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Intrastrain genetic and phenotypic diversity within Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations is common in chronic pulmonary infections. While this intrastrain heterogeneity is a hallmark of chronic infection, its consequences for the spatial organization of P. aeruginosa within the airways remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the loss of O-specific antigen in a subpopulation of P. aeruginosa significantly alters the spatial architecture of P. aeruginosa, without changing the total population size or composition. Using a combination of tissue clearing and hybridization chain reaction RNA-FISH in a murine lung infection model, we mapped the localization of genetically distinct P. aeruginosa variants in mixed populations in vivo. These findings reveal that genetic diversification within a strain can reshape the infection landscape at the micron scale, highlighting the overlooked role of intrastrain dynamics in shaping the microbiogeography of infections and influencing host-pathogen interactions.

The break-in was "a real blow", says L'Escargot Des Grands Crus, which was preparing deliveries for the holiday season.

Dr Freya Harrison

`genzplyr` is an alternative syntax for `dplyr` that replaces boring old function names with GenZ slang. Your data wrangling is about to hit different.

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Many bacteria use quorum sensing to control gene transcription based on population density. This primer explores a recent study in PLOS Biology which found that in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, two quorum-s...