Fmt bypass in Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes induction of MexXY efflux pump expression.

The intrinsic resistance of P. aeruginosa PAO1 to the peptide deformylase inhibitor (PDF-I) LBM415 was mediated by the MexAB-OprM and MexXY-OprM efflux pumps, the latter of which was strongly induced by LBM415. Single-step exposure of PAO1 deleted for mexAB-oprM (therefore lacking both MexAB-OprM and MexXY-OprM functions) to PDF-Is selected for nfxB mutants, which express the MexCD-OprJ efflux pump, indicating that these compounds are also substrates for this pump. Selection of resistant mutants by use of levels of LBM415 greater than that accommodated by efflux yielded two additional groups of mutations, in the methionyl-tRNA(fmet) formyltransferase (fmt) and folD genes. Both mechanisms are known to impose an in vitro growth deficit (also observed here), presumably due to impairment of protein synthesis. We surmised that this inherent impairment of protein synthesis would upregulate expression of mexXY in a fashion similar to upregulation by LBM415 or by ribosome inhibitory compounds. Transcriptional profiling and/or mexX::lux promoter fusion analysis revealed that fmt and folD mutants were strongly upregulated for mexXY and another gene known to be required for upregulation of the pump, PA5471. Complementation of the fmt mutation in trans reversed this constitutive expression. This supports the notion that MexXY has a natural physiological function responding to impairment of ribosome function or protein synthesis and that fmt mutation (Fmt bypass) and folD mutation generate the intracellular mexXY-inducing signal.

From proteomics to systems biology of bacterial pathogens: approaches, tools, and applications.

The hallmark of a systems biology approach is the integration of computational tools with experimental data encompassing multiple classes of biomolecules across different functional levels. Equally important as the availability of reasonably comprehensive information at the gene, protein, and metabolite levels is the development of adequate analysis and visualization tools to reduce the inherent complexity to interpretable dimensions. In this paper, we describe the integration of a 2-D gel-based proteome map of Staphylococcus aureus Mu50 with genomic and transcriptomic information through a customized data integration and user interface built on the Ensembl genome browser. We illustrate its application and potential through the analysis of a defined system perturbation caused by a mutation in the formyltransferase gene. We envision that this software package, which we called Insieme, can support the development of novel antibiotics by allowing a systems-based view of the bacterial response pathways.