Identification of novel acinetobacter baumannii host fatty acid stress adaptation strategies

JH Jiang; KA Hassan; SL Begg; TWT Rupasinghe; V Naidu; VG Pederick; M Khorvash; JJ Whittall; JC Paton; IT Paulsen; CA McDevitt; AY Peleg; BA Eijkelkamp

Journal article

Identification of novel acinetobacter baumannii host fatty acid stress adaptation strategies

JH Jiang, KA Hassan, SL Begg, TWT Rupasinghe, V Naidu, VG Pederick, M Khorvash, JJ Whittall, JC Paton, IT Paulsen, CA McDevitt, AY Peleg, BA Eijkelkamp

Mbio | AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY | Published : 2019

DOI: 10.1128/MBIO.02056-18

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Abstract

Free fatty acids hold important immune-modulatory roles during infection. However, the host’s long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, not commonly found in the membranes of bacterial pathogens, also have significant broadspectrum antibacterial potential. Of these, the omega-6 fatty acid arachidonic acid (AA) and the omega-3 fatty acid decosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are highly abundant; hence, we investigated their effects on the multidrug-resistant human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. Our analyses reveal that AA and DHA incorporate into the A. baumannii bacterial membrane and impact bacterial fitness and membrane integrity, with DHA having a more pronounced effect. Through transcriptional pro..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Stephanie Neville Author

Christopher McDevitt Author

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Grants

Awarded by University of Adelaide

Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) through project grants 1080784 and 1122582 to C.A.M. and program grant 1071659 to J.C.P. The work was also funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery project grant DP170102102 to J.C.P. and C.A.M. Work performed by K.A.H. and I.T.P. is supported by NHMRC project grant 1120298. B.A.E. is a University of Adelaide Beacon Research Fellow, S.L.B. is an NHMRC Doherty Fellow (1142695), C.A.M. is an ARC Future Fellow (FT170100006), and A.Y.P. is an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow (1117940).