Spontaneous quorum-sensing hierarchy reprogramming in Pseudomonas aeruginosa laboratory strain PAO1

Xiaoyan Cheng,Yuanhao Li,Huifang Qiu,Weijun Dai,Linfeng Huang,Mingqi Lu

doi:10.1186/s13568-022-01344-7

Xiaoyan Cheng, Yuanhao Li + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13568-022-01344-7

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Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAO1 has been commonly used in the laboratory, with frequent genome variations reported. Quorum sensing (QS), a cell–cell communication system, plays important role in controlling a variety of virulence factors. However, the evolution and adaptability of QS in those laboratory strains are still poorly understood. Here we used the QS reporter and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to systematically investigate the QS phenotypes and corresponding genetic basis in collected laboratory PAO1 strains. We found that the PAO1-z strain has an inactive LasR protein, while bearing an active Rhl QS system and exhibiting QS-controlled protease-positive activity. Our study revealed that an 18-bp insertion in mexT gene gave rise to the active QS system in the PAO1-z strain. This MexT inactivation restored the QS activity caused by the inactive LasR, showing elevated production of pyocyanin, cyanide and elastase. Our results implied the evolutionary trajectory for the PAO1-z strain, with the evulutionary order from the first Las QS inactivation to the final Rhl QS activation. Our findings point out that QS homeostasis occurs in the laboratory P. aeruginosa strain, offering a potential platform for the QS study in clinical isolates.

Highlights

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes several severe acute and chronic human infections, including the infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with compromised immune systems (Gellatly and Hancock 2013; Klockgether and Tümmler 2017)
In our study, the adaptive mutations in the lasR and the mexT gene, which are responsible for the changes of the QS hierarchy, were identified in a commonly used laboratory PAO1-z strain cultured in nutrition-rich conditions
We assume that the lasR mutations inactivated QS first, followed by a secondary mexT mutation that reprogramed the QS hierarchy in the PAO1-z strain

Summary

Introduction

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes several severe acute and chronic human infections, including the infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with compromised immune systems (Gellatly and Hancock 2013; Klockgether and Tümmler 2017). Two acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) QS systems, LasI-LasR and RhlI-RhlR, were identified in P. aeruginosa. LasI and RhlI catalyze the productions of. MexT is a transcriptional regulator of the LysR family and positively controls the MexEF-OprN efflux pump (Köhler et al 1999; Maddocks and Oyston 2008). This efflux pump is related to the increased resistance of chloramphenicol, trimethoprim and fluoroquinolones (Köhler et al 1997a, b). As a global transcriptional regulator, in addition to regulation of the mexEF-oprN operon and a neighboring gene mexS (Köhler et al 1999), MexT

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