Description:

Seminar Title: The Role of the Accessory Genome of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Virulence and Antibiotic Resistance

Speaker: Nathan Pincus, Graduate Student, Lab of Alan Hauser, MD, PhD

Topic:

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative pathogen that can cause severe nosocomial infections, including bacteremia and pneumonia. The genome of P. aeruginosa can be divided into a core genome of sequences present in nearly all isolates and an accessory genome whose content (e.g. genomic islands, plasmids) varies between isolates. While much of the accessory genome is unexplored, accessory genes contributing to diverse processes such as virulence and antibiotic resistance have been identified. Through comparative genomics, we can better understand how accessory genomic elements contribute to the pathogenicity of P. aeruginosa and its success in the hospital environment. Using statistical and machine learning approaches we identify candidate accessory genomic virulence factors and work towards predicting the virulence of an isolate from its genome. Additionally, we have identified an extensively antibiotic resistant set of closely related isolates possessing a large plasmid that persisted within our hospital system for at least 16 years.