Chromosomal DNA deletion confers phage resistance to Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Shuai Le, Xinyue Yao, Shuguang Lu, Yinling Tan, Xiancai Rao, Ming Li, Xiaolin Jin, Jing Wang, Yan Zhao, Nicholas C. Wu, Renate Lux, Xuesong He, Wenyuan Shi, Fuquan Hu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Bacteria develop a broad range of phage resistance mechanisms, such as prevention of phage adsorption and CRISPR/Cas system, to survive phage predation. In this study, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA1 strain was infected with lytic phage PaP1, and phage-resistant mutants were selected. A high percentage (~30%) of these mutants displayed red pigmentation phenotype (Red mutant). Through comparative genomic analysis, one Red mutant PA1r was found to have a 219.6â €...kb genomic fragment deletion, which contains two key genes hmgA and galU related to the observed phenotypes. Deletion of hmgA resulted in the accumulation of a red compound homogentisic acid; while A galU mutant is devoid of O-antigen, which is required for phage adsorption. Intriguingly, while the loss of galU conferred phage resistance, it significantly attenuated PA1r in a mouse infection experiment. Our study revealed a novel phage resistance mechanism via chromosomal DNA deletion in P. aeruginosa.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number4738
JournalScientific reports
Volume4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 28 2014
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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