Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) lung infection is a significant cause of mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Existing experimental data in our lab showed significantly different levels of virulence of "early" and "late" P. aeruginosa infection isolates in a C. elegans slow killing model. We wished to examine the expression profile of these isolates in order to explore genes that may be responsible for the observed differences. The expression profiles of two pairs of isolates (four isolates in total) were compared to each other using the Affymetrix P. aeruginosa PAO1 genome array, to gain insight into properties mediating virulence in these isolates. Data analysis was carried out using BIOCONDUCTOR software. Keywords: Comparative strain hybridization
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that possesses a plethora of virulence factors, including the public goods siderophores and exoproteases. Mutants unable to produce either exoprotease or siderophores are selected in competition with producers; hence, these two virulence factors are prone to exploitation by social cheaters. However, so far most of the studies of exoprotease exploitation by social cheaters had been done in the reference strains PAO1 and PA14 and the information available of these behaviors in clinical or environmental isolates is limited to a few studies. In this work, we studied the exoproteases secreted by two clinical isolates from cystic fibrosis patients belonging to the epidemic clone ST274-CC274. We found that the exoprotease exploitation in these strains is mild and not a result of the selection of lasR mutants during continuous growth in casein as sole carbon source, in contrast with the paradigm in the reference strains.
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) lung infection is a significant cause of mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Most CF patients acquire unique P. aeruginosa strains from the environment; however clonal strains have been identified in CF communities in several countries. Two clonal strains infect 10% to 40% of patients in three CF clinics in mainland eastern Australia. The expression profiles of four planktonically-grown isolates of one Australian clonal strain (AES-2), and four non–clonal CF P. aeruginosa isolates were compared to each other and to the reference strain PAO1 using the Affymetrix P. aeruginosa PAO1 genome array, to gain insight into properties mediating the enhanced infectivity of AES-1. The isolates were subsequently grown as 3-day old biofilms and similarly extracted for RNA and compared as above. Data analysis was carried out using BIOCONDUCTOR software. Keywords: Comparative strain hybridization
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) lung infection is a significant cause of mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Existing experimental data in our lab showed significantly different levels of virulence of "early" and "late" P. aeruginosa infection isolates in a C. elegans slow killing model. We wished to examine the expression profile of these isolates in order to explore genes that may be responsible for the observed differences. The expression profiles of two pairs of isolates (four isolates in total) were compared to each other using the Affymetrix P. aeruginosa PAO1 genome array, to gain insight into properties mediating virulence in these isolates. Data analysis was carried out using BIOCONDUCTOR software. Keywords: Comparative strain hybridization Two pairs of isolates (four isolates in total) were compared to each other when grown on Nematode Growth Medium (NGM).
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) lung infection is a significant cause of mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Most CF patients acquire unique P. aeruginosa strains from the environment; however clonal strains have been identified in CF communities in several countries. Two clonal strains infect 10% to 40% of patients in three CF clinics in mainland eastern Australia. The expression profiles of four planktonically-grown isolates of one Australian clonal strain (AES-1), and four non–clonal CF P. aeruginosa isolates were compared to each other and to the reference strain PAO1 using the Affymetrix P. aeruginosa PAO1 genome array, to gain insight into properties mediating the enhanced infectivity of AES-1. The isolates were subsequently grown as 3-day old biofilms and similarly extracted for RNA and compared as above. Data analysis was carried out using BIOCONDUCTOR software. Keywords: Comparative strain hybridization
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a predominant pathogen in chronic lung infections in individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). Epidemic strains of P. aeruginosa, such as the Liverpool Epidemic Strain (LES), are capable of transferring between CF patients and have been associated with increased hospital visits and antibiotic treatments. Comparative genomics and phenotypic assays have shown that antibiotic resistance profiles differ among LES isolates and that genotype–phenotype associations are difficult to establish for resistance phenotypes in clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa based on these comparisons alone. We compared two LES isolates, LESlike1 and LESB58, and the common laboratory strain P. aeruginosa PAO1 using label-free quantitative proteomics to more accurately predict functional differences between strains. The proteomes of the LES isolates were found to be more similar to each other than to PAO1. However, we also observed a number of differences in the abundance of proteins involved in quorum sensing, virulence, and antibiotic resistance, including in the comparison of LESlike1 and LESB58. Specifically, the proteomic data revealed a higher abundance of proteins involved in polymyxin and aminoglycoside resistance in LESlike1. Minimum inhibitory concentration assays confirmed that LESlike1 has higher resistance to antibiotics from these classes. These findings provide an example of the ability of proteomic data to complement genotypic and phenotypic studies to understand resistance in clinical isolates.
