[Effect of cis-vaccinate acid on swarming ability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa]

To study the effect of fatty acids composition on swarming mobility in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

We constructed a fabF-knockout mutant of PAO1 (YFF-1) by double exchange principle, overexpressed FabF in YFF-1 mutant to recover the mobility, and compared the swarming ability of wild type, YFF-1 mutant and mutant with plasmid pUCP18Gm-fabF. The change of fatty acids composition was analyzed using gas chromatography to explain the difference of swarming ability.

Swarming ability disappeared in YFF-1 mutant and was recovered in YFF-1 with plasmid pUCP18Gm-fabF. Gas chromatography analysis revealed that fatty acids composition changed in YFF-1. The cis-vaccinate acid (C18:1delta11) content decreased from 33.6% to 8.9%, and the ratio of unsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids (UFA: SFA) was deduced from 0.96 to 0.74. The recovery of cis-vaccinate acid content was 20.9% and UFA:SFA 1.09 after expression of fabF.

Expression level of FabF played an important role in regulating swarming ability of PAO1. The decrease of cis-vaccinate acid content and unsaturation degree of fatty acids, especially the sharp decrease of cis-vaccinate acid, may be vital causes of swarming ability disappearance in YFF-1.