Insights into the temperature responses of Pseudomonas species in beneficial and pathogenic host interactions

Abstract

Pseudomonas species are metabolically versatile bacteria able to exploit a wide range of ecological niches. Different Pseudomonasspecies can grow as free-living cells, biofilms, or associated with plants or animals, including humans, and their ecological successpartially lies in their ability to grow and adapt to different temperatures. These bacteria are relevant for human activities, due totheir clinical importance and their biotechnological potential for different applications such as bioremediation and the productionof biopolymers, surfactants, secondary metabolites, and enzymes. In agriculture, some of them can act as plant growth promotersand are thus used as inoculants, whereas others, like P. syringae pathovars, can cause disease in commercial crops. This reviewaims to provide an overview of the temperature-response mechanisms in Pseudomonas species, looking for novel features orstrategies based on techniques such as transcriptomics and proteomics. We focused on temperature-dependent traits mainlyassociated with virulence, host colonization, survival, and production of secondary metabolites. We analyzed human, animal,