Genome wide transcriptional analysis of P. aeruginosa PAO1 response to pH at 25 mM phosphate background

During extreme physiological stress, the intestinal tract can be transformed into a harsh environment characterized by regio- spatial alterations in oxygen, pH, and phosphate concentration. When the human intestine is exposed to extreme medical interventions, the normal flora becomes replaced by pathogenic species whose virulence can be triggered by various physico-chemical cues leading to lethal sepsis. We previously demonstrated that phosphate depletion develops in the mouse intestine following surgical injury and triggers intestinal P. aeruginosa to express a lethal phenotype that can be prevented by oral phosphate ([Pi]) supplementation. We used a microarray to define the virulence-related genes in P. aeruginosa grown as lawns on NGM at pH7.5 vs pH6.0 All samples for gene expression analysis were prepared in triplicate. P. aeruginosa MPAO1 cells collected from lawns grown on NGM/[Pi]25 mM, pH 6.0 or NGM/[Pi]25, pH 7.5 were used for RNA isolation as previously described. Microarray analysis was performed using Affymetrix P. aeruginosa GeneChips (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA) at the University of Chicago Functional Genomics Facility