The Pseudomonas aeruginosa ExoY phenotype of high-copy-number recombinants is not detectable in natural isolates

Open Biol. 2018 Jan;8(1):170250. doi: 10.1098/rsob.170250.

Abstract

The nucleotidyl cyclase ExoY is an effector protein of the type III secretion system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa We compared the cyclic nucleotide production and lung disease phenotypes caused by the ExoY-overexpressing strain PA103ΔexoUexoT::Tc pUCPexoY, its vector control strain PA103ΔexoUexoT::Tc pUCP18, its loss-of-function control PA103ΔexoUexoT::Tc pUCPexoY K81M and natural ExoY-positive and ExoY-negative isolates in a murine acute airway infection model. Only the P. aeruginosa carrier of the exoY-plasmid produced high levels of cUMP and caused the most severe course of infection. The pathology ascribed to ExoY from studies using the high-copy-number plasmid on mammalian cells in vitro and in vivo was not observed with natural P. aeruginosa isolates. This indicates that the role of ExoY during infection with real-life P. aeruginosa still needs to be resolved.

Keywords: ExoY; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; lung infection; type III secretion system.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • Female
  • Gene Dosage*
  • Glucosyltransferases / genetics*
  • Glucosyltransferases / metabolism
  • Lung / microbiology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Phenotype*
  • Pseudomonas Infections / microbiology*
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / genetics*
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / pathogenicity
  • Recombination, Genetic
  • Virulence / genetics

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • ExoY protein, bacteria
  • Glucosyltransferases