Global transcriptome analysis of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia in response to human body temperature

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is an emerging multidrug resistance opportunistic pathogen affecting immunocompromised and hospitalized patients. S. maltophilia is an environmental bacterium which adapts to human body and causing infection. S. rhizophilia, a non-pathogenic and phylogenetic neighbour of S. maltophilia is unable to grow at human body temperature. Thus, to understand molecular mechanism underlying the adaptation of S. maltophilia at human body temperature, we performed the comparative transcriptome analysis of S.maltophilia at 28 °C (representative for the environmental niches) and 37 °C (representative for human body) by using RNA-Seq. The major temperature-induced genes include genes for Type IV secretion system, aerotaxis, and cation diffusion facilitator family transporter suggesting its potential role in the adaptation and virulence of S. maltophilia. The downregulated genes at 37 °C includes the genes for the cell motility, energy generation and metabolism, lipid metabolism, translation, amino acid metabolism and transport, replication and repair, inorganic ion and transport metabolism lipid metabolism, coenzyme metabolism.