APMIS : acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica Scandinavica
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Phenotypic and genotypic diversifications of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the airways of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) promote long-term survival of bacteria during chronic lung infection. Twelve clonally related, sequential mucoid and non-mucoid paired P. aeruginosa isolates obtained from three Danish CF patients were investigated. ⋯ Comparisons of mucoid and non-mucoid isolates from early and late stages of the infection showed that the mucoid phenotype maintained over a decade the capacity to form in vitro biofilm and showed an unaltered transcriptional profile, whereas substantial alterations in the transcriptional profiles and loss of the capacity to form in vitro biofilms were observed in corresponding isolates of the non-mucoid phenotype. The conserved gene expression pattern in the mucoid isolates vs the diversity of changes in non-mucoid isolates observed in this particular P. aeruginosa clone reflects different adaptation strategies used by these two phenotypes in the different niches of the CF lung environment.