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ECF Sigma Factor HxuI Is Critical for In Vivo Fitness of Pseudomonas aeruginosa during Infection

Authors
Cai, Z.Yang, F.Shao, X.Yue, Z.Li, Z.Song, Y.Pan, X.Jin, Y.Cheng, Z.Ha, U.-H.Feng, J.Yang, L.Deng, X.Wu, W.Bai, F.
Issue Date
2022
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Keywords
ECF sigma factor; Host stress-response; HxuI; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Virulence
Citation
Microbiology Spectrum, v.10, no.1
Indexed
SCIE
SCOPUS
Journal Title
Microbiology Spectrum
Volume
10
Number
1
URI
https://scholar.korea.ac.kr/handle/2021.sw.korea/137582
DOI
10.1128/spectrum.01620-21
ISSN
2165-0497
Abstract
The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa often adapts to its host environment and causes recurrent nosocomial infections. The extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factor enables bacteria to alter their gene expression in response to host environmental stimuli. Here, we report an ECF sigma factor, HxuI, which is rapidly induced once P. aeruginosa encounters the host. Host stresses such as iron limitation, oxidative stress, low oxygen, and nitric oxide induce the expression of hxuI. By combining RNA-seq and promoter-lacZ reporter fusion analysis, we reveal that HxuI can activate the expression of diverse metabolic and virulence pathways which are critical to P. aeruginosa infections, including iron acquisition, denitrification, pyocyanin synthesis, and bacteriocin production. Most importantly, overexpression of the hxuI in the laboratory strain PAO1 promotes its colonization in both murine lung and subcutaneous infections. Together, our findings show that HxuI, a key player in host stress-response, controls the in vivo adaptability and virulence of P. aeruginosa during infection. IMPORTANCE P. aeruginosa has a strong ability to adapt to diverse environments, making it capable of causing recurrent and multisite infections in clinics. Understanding host adaptive mechanisms plays an important guiding role in the development of new anti-infective agents. Here, we demonstrate that an ECFs factor of P. aeruginosa response to the host-inflicted stresses, which promotes the bacterial in vivo fitness and pathogenicity. Furthermore, our findings may help explain the emergence of highly transmissible strains of P. aeruginosa and the acute exacerbations during chronic infections. Copyright © 2022 Cai et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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