Codon-usage frequency mediated SNPs selection in lasR gene of cystic fibrosis Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen with high clinical relevance for hospital infections of patients. Accumulating DNA sequencing results of clinical P. aeruginosa isolates have revealed frequent mutations in lasR gene, which encodes the highest arches component of quorum-sensing system (QS). We analyzed the sequencing data of lasR gene from a large collection of cystic fibrosis (CF) P. aeruginosa isolates. Our systematical analyses revealed that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selection in lasR gene were largely constrained by codon-usage frequency. As a whole, SNP-substituted codons encoding unconserved amino acid resulted in unfavored codons with relatively low codon-usage frequency, while those associating with conserved amino acid were not strictly regulated in such way. These SNPs substitutions gives rise to diverse functional LasR isoforms and contributes to the relative growth fitness of recombinant lasR variant strains. Our survey reveals a novel pattern of SNPs selections in lasR gene of CF isolates. Our findings could be served as a powerful resource for understanding adaptive mechanism of clinical isolates under environmental constrains and developing anti-bacteria drugs for CF patients.