosome segregation, ParA and ParB seem to have the potential to regulate genes transcription. The altered expression of a large number of genes encoding known or predicted transcriptional regulators and genes coding for products involved in c-di-GMP signalling, suggests that the part of observed global changes in genes expression pattern in parAnull and parBnull mutants might be the effect of indirect regulation mediated by regulatory genes under ParA and ParB control. The extended regulatory network provides the mechanism to modulate genes expression in response to the stage of the chromosome segregation process and cell cycle. Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1161 (leu, r-, RifR), derivative of PAO1, as a control (reference) strain, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1161 parA1-40::smh (parAnull) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1161 parB1-18::TcR (parBnull) disruption mutant strains were used in the experiments. Three independent biological replicates of total RNA were isolated for each strain from logarithmic (Log) phase of planktonic culture grown on rich medium (L broth) at 37oC. In total, nine samples of RNA were prepared.