Gene expression characteristics of a cystic fibrosis epidemic strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa during biofilm and planktonic growth

FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2009 Mar;292(1):107-14. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2008.01472.x.

Abstract

Epidemic Pseudomonas aeruginosa have been identified in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients worldwide. The Australian Epidemic Strain-2 (AES-2) infects up to 40% of patients in three eastern Australian CF clinics. To investigate whether AES-2 isolates from chronically infected CF adults differentially express well-conserved genes potentially associated with transmissibility, we compared the transcriptomes of planktonic and biofilm-grown AES-2, infrequent P. aeruginosa clones and the reference P. aeruginosa PAO1 using the Affymetrix PAO1 array. The most interesting findings emerged from comparisons of planktonic and biofilm AES-2. AES-2 biofilms upregulated Type III secretion system genes, but downregulated quorum-sensing (QS)-regulatory genes, except lasR, QS-regulated, oxidative-stress and iron-storage genes. QS-regulated and iron-storage genes were downregulated to a greater extent in AES-2 biofilms compared with infrequent clone and PAO1 biofilms, suggesting enhanced anaerobic respiration in AES-2. Chitinase and chitin-binding protein maintained high expression in AES-2 biofilms compared with infrequent clone and PAO1 biofilms. Planktonic AES-2 upregulated QS regulators and QS-regulated genes, iron acquisition and aerobic respiration genes, and had high expression of Group III Type IV pilA compared with low expression of Group I Type IV pilA in infrequent clones. Together, these properties may enhance long-term survival of AES-2 in CF lung and contribute to its transmissibility.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Anaerobiosis
  • Biofilms / growth & development*
  • Cystic Fibrosis / microbiology
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Profiling*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Metabolic Networks and Pathways / genetics
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Pseudomonas Infections / microbiology
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / growth & development*
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / isolation & purification
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / physiology
  • Young Adult

Associated data

  • GEO/GSE1030
  • GEO/GSE6122