Sucrose favors Pseudomonas aeruginosa pellicle production through the extracytoplasmic function sigma factor SigX. Issue 2 (26th June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bouffartigues, Emeline; Duchesne, Rachel; Bazire, Alexis; Simon, Marjolaine; Maillot, Olivier; Dufour, Alain; Feuilloley, Marc; Orange, Nicole; Chevalier, Sylvie
• Is Part Of: FEMS microbiology letters. Volume 356:Issue 2(2014:Jul.)
• Page Start: 193
• Page End: 200
• Publication Date: 2014-06-26
• Subjects: Microbiology -- Periodicals; 579
• DOI: 10.1111/1574-6968.12482
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0378-1097

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="fml12482-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p> <italic>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</italic> biofilm formation was increased by addition of sucrose to Luria–Bertani medium, whereas addition of NaCl to a final similar osmolarity and use of maltose instead of sucrose, were ineffective. In a previous study, we showed that the extracytoplasmic sigma factor SigX is activated in the presence of sucrose. The sucrose‐mediated pellicle increase was abolished in a <italic>sigX</italic> mutant strain. Sucrose addition led to an increase in <italic>pel</italic> expression and cyclic‐diguanylate (c‐di‐GMP) pool level production. Interestingly, these two phenotypes were strongly decreased in a <italic>sigX</italic> mutant. Since <italic>pel</italic> is not known as a SigX‐target, we suspect SigX to be involved in the c‐di‐GMP production. We found that expression of the diguanylate cyclase PA4843 gene was increased in the presence of sucrose at least partly through SigX activity. Our study shows that sucrose itself rather than osmolarity favours the biofilm mode of <italic>P. aeruginosa</italic> through the activation of SigX.</p> </abstract>