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Infection and Immunity, July 2000, p. 4331-4334, Vol. 68, No. 7
Department of Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester,
New York 14642,1 and College of
Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York
100322
Received 22 December 1999/Returned for modification 24 March
2000/Accepted 29 March 2000
Cell-to-cell signaling controls many virulence genes in
Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We tested the virulence of
las and rhl quorum-sensing mutants in neonatal
mice. A lasI rhlI double mutant was nearly avirulent, and
the respective single mutant strains were reduced in virulence compared
with the wild-type strain. Quorum sensing plays a role in P. aeruginosa pneumonia in neonatal mice.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
frequently causes pneumonia (3, 6), septicemia
(7), and other acute infections (25) in
immunocompromised patients (for review see reference
2). This gram-negative bacterium also causes chronic
lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients (11). Virulence
of P. aeruginosa depends on both cellular and extracellular
factors. Cell-associated pili, flagella, and lipopolysaccharide are
important surface components of P. aeruginosa which
facilitate attachment of the organism to host cell surfaces and
activate immune responses. These cellular bacterial constituents are
required for virulence in a number of models of P. aeruginosa infection (5, 8, 13, 24, 30, 31).
Extracellular or secreted virulence factors, such as proteases
(elastase and alkaline protease) and toxins (exotoxin A and the
exoenzymes S, T, and U), have also been shown to be necessary for
virulence in animal models of P. aeruginosa infection
(1, 12, 13, 15, 28).
P. aeruginosa controls the expression of many of its
extracellular virulence factors by quorum-sensing systems (reviewed in reference 9). Most quorum-sensing signals are acyl
homoserine lactones (AHL), which diffuse in and out of gram-negative
bacterial cells (14, 22). When a threshold AHL concentration
is reached, the AHL binds a LuxR-type transcriptional activator that
induces expression of certain genes. For P. aeruginosa two
such systems have been described. The las system consists of
lasI and lasR (encoding an AHL synthase and a
transcriptional activator, respectively) (10, 18) and the
AHL signal N-3-oxo-dodecanoyl homoserine lactone
(19). A second P. aeruginosa quorum-sensing
system (rhl) consists of rhlI and rhlR
(encoding an AHL synthase and a transcriptional activator,
respectively) (16, 17) and the AHL signal
N-butyryl homoserine lactone (20, 33). These two
P. aeruginosa quorum-sensing systems regulate expression of
extracellular virulence factors (reviewed in reference
23).
The role of quorum sensing in P. aeruginosa virulence has
only begun to be studied, although there is already great interest in
using this system as a target for novel forms of antibacterial chemotherapy. A P. aeruginosa lasR mutant was avirulent in a
neonatal mouse model of acute pulmonary infection (31). In
models of systemic infection of both Caenorhabditis elegans
and mice, a lasR mutant has been found to be significantly
attenuated in its virulence (4, 29). Here we further
examined quorum sensing in P. aeruginosa mutants which lack
the AHL synthase genes lasI and rhlI (Table
1). Quantitative assays of elastase and
rhamnolipid production demonstrated that these P. aeruginosa
mutant strains were fully complemented when the respective
lasI or rhlI gene (or both) was added back on a
plasmid (21). We used a previously described neonatal mouse
model of pulmonary infection to assay for P. aeruginosa
virulence (30). Briefly, entire litters of 7- to 10-day-old
strain BALB/cByJ mice (Jackson Labs) were intranasally inoculated with
1.5 × 109 CFU of P. aeruginosa per mouse
(30). Inocula were prepared from 14- to 17-h cultures grown
at 37°C with shaking in M9 medium (27) containing 0.2%
glucose and 1 mM MgSO4. Mice were returned to the mother
for 24 h and then sacrificed. Lung and spleen tissue was prepared
for bacteriology (enumeration of CFU per tissue homogenate by plate
counts on MacConkey-lactose agar [Difco Corp., Detroit, Mich.]) and
histopathology as described previously (30). Pneumonia was
defined by two criteria: (i) the presence of >103 CFU of
P. aeruginosa per lung homogenate and (ii) histopathological evidence of destruction of the lung parenchyma, edema, and leukocyte infiltration. Bacteremia was defined as the presence of at least one
CFU of P. aeruginosa per spleen (30).
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Cell-to-Cell
Signaling Is Required for Virulence in a Model of Acute Pulmonary
Infection

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TABLE 1.
P. aeruginosa strains used in this study
When mice were inoculated with the P. aeruginosa lasI rhlI
double mutant (strain PAO-JP2) (n = 21), only 1 mouse
died, and 2 mice had >103 CFU per lung (Fig.
1). In contrast, 19 of the 34 animals
inoculated with the wild-type strain, PAO1, developed confluent
pneumonia throughout the lungs, and mortality occurred in 21% of the
inoculated animals. Bacteremia was also reduced in mice infected with
the quorum-sensing double mutant compared to that in mice infected with
the wild type. Sections of lung tissue from an animal with >103 CFU per lung of the lasI rhlI strain,
PAO-JP2, showed only a mild focal pneumonia (Fig.
2). The lung tissue of
mice infected with the parental wild-type P. aeruginosa strain, PAO1, showed a much more severe confluent
pneumonia. The quorum-sensing double mutant strain, PAO-JP2, caused
significantly less pneumonia (P < 0.001), bacteremia
(P < 0.01), and mortality (P < 0.05)
than the wild-type strain as calculated using a Z test of proportions. To determine the relative contributions to virulence of the two quorum-sensing systems, the lasI and rhlI single
mutant strains (PAO-JP1 and PDO100, respectively) were tested. These
strains were both less virulent than the parental strain (Fig. 1).
Strain PAO-JP1 (lasI) caused significantly less pneumonia
and bacteremia (P < 0.05 for each) than strain PAO1.
Significantly fewer mice developed pneumonia (P < 0.001) or bacteremia (P < 0.05) or died (P < 0.05) when inoculated with strain PDO100
(rhlI) than when inoculated with strain PAO1. While the
lasI mutant caused pneumonia in approximately 30% of the
animals, the rhlI mutant was associated with pneumonia in
only 15%, although both single mutants caused bacteremia in 25% of
the mice. These differences in the host response to strains PAO-JP1 and
PDO100 may indicate that rhlI is required for the expression
of certain gene products which specifically stimulate airway
inflammation and result in pneumonia. The results suggest that both the
las and rhl quorum-sensing systems are important for virulence of P. aeruginosa in the neonatal mouse model.
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To confirm that virulence can be restored by complementation of the P. aeruginosa lasI rhlI double mutant with functional lasI and rhlI genes, mice were inoculated with strain PAO-JP2 transformed with pJPP42 expressing rhlI and lasI described previously (21). Fifty percent of the animals inoculated with strain PAO-JP2(pJPP42) developed pneumonia and 38% developed bacteremia. These findings were similar to results obtained with the parent strain, where pneumonia and bacteremia occurred in 56 and 50% of the animals, respectively. These results indicated that the low level of virulence associated with the mutant strain PAO-JP2 was due to the lack of functional lasI and rhlI genes, as complementation of the wild-type genes restored virulence to nearly wild-type levels.
The effects of the lasI and rhlI mutations on P. aeruginosa virulence are consistent with the effects of these mutations on P. aeruginosa production of the virulence factors elastase and rhamnolipid (21). The focal nature of the pneumonia stimulated by strain PAO-JP2 suggests that elastase and possibly rhamnolipid expression are important in allowing the dissemination of infection and invasion of organisms into the bloodstream. Even early in the establishment of pulmonary infection, as demonstrated in this model of pulmonary disease, it appears that AHL-dependent coordination of bacterial gene expression is important in pathogenesis.
Rumbaugh et al. have recently tested the strain PAO1 lasI and rhlI mutants in a mouse burn model of P. aeruginosa infection and showed that these mutants were significantly less virulent than the wild-type strain (26). Thus, in two independent studies using different models of infection, mutations in quorum-sensing genes resulted in decreased virulence. A recent report has shown that at least 39 genes are controlled by quorum sensing in P. aeruginosa (32). Many of these genes have unknown functions, or the corresponding null mutant strains have not yet been tested in animal models for virulence. Our results indicate that functional quorum-sensing systems are important for the development of P. aeruginosa acute pneumonia. Further work will be needed to pinpoint which quorum-sensing-controlled virulence factors are essential for P. aeruginosa virulence in the neonatal mouse model of pneumonia.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This research was supported by NIH grant A133713 (B.H.I.), NIH predoctoral training grant 5-T32 AI07362 (J.P.P.), and grant DK39693 (A.P.).
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 650 W. 168th St., New York, NY 10032. Phone: (212) 305-4193. Fax: (212) 305-2284. E-mail: asp7{at}columbia.edu.
Present address: Department of Microbiology, Protein Design Labs,
Inc., Fremont, CA 94555.
Editor: E. I. Tuomanen
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