Genomic diversity of environmental Pseudomonas aeruginosa

P. aeruginosa is a ubiquitous organism found in nearly all environments, including different types of soil and water, and plants. Although the bacteria can be an opportunistic pathogen of human and animals, the bacterium is mostly harmless under normal conditions. The use of antibiotics in modern medicine, however, enabled the highly adaptive bacterium to invade new niches, evolving into one of the most important hospital-acquired infections in the country. In this project, we are investigating the link between strains of the bacterium isolated from the environment and from clinical settings.