Selection of Functional Quorum Sensing Systems by Lysogenic Bacteriophages in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract

Quorum sensing (QS) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa coordinates the expression of virulence factors, some of which are used as public goods. Since their production is a cooperative behavior, it is susceptible to social cheating in which non-cooperative QS deficient mutants use the resources without investing in their production. Nevertheless, functional QS systems are abundant; hence, mechanisms regulating the amount of cheating should exist. Evidence that demonstrates a tight relationship between QS and the susceptibility of bacteria against the attack of lytic phages is increasing; nevertheless, the relationship between temperate phages and QS has been much less explored. Therefore, in this work, we studied the effects of having a functional QS system on the susceptibility to temperate bacteriophages and how this affects the bacterial and phage dynamics. We find that both experimentally and using mathematical models, that the lysogenic bacteriophages D3112 and JBD30 select QS-proficient P. aeruginosa phenotypes as compared to the QS-deficient mutants during competition experiments with mixed strain populations in vitro and in vivo in Galleria mellonella, in spite of the fact that both phages replicate better in the wild-type background. We show that this phenomenon restricts social cheating, and we propose that temperate phages may constitute an important selective pressure toward the conservation of bacterial QS.

Symbiosis of a P2‐family phage and deep‐sea Shewanella putrefaciens

“…Phage-or phage-like structures spontaneously inducing cell lysis are frequently reported to be involved in the bacterial biofilm formation process (Godeke et al, 2011;Turnbull et al, 2016). Although the underlying molecular mechanism of SPI remains unknown, the lysis of individual cells may benefit the population through the release of 'public goods' such as eDNA (Vasse et al, 2015;Attar, 2016;Saucedo-Mora et al, 2017). Moreover, P2Sp-encoded genes also increase biofilm formation, and many of them are expressed at intermediate levels in wild-type W3-18-1.…”

ighting antimicrobial resistance in ESKAPE pathogens

“…Interestingly, the use of P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii phages together could inhibit QS systems [37,38]. These data highlight a new field in phage therapy.…”

Does quorum sensing interference affect the fitness of bacterial pathogens in the real world?

“…In this respect, it is important to mention that although quorum sensing is often considered to mainly control the production of public goods (including various virulence factors, e.g., lytic enzymes and toxins), several private goods that can significantly affect the fitness of bacteria in the host and/or external environment have recently been reported to be controlled by quorum sensing as well. These include flagellar motility in V. harveyi (Yang and Defoirdt, ), resistance to oxidative stress in P. aeruginosa (Garcia‐Contreras et al ., ), resistance to osmotic stress in V. harveyi (van Kessel et al ., ), resistance to phages in P. aeruginosa (Moreau et al ., ; Saucedo‐Mora et al ., ), Vibrio anguillarum (Tan et al ., ) and V. cholerae (Hoque et al ., ) and production of an antibiotic efflux pump in Chromobacterium violaceum (Evans et al ., ).…”