Phenotype-genotype association in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a highly diverse environmental organism, with a complex, mobile genome, that is also an opportunistic pathogen in the Cystic Fibrosis lung. Within the lung it will often set up a long-term chronic infection, undergoing local adaptation to this niche. This adaptation has frequently been used as a model system to understand rapid evolutionary adaptation in novel niches.

High levels of genomic and phenotypic diversity of P. aeruginosa have been observed during chronic infection, but very few studies have linked the two. This project will use novel bioinformatic approaches to understand phenotype-genotype association in this bacterium by combining whole genome sequencing of several thousand P. aeruginosa colonies with detailed in vitro colony phenotyping of a large number of relevant parameters. Interesting candidate mutations will be experimentally tested using knockout and complemented strains.

This study will determine the genetic basis of phenotypic diversity within the niche, and should yield a greater understanding of the process of P. aeruginosa invasion of, and long-term adaptation to, a novel niche.