In the constantly evolving world of microbiology, new research and discoveries can often be overwhelming. ‘Microbial Primers’ is a series of short articles designed to simplify and illuminate intricat...

Intrastrain genetic and phenotypic diversity within Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations is common in chronic pulmonary infections. While this intrastrain heterogeneity is a hallmark of chronic infection, its consequences for the spatial organization of P. aeruginosa within the airways remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the loss of O-specific antigen in a subpopulation of P. aeruginosa significantly alters the spatial architecture of P. aeruginosa, without changing the total population size or composition. Using a combination of tissue clearing and hybridization chain reaction RNA-FISH in a murine lung infection model, we mapped the localization of genetically distinct P. aeruginosa variants in mixed populations in vivo. These findings reveal that genetic diversification within a strain can reshape the infection landscape at the micron scale, highlighting the overlooked role of intrastrain dynamics in shaping the microbiogeography of infections and influencing host-pathogen interactions.

The consummate opportunist Pseudomonas aeruginosa inhabits many nosocomial and non-clinical environments, posing a major health burden worldwide. Our study reveals phylogroup-specific differences in r...

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Journal of Bacteriology: Table of Contents Volume 207, Issue 2

Assistant/Associate Professor in Computational Biology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge.

“I’ll keep doing what I can to move my research forward. But I, and so many others, can’t do this indefinitely,” this assistant professor writes