Tripartite interactions between filamentous Pf4 bacteriophage, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and bacterivorous nematodes.

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 is infected by the filamentous bacteriophage Pf4. Pf4 virions promote biofilm formation, protect bacteria from antibiotics, and modulate animal immune responses in ways that promote infection. Furthermore, strains cured of their Pf4 infection (Δ...

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Main Authors: Caleb M Schwartzkopf, Autumn J Robinson, Mary Ellenbecker, Dominick R Faith, Amelia K Schmidt, Diane M Brooks, Lincoln Lewerke, Ekaterina Voronina, Ajai A Dandekar, Patrick R Secor
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2023-02-01
Series:PLoS Pathogens
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1010925&type=printable
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author Caleb M Schwartzkopf
Autumn J Robinson
Mary Ellenbecker
Dominick R Faith
Amelia K Schmidt
Diane M Brooks
Lincoln Lewerke
Ekaterina Voronina
Ajai A Dandekar
Patrick R Secor
author_facet Caleb M Schwartzkopf
Autumn J Robinson
Mary Ellenbecker
Dominick R Faith
Amelia K Schmidt
Diane M Brooks
Lincoln Lewerke
Ekaterina Voronina
Ajai A Dandekar
Patrick R Secor
author_sort Caleb M Schwartzkopf
collection DOAJ
description The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 is infected by the filamentous bacteriophage Pf4. Pf4 virions promote biofilm formation, protect bacteria from antibiotics, and modulate animal immune responses in ways that promote infection. Furthermore, strains cured of their Pf4 infection (ΔPf4) are less virulent in animal models of infection. Consistently, we find that strain ΔPf4 is less virulent in a Caenorhabditis elegans nematode infection model. However, our data indicate that PQS quorum sensing is activated and production of the pigment pyocyanin, a potent virulence factor, is enhanced in strain ΔPf4. The reduced virulence of ΔPf4 despite high levels of pyocyanin production may be explained by our finding that C. elegans mutants unable to sense bacterial pigments through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor are more susceptible to ΔPf4 infection compared to wild-type C. elegans. Collectively, our data support a model where suppression of quorum-regulated virulence factors by Pf4 allows P. aeruginosa to evade detection by innate host immune responses.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1553-7366
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language English
publishDate 2023-02-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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spelling doaj-art-e25d2e5c1a504c2b804c4ab1f43c9be52025-08-20T03:56:00ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Pathogens1553-73661553-73742023-02-01192e101092510.1371/journal.ppat.1010925Tripartite interactions between filamentous Pf4 bacteriophage, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and bacterivorous nematodes.Caleb M SchwartzkopfAutumn J RobinsonMary EllenbeckerDominick R FaithAmelia K SchmidtDiane M BrooksLincoln LewerkeEkaterina VoroninaAjai A DandekarPatrick R SecorThe opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 is infected by the filamentous bacteriophage Pf4. Pf4 virions promote biofilm formation, protect bacteria from antibiotics, and modulate animal immune responses in ways that promote infection. Furthermore, strains cured of their Pf4 infection (ΔPf4) are less virulent in animal models of infection. Consistently, we find that strain ΔPf4 is less virulent in a Caenorhabditis elegans nematode infection model. However, our data indicate that PQS quorum sensing is activated and production of the pigment pyocyanin, a potent virulence factor, is enhanced in strain ΔPf4. The reduced virulence of ΔPf4 despite high levels of pyocyanin production may be explained by our finding that C. elegans mutants unable to sense bacterial pigments through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor are more susceptible to ΔPf4 infection compared to wild-type C. elegans. Collectively, our data support a model where suppression of quorum-regulated virulence factors by Pf4 allows P. aeruginosa to evade detection by innate host immune responses.https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1010925&type=printable
spellingShingle Caleb M Schwartzkopf
Autumn J Robinson
Mary Ellenbecker
Dominick R Faith
Amelia K Schmidt
Diane M Brooks
Lincoln Lewerke
Ekaterina Voronina
Ajai A Dandekar
Patrick R Secor
Tripartite interactions between filamentous Pf4 bacteriophage, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and bacterivorous nematodes.
PLoS Pathogens
title Tripartite interactions between filamentous Pf4 bacteriophage, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and bacterivorous nematodes.
title_full Tripartite interactions between filamentous Pf4 bacteriophage, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and bacterivorous nematodes.
title_fullStr Tripartite interactions between filamentous Pf4 bacteriophage, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and bacterivorous nematodes.
title_full_unstemmed Tripartite interactions between filamentous Pf4 bacteriophage, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and bacterivorous nematodes.
title_short Tripartite interactions between filamentous Pf4 bacteriophage, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and bacterivorous nematodes.
title_sort tripartite interactions between filamentous pf4 bacteriophage pseudomonas aeruginosa and bacterivorous nematodes
url https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1010925&type=printable
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