Memory response in Pseudomonas aeruginosa during infection of a eukaryotic host

We demonstrate that the versatile environmental bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa adapts a virulence phenotype after serial passage in Galleria mellonella as an invertebrate model host. The virulence phenotype was not linked to the acquisition of genetic variations and was sustained for several generations, despite cultivation of the ex vivo virulence-adapted P. aeruginosa cells under non-inducing rich medium conditions. Transcriptional reprogramming seemed to be induced by a host-specific food source as reprogramming was also observed upon cultivation of P. aeruginosa in medium supplemented with polyunsaturated long-chain fatty acids. The establishment of induced memory responses thus adds a time dimension and seems to fill the gap between long-term evolutionary genotypic adaptation and short-term induced individual responses. Efforts to unravel the fundamental mechanisms that underlie the carry-over effect to induce such memory responses will continue to be of importance as they ultimately drive survival of bacterial populations in changing and challenging habitats.