Project description:We gathered the proteomic profile of 202 clinical P. aeruginosa isolates derived from a cystic fibrosis lung under planktonic growth conditions. Firstly, a comprehensive transcript/protein correlation across 174 clinical isolates at the same growth stage was performed allowing a characterization of proteins with long and short lifetimes. Consistent with the results from previous studies, proteins of the translational machinery and the key Quorum sensing mediators RpoS, Vfr, RhlR and MvfR were characterized as short-lived proteins. Again, no biochemical metric could explain differences between protein lifetimes further demonstrating a potentially undervalued importance of post-transcriptional regulation.
Secondly, a comparative multi-omics analysis was performed that highlighted the capacity to unearth novel characteristics for both antibiotic resistance and virulence traits. Investigating various tobramycin resistance mechanisms, the efflux pump system MexXY-OprM was determined as a key contributor of aminoglycoside modifying enzyme-driven resistance. MexY protein abundance was furthermore found to be directly regulated by the negative regulator MexZ. In tobramycin resistant isolates, the MexZ regulator was frequently identified as mutated or completely absent due to a possibly unidentified mechanism. This work found novel possible bacterial virulence factors by statistically comparing quantitative data and phenotypic survival data from a Galleria mellonella infection model. Additionally, a Random forest machine learning model was applied. The predictors with the highest predictive importance for the phenotypes of swarming motility, various antibiotic resistance phenotypes, and virulence were listed and discussed.
Project description:Rapid evaporative ionisation mass spectrometry (REIMS) is a novel technique for the real-time analysis of biological material. It works by conducting an electrical current through a sample, causing it to rapidly heat and evaporate, with the analyte containing vapour channelled to a mass spectrometer. It was used to characterise the metabolome of 45 Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) isolates from cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and compared to 80 non-CF P. aeruginosa. Phospholipids gave the highest signal intensity; 17 rhamnolipids and 18 quorum sensing molecules were detected, demonstrating that REIMS has potential for the study of virulence-related metabolites. P. aeruginosa isolates obtained from respiratory samples showed a higher diversity, which was attributed to the chronic nature of most respiratory infections. The analytical sensitivity of REIMS allowed the detection of a metabolome that could be used to classify individual P. aeruginosa isolates after repeated culturing with 81% accuracy, and an average 83% concordance with multilocus sequence typing. This study underpins the capacities of REIMS as a tool with clinical applications, such as metabolic phenotyping of the important CF pathogen P. aeruginosa, and highlights the potential of metabolic fingerprinting for fine scale characterisation at a sub-species level.
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa airway infection is the primary cause of death in Cystic Fibrosis (CF). During early infection P. aeruginosa produces multiple virulence factors, which cause acute pulmonary disease and are largely regulated by quorum sensing (QS) intercellular signalling networks. Longitudinal clinical studies have observed the loss, through adaptive mutation, of QS and QS-related virulence in late chronic infection. Although the mechanisms are not understood, infection with QS mutants has been linked to a worse outcome for CF patients. By comparing QS-active and QS-inactive P. aeruginosa CF isolates, we have identified novel virulence factors and pathways associated with QS disruption. In particular, we noted factors implicating increased intra-phagocyte survival. Our data present novel targets as candidates for future CF therapies. Some of these targets are already the subject of drug development programmes for the treatment of other bacterial pathogens and may provide cross-over benefit to the CF population. Refer to individual Series. This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE25128: Gene expression data from Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from cystic fibrosis lung infections GSE25129: Comparative genomic hybridisation data from Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from cystic fibrosis lung infections
Project description:To determine if differences in the severity of pulmonary infection in cystic fibrosis been seen in late isolates od Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia are associated with differences in the initial repsonse of alveolar macrophages (AM) to these pathogens, we assessed gene expression changes in human AM in response to infection with a laboratoty strain, early and late clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa, and B. cepacia. Keywords: Comparison of gene expression in alveolar macrophages of normal non-smokers and normal smokers.