Experimentally Evolved Staphylococcus aureus Survives in the Presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by Acquiring Mutations in the Amino Acid Transporter, GltT

Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are the most common bacterial pathogens isolated from cystic fibrosis (CF) related lung infections. When both of these opportunistic pathogens are found in a coinfection, CF patients tend to have higher rates of pulmonary exacerbations and experience a more rapid decrease in lung function. When cultured together under standard laboratory conditions, it is often observed that P. aeruginosa effectively inhibits S. aureus growth. Previous work from our group revealed that S. aureus from CF infections have isolate-specific survival capabilities when cocultured with P. aeruginosa. In this study, we designed a serial transfer evolution experiment to identify mutations that allow S. aureus to adapt to the presence of P. aeruginosa. Using S. aureus USA300 JE2 as our ancestral strain, populations of S. aureus were repeatedly cocultured with fresh P. aeruginosa strain, PAO1. After 8 coculture periods, S. aureus populations that survived better in the presence of PAO1 were observed. We found two independent mutations in the highly conserved S. aureus aspartate transporter, gltT, that were unique to evolved P. aeruginosa-tolerant isolates. Subsequent phenotypic testing demonstrated that gltT mutants have reduced uptake of glutamate and outcompete wild-type S. aureus when glutamate is absent from chemically-defined media. These findings together demonstrate that the presence of P. aeruginosa exerts selective pressure on S. aureus to alter its uptake and metabolism of key amino acids when the two bacteria are cultured together.