Description
Pseudomonas aeruginosa chronically colonizes the lungs of individuals with CF, where it reaches high cell densities and produces a battery of virulence factors. Upon infection, a single strain of P. aeruginosa can colonize an individuals lungs throughout his or her lifetime. To understand the evolution of P. aeruginosa during chronic lung infection, we conducted both genotypic and phenotypic analyses on clinical isogenic strains obtained from the lungs of three different individuals with CF. These strains were isolated over a period of approximately ten years and possess phenotypes that are commonly observed in isolates from the CF lung, such as the antibiotic resistant dwarf and mucoid phenotypes. Microarray analyses were carried out on isolates grown in a chemically defined medium that mimics the nutritional environment of the CF lung, synthetic CF sputum medium (SCFM).