Pseudomonas aerugiosa tctED deletion strain compared to wildtype

Purpose of study was to investigate whole genome expression changes of a strain with deletion of the two-component system TctD-TctE and determine genes dysregulate relative to the parental wildtype to gain insight into possible regulatory targets of TctD-TctE. TctD-TctE is a two-component system in Pseudomonas aeruginosa that responds to and regulates uptake of tricarboxylic acids such as citric acid. It accomplishes this through derepression of the porin encoding the gene opdH, thereby regulating influx of citrate metabolites from the surrounding environment. Deletion of the tctED operon (ΔtctED) resulted in a reduced growth phenotype when citric acid is present in media. In the ΔtctED strain the presence of citric acid was found to have an inhibitory effect on growth. When the alternative carbon source arginine was present, wildtype levels of growth could not be restored. Static cultures of ΔtctED had low cell density in the presence of citric acid but maintained the same levels of biofilm formation compared to conditions when no citric acid was present. This suggests a dysregulation of biofilm formation in the presence of citric acid. In the ΔtctED strain there was also greater accumulation of tobramycin within the biofilm compared to the PA14 wildtype strain. Additionally, analysis of whole-genome expression found that multiple metabolic genes were dysregulated in ΔtctED. Here it is concluded that TctD-TctE is involved in biofilm tolerance to tobramycin in the presence of citrate metabolites. A total of 8 samples were analyzed. Conditions of planktonic and biofilm growth were performed for both the tctED strain and wildtype (4 samples for each strain). Wildtype expression in this study was used as a basis to determine tctED expression relative to wildtype.