Coexistence with Pseudomonas aeruginosa alters Staphylococcus aureus transcriptome, antibiotic resistance and internalization into epithelial cells

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 16564 - 14
• Main Authors: Briaud, Paul, Camus, Laura, Bastien, Sylvère, Doléans-Jordheim, Anne, Vandenesch, François, Moreau, Karen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 12.11.2019; Nature Publishing Group UK
• Subjects: A549 Cells; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Bacteriology; Bronchopulmonary infection; Carbohydrates; Ciprofloxacin; Cystic fibrosis; Cystic Fibrosis - microbiology; Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Microbial - genetics; Endocytosis; Epithelial cells; Epithelial Cells - microbiology; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Genes, Bacterial; Humans; Internalization; Life Sciences; Lipid metabolism; Microbiology and Parasitology; Nucleotides; Pathogens; Penicillin; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Pseudomonas aeruginosa - isolation & purification; Pseudomonas aeruginosa - physiology; Reproducibility of Results; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; Staphylococcus aureus; Staphylococcus aureus - genetics; Staphylococcus aureus - isolation & purification; Strains (organisms); Transcriptome - genetics; Virulence factors
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-52975-z

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common life-threatening genetic disease among Caucasians. CF patients suffer from chronic lung infections due to the presence of thick mucus, caused by cftr gene dysfunction. The two most commonly found bacteria in the mucus of CF patients are Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It is well known that early-infecting P. aeruginosa strains produce anti-staphylococcal compounds and inhibit S. aureus growth. More recently, it has been shown that late-infecting P. aeruginosa strains develop commensal-like/coexistence interaction with S. aureus. The aim of this study was to decipher the impact of P. aeruginosa strains on S. aureus. RNA sequencing analysis showed 77 genes were specifically dysregulated in the context of competition and 140 genes in the context of coexistence in the presence of P. aeruginosa. In coexistence, genes encoding virulence factors and proteins involved in carbohydrates, lipids, nucleotides and amino acids metabolism were downregulated. On the contrary, several transporter family encoding genes were upregulated. In particular, several antibiotic pumps belonging to the Nor family were upregulated: tet38, norA and norC, leading to an increase in antibiotic resistance of S. aureus when exposed to tetracycline and ciprofloxacin and an enhanced internalization rate within epithelial pulmonary cells. This study shows that coexistence with P. aeruginosa affects the S. aureus transcriptome and virulence.