Multiple roles of Pseudomonas aeruginosa TBCF10839 PilY1 in motility, transport and infection

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Yu-Sing Tammy Bohn
  • Gudrun Brandes
  • Elza Rakhimova
  • Sonja Horatzek
  • Prabhakar Salunkhe
  • Antje Munder
  • Andrea van Barneveld
  • Doris Jordan
  • Florian Bredenbruch
  • Susanne Häussler
  • Kathrin Riedel
  • Leo Eberl
  • Jensen, Peter Østrup
  • Bjarnsholt, Thomas
  • Claus Moser
  • Høiby, Niels
  • Burkhard Tümmler
  • Lutz Wiehlmann
Polymorphonuclear neutrophils are the most important mammalian host defence cells against infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Screening of a signature tagged mutagenesis library of the non-piliated P. aeruginosa strain TBCF10839 uncovered that transposon inactivation of its pilY1 gene rendered the bacterium more resistant against killing by neutrophils than the wild type and any other of the more than 3000 tested mutants. Inactivation of pilY1 led to the loss of twitching motility in twitching-proficient wild-type PA14 and PAO1 strains, predisposed to autolysis and impaired the secretion of quinolones and pyocyanin, but on the other hand promoted growth in stationary phase and bacterial survival in murine airway infection models. The PilY1 population consisted of a major full-length and a minor shorter PilY1* isoform. PilY1* was detectable in small extracellular quinolone-positive aggregates, but not in the pilus. P. aeruginosa PilY1 is not an adhesin on the pilus tip, but assists in pilus biogenesis, twitching motility, secretion of secondary metabolites and in the control of cell density in the bacterial population.
Original languageEnglish
JournalMolecular Microbiology
Volume71
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)730-47
Number of pages17
ISSN0950-382X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008

Bibliographical note

Keywords: Animals; Biological Transport; DNA Transposable Elements; DNA, Bacterial; Female; Fimbriae Proteins; Fimbriae, Bacterial; Genes, Bacterial; Mice; Mice, Inbred C3H; Mutagenesis; Neutrophils; Phenazines; Protein Isoforms; Pseudomonas Infections; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Quinolines; Respiratory Tract Infections

ID: 10613218