Pseudomonas aeruginosa and adhesion

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a pathogenic micro-organism responsible for many hospital-acquired infections. It is able to adhere to solid surfaces and develop an immobilised community or so-called biofilm. Many studies have been focusing on the use of specific materials to prevent the formation of these biofilms, but the reactivity of the bacteria in contact to surfaces remains unknown. In order to evaluate the impact of different materials on the physiology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa during the first stage of biofilm formation, i.e. adhesion, we investigated the total proteome of cells adhering to three materials: stainless steel, glass and polystyrene. Using tandem mass spectrometry performed at the PAPPSO proteomic platform, 930 proteins were identified, 70 of which were differentially expressed between the materials. Dysregulated proteins belonged to 19 PseudoCAP (Pseudomonas Community Annotation Project) functional classes, with a particular abundance of proteins involved in small molecule transport and membrane proteins. Notably, ten porins or porin precursors were under-produced in bacteria adhering to stainless steel when compared to those adhering to polystyrene and glass. Although adhesion to solid surfaces is an extracellular phenomenon, it involves not only extracellular proteins but also intracellular reactions, as observed with the dysregulation of 11 proteins involved in various metabolisms and five in protein translation. Overall, this work showed that during bacterial adhesion, P. aeruginosa senses the materials concerned and is able to modulate its physiology accordingly.