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Infect. Immun. doi:10.1128/IAI.01165-07
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa cystic fibrosis isolates from individual patients demonstrate a range of lethality in two Drosophila melanogaster infection models

Departments of Biological Sciences, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary Alberta, Canada, T2N 1N4; Foothills Medical Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 4N1

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: storey{at}ucalgary.ca.

	Abstract

Recently, two Drosophila models of infection, fly feeding and fly nicking, have been developed that allow a determination of pathogenic potential of P. aeruginosa isolates. In this study, control strains, isolates from burn wounds and isolates from CF sputa were used to compare the two infection models to determine if any of the isolates might be better adapted to either of the models. Additionally, our goal was to determine the variability of isolates from individual CF patients. All the control strains (PAO1, PAK and PA14), except for PA103, caused significant mortality in the flies, in both models of infection. Strain PA103 was lethal to the flies in the nicking model but lacked significant lethality in the feeding model. The burn wound isolates had a high level of lethality in both models. Interestingly, the CF isolates had the largest diversity of lethality in both models of infection. The range of pathogenic potentials of the CF isolates occurred across a cohort of patients, at the patient level and down to the level of individual sputum samples. The majority of all isolates had similar levels of lethality in both fly infection models. However, two CF isolates were significantly more lethal in the nicking model and three CF isolates were significantly more lethal in the feeding model. In conclusion, the two Drosophila infection models were useful for the analysis of the diversity of pathogenic potentials of P. aeruginosa isolates.