Do Biofilm Formation and Interactions with Human Cells Explain the Clinical Success of Acinetobacter baumannii?

BACKGROUND: The dramatic increase in antibiotic resistance and the recent manifestation in war trauma patients underscore the threat of Acinetobacter baumannii as a nosocomial pathogen. Despite numerous reports documenting its epidemicity, little is known about the pathogenicity of A. baumannii. The aim of this study was to obtain insight into the factors that might explain the clinical success of A. baumannii. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We compared biofilm formation, adherence to and inflammatory cytokine induction by human cells for a large panel of well-described strains of A. baumannii and compared these features to that of other, clinically less relevant Acinetobacter species. Results revealed that biofilm formation and adherence to airway epithelial cells varied widely within the various species, but did not differ among the species. However, airway epithelial cells and cultured human macrophages produced significantly less inflammatory cytokines upon exposure to A. baumannii strains than to strains of A. junii, a species infrequently causing infection. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The induction of a weak inflammatory response may provide a clue to the persistence of A. baumannii in patients

Rapid and reversible root growth inhibition by TIR1 auxin signalling

The phytohormone auxin is the information carrier in a plethora of developmental and physiological processes in plants(1). It has been firmly established that canonical, nuclear auxin signalling acts through regulation of gene transcription(2). Here, we combined microfluidics, live imaging, genetic engineering and computational modelling to reanalyse the classical case of root growth inhibition(3) by auxin. We show that Arabidopsis roots react to addition and removal of auxin by extremely rapid adaptation of growth rate. This process requires intracellular auxin perception but not transcriptional reprogramming. The formation of the canonical TIR1/AFB-Aux/IAA co-receptor complex is required for the growth regulation, hinting to a novel, non-transcriptional branch of this signalling pathway. Our results challenge the current understanding of root growth regulation by auxin and suggest another, presumably non-transcriptional, signalling output of the canonical auxin pathway