LasR Variant Cystic Fibrosis Isolates Reveal an Adaptable Quorum-Sensing Hierarchy in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

Overview

Journal mBio

Publisher American Society for Microbiology

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2016 Oct 6

PMID 27703072

Citations 140

Authors

John B Feltner

Daniel J Wolter

Christopher E Pope

Marie-Christine Groleau

Nicole E Smalley

E Peter Greenberg

Nicole Mayer-Hamblett

Jane Burns

Eric Deziel

Lucas R Hoffman

Ajai A Dandekar

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Importance: Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections, such as those in patients with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis, are notable in that mutants with defects in the quorum-sensing transcription factor LasR frequently arise. In laboratory strains of P. aeruginosa, quorum sensing activates transcription of dozens of genes, many of which encode virulence factors, such as secreted proteases and hydrogen cyanide synthases. In well-studied laboratory strains, LasR-null mutants have a quorum-sensing-deficient phenotype. Therefore, the presence of LasR variants in chronic infections has been interpreted to indicate that quorum-sensing-regulated products are not important for those infections. We report that some P. aeruginosa LasR variant clinical isolates are not LasR-null mutants, and others have uncoupled a second quorum-sensing system, the RhlR system, from LasR regulation. In these uncoupled isolates, RhlR independently activates at least some quorum-sensing-dependent genes. Our findings suggest that quorum sensing plays a role in chronic P. aeruginosa infections, despite the emergence of LasR coding variants.

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