Pseudomonas aeruginosa lasR mutants in young cystic fibrosis patients

Pseudomonas aeruginosa undergoes genetic change during chronic infection of the airways of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. One common change is mutation of lasR. LasR is a transcriptional regulator that responds to one of the quorum sensing signals in P. aeruginosa, and regulates acute virulence factor expression as well as central metabolic functions. P. aeruginosa mutants in which lasR was inactivated emerged in the airways of CF patients early during chronic infection, and during growth in the laboratory on Luria-Bertani agar. Both environments are rich in amino acids. Inactivation of lasR in these isolates conferred a growth advantage with amino acids, a phenotype that could account for selection of lasR mutants both in vivo and in vitro. P. aeruginosa lasR mutants were identified by their distinctive colony morphology, including autolysis that correlated with an imbalance in 4-hydroxy-2-alkylquinolines (HAQs), and an iridescent metallic sheen likely caused by the accumulation of one such HAQ. The alterations in transcriptional profile due to inactivation of lasR were conserved in isolates from multiple young CF patients. P. aeruginosa lasR mutations may represent surrogate markers to delineate stages in the natural history of CF airway disease, each with different prognostic and therapeutic implications, analogous to the markers used to direct cancer treatment. Similar to cancer cell mutations that promote unrestricted growth, lasR mutations may promote unrestricted growth of P. aeruginosa in the CF airway by enabling more efficient utilization of available amino acids. Keywords: disease state analysis Analyse the effects of mutation of the lasR gene in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from cystic fibrosis patients by comparing the transcriptional profile of an isolate from a young patient with that of an isogenic engineered lasR mutant.