Abstract
ABSTRACT This study investigates the twitching ability of 28 clinical and five environmental strains of S. maltophilia grown under iron-depleted condition through in-silico, phenotypic and proteomics approaches. Rapid Annotations using Subsystem Technology (RAST) analysis revealed the presence of 21 targets of type IV pilus shared across S. maltophilia strains K279a, R551-3, D457 and JV3. The macroscopic twitching assay showed that only clinical isolates produced a zone of twitching with a mean of 22.00 mm under normal and 25.00 mm under iron-depleted conditions. (p = 0.002). Environmental isolates did not show any significant twitching activity in both conditions tested. Isobaric Tags for Relative and Absolute Quantification (ITRAQ) analysis showed altered expression of twitching motility protein PilT (99.08-fold change), flagellar biosynthesis protein FliC (20.14-fold change), and fimbrial protein (0.70-fold change) in response to iron-depleted condition. Most of the strains that have the ability to twitch under the normal condition, exhibit enhanced twitching during iron limitation.
Highlights
The prevalence of nosocomial infections caused by a Gramnegative opportunistic pathogen, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, has remarkably increased in recent years [1–7]
Our in-silico analysis revealed that adhesion and motility factors such as pili and fimbriae were found in all S. maltophilia genomes
A previous study reported that, S. maltophilia isolates K279a and SKK35, R551-3, SKA14, and RA8 were found to harbor genes involved in pili and fimbriae formation, including: (1) Twitching motility proteins; (2) Fimbrial proteins; (3) Pilus assembly proteins; and (4) Twitching motility proteins, pilus assembly proteins [40]
Summary
The prevalence of nosocomial infections caused by a Gramnegative opportunistic pathogen, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, has remarkably increased in recent years [1–7]. The pathogen has been isolated from various medical devices, disinfectant solutions, and found as part of endogenous flora of healthcare workers [10–13] These serve as the source of transmission among patient who is immunocompromised, with indwelling medical devices, admitted to intensive care unit (ICU), on broad-spectrum antibiotics, prolonged hospitalization and exposed mucocutaneous barrier. Bacteria can sense a wide range of environmental stimuli such as osmolarity, pH, oxygen tension, temperature, nutrient availability, and adapting their morphology and physiology for survival. Among all these factors, iron depletion causes a reduced production of cellular components, metabolic/enzyme activity and its products [25]. Pathogens must scavenge available iron sources within the host’s cells to thrive this stressful environment
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