Specific Gene Loci of Clinical Pseudomonas putida Isolates

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 28;11(1):e0147478. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147478. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Pseudomonas putida are ubiquitous inhabitants of soils and clinical isolates of this species have been seldom described. Clinical isolates show significant variability in their ability to cause damage to hosts because some of them are able to modulate the host's immune response. In the current study, comparisons between the genomes of different clinical and environmental strains of P. putida were done to identify genetic clusters shared by clinical isolates that are not present in environmental isolates. We show that in clinical strains specific genes are mostly present on transposons, and that this set of genes exhibit high identity with genes found in pathogens and opportunistic pathogens. The set of genes prevalent in P. putida clinical isolates, and absent in environmental isolates, are related with survival under oxidative stress conditions, resistance against biocides, amino acid metabolism and toxin/antitoxin (TA) systems. This set of functions have influence in colonization and survival within human tissues, since they avoid host immune response or enhance stress resistance. An in depth bioinformatic analysis was also carried out to identify genetic clusters that are exclusive to each of the clinical isolates and that correlate with phenotypical differences between them, a secretion system type III-like was found in one of these clinical strains, a determinant of pathogenicity in Gram-negative bacteria.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Environmental Microbiology
  • Genes, Bacterial
  • Genetic Loci
  • Humans
  • Multilocus Sequence Typing
  • Pseudomonas Infections / microbiology
  • Pseudomonas putida / classification
  • Pseudomonas putida / genetics*

Grants and funding

Work in the authors’ laboratories was supported by ERANET Pathogenomics programme through the ADHERS project (Ref: BIO2008-04419-E) and Fondos FEDER from the European Union through project BIO2010-17227 of the Ministry of Economy and Competitivity of Spain. Bio-Iliberis R&D provided support in the form of salary and material for Amalia Roca, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.