The major human bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes multidrug-resistant infections in people with underlying immunodeficiencies or structural lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF). We show that a few environmental isolates, driven by horizontal gene acquisition, have become dominant epidemic clones that have sequentially emerged and spread through global transmission networks over the past 200 years. These clones demonstrate varying intrinsic propensities for infecting CF or non-CF individuals (linked to specific transcriptional changes enabling survival within macrophages); have undergone multiple rounds of convergent, host-specific adaptation; and have eventually lost their ability to transmit between different patient groups. Our findings thus explain the pathogenic evolution of P. aeruginosa and highlight the importance of global surveillance and cross-infection prevention in averting the emergence of future epidemic clones.

中文翻译：

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铜绿假单胞菌的进化和宿主特异性适应


主要的人类细菌病原体铜绿假单胞菌会导致患有潜在免疫缺陷或囊性纤维化 (CF) 等结构性肺病的人出现多重耐药性感染。我们表明，在水平基因获取的驱动下，一些环境分离株已成为主要的流行病克隆，在过去 200 年中相继出现并通过全球传播网络传播。这些克隆表现出感染 CF 或非 CF 个体的不同内在倾向（与能够在巨噬细胞内生存的特定转录变化有关）；经历了多轮趋同的、针对宿主的适应；最终失去了在不同患者群体之间传播的能力。因此，我们的研究结果解释了铜绿假单胞菌的致病进化，并强调了全球监测和交叉感染预防对于避免未来流行性克隆出现的重要性。