English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Chronic lung infections with  Pseudomonas aeruginosa  are associated with the diversification of the persisting clone into niche specialists and morphotypes, a phenomenon called ‘dissociative behaviour’. To explore the potential of  P. aeruginosa  to change its morphotype by single step loss-of–function mutagenesis, a signature-tagged mini-Tn 5  plasposon library of the cystic fibrosis airway isolate TBCF10839 was screened for colony morphology variants under nine different conditions  in vitro . Transposon insertion into 1% of the genome changed colony morphology into eight discernable morphotypes. Half of the 55 targets encode features of primary or secondary metabolism whereby quinolone production was frequently affected. In the other half the transposon had inserted into genes of the functional categories transport, regulation or motility/chemotaxis. To mimic dissociative behaviour of isogenic strains in lungs, pools of 25 colony morphology variants were tested for competitive fitness in an acute murine airway infection model. Six of the 55 mutants either grew better or worse  in vivo  than  in vitro , respectively. Metabolic proficiency of the colony morphology variant was a key determinant for survival in murine airways. The most common morphotype of self-destructive autolysis did unexpectedly not impair fitness. Transposon insertions into homologous genes of strain PAO1 did not reproduce the TBCF10839 mutant morphotypes for 16 of 19 examined loci pointing to an important role of the genetic background on colony morphology. Depending on the chosen  P. aeruginosa  strain, functional genome scans will explore other areas of the evolutionary landscape. Based on our discordant findings of mutant phenotypes in  P. aeruginosa  strains PAO1, PA14 and TBCF10839, we conclude that the current focus on few reference strains may miss modes of niche adaptation and dissociative behaviour that are relevant for the microevolution of complex traits in the wild.

Fitness of Isogenic Colony Morphology Variants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Murine Airway Infection