Genomic analysis reveals that Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence is combinatorial

Table 3 PA14-specific regions containing genes required for C. elegans killing

PA14 region ID	Number of genes in region	GC content^a	PA14 gene ID	Previously assigned gene name	Gene function	Correlation coefficient of gene with rank order of virulence	Position of gene in Figure 4c
PA14R09	14	58.5	PA14_03370^b		Unknown	0.02	1
PA14R38	12	46.4	PA14_23420^b	ORF_10	O-antigen biosynthesis		2^c
			PA14_23430	ORF_11	O-antigen biosynthesis		3^c
PA14R41	8	66	PA14_27680^b	C118	Unknown	0.63	4
			PA14_27700^b	C120	Putative transcriptional regulator	0.63	5
PA14R77	3	53.9	PA14_58760	pilC	Type 4 fimbrial biogenesis		Not on oligo array^c
PA14R78	112	59.7	PA14_59010^b	RL107	Unknown	0.44	6
			PA14_59070	RL102	Unknown	0.44	7
PA14R79	2	54.9	PA14_60290^b	pilW	Type 4 fimbrial biogenesis		Not on oligo array^c

^aGC content of the PA14 genome is 66.3 ± 4.3%. ^bThese mutants were grown on minimal media and all had wild-type growth curves. ^cThese gene clusters are present in all P. aeruginosa isolates, but the sequences are highly divergent. Oligos for the PA14-specific O-antigen cluster were included on the array, but none of the other strains contained the PA14-version of these genes. The two clusters involved in type 4 fimbrial biogenesis were not included on the array because the sequences were not sufficiently different to pass our criteria for oligo design (see Materials and methods).

ISSN: 1474-760X