TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental reservoirs for exoS+ and exoU+ strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
AU - Rutherford, Victoria
AU - Yom, Kelly
AU - Ozer, Egon A.
AU - Pura, Olivia
AU - Hughes, Ami
AU - Murphy, Katherine R.
AU - Cudzilo, Laura
AU - Mitchell, David
AU - Hauser, Alan R.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Drs. Larry K. Kociolek, Maulin Soneji, Maureen Bolon and Fiorella Krapp Lopez for their assistance with collecting environmental isolates from within hospitals. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants R01 AI053674, R01 AI118257 and K24 AI04831 (ARH) and by the Northwestern University Bioscientist Program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2018/8
Y1 - 2018/8
N2 - Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses its type III secretion system to inject the effector proteins ExoS and ExoU into eukaryotic cells, which subverts these cells to the bacterium's advantage and contributes to severe infections. We studied the environmental reservoirs of exoS+ and exoU+ strains of P. aeruginosa by collecting water, soil, moist substrates and plant samples from environments in the Chicago region and neighbouring states. Whole-genome sequencing was used to determine the phylogeny and type III secretion system genotypes of 120 environmental isolates. No correlation existed between geographic separation of isolates and their genetic relatedness, which confirmed previous findings of both high genetic diversity within a single site and the widespread distribution of P. aeruginosa clonal complexes. After excluding clonal isolates cultured from the same samples, 74 exoS+ isolates and 16 exoU+ isolates remained. Of the exoS+ isolates, 41 (55%) were from natural environmental sites and 33 (45%) were from man-made sites. Of the exoU+ isolates, only 3 (19%) were from natural environmental sites and 13 (81%) were from man-made sites (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that man-made water systems may be a reservoir from which patients acquire exoU+ P. aeruginosa strains.
AB - Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses its type III secretion system to inject the effector proteins ExoS and ExoU into eukaryotic cells, which subverts these cells to the bacterium's advantage and contributes to severe infections. We studied the environmental reservoirs of exoS+ and exoU+ strains of P. aeruginosa by collecting water, soil, moist substrates and plant samples from environments in the Chicago region and neighbouring states. Whole-genome sequencing was used to determine the phylogeny and type III secretion system genotypes of 120 environmental isolates. No correlation existed between geographic separation of isolates and their genetic relatedness, which confirmed previous findings of both high genetic diversity within a single site and the widespread distribution of P. aeruginosa clonal complexes. After excluding clonal isolates cultured from the same samples, 74 exoS+ isolates and 16 exoU+ isolates remained. Of the exoS+ isolates, 41 (55%) were from natural environmental sites and 33 (45%) were from man-made sites. Of the exoU+ isolates, only 3 (19%) were from natural environmental sites and 13 (81%) were from man-made sites (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that man-made water systems may be a reservoir from which patients acquire exoU+ P. aeruginosa strains.
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U2 - 10.1111/1758-2229.12653
DO - 10.1111/1758-2229.12653
M3 - Article
C2 - 29687624
AN - SCOPUS:85052156268
SN - 1758-2229
VL - 10
SP - 485
EP - 492
JO - Environmental Microbiology Reports
JF - Environmental Microbiology Reports
IS - 4
ER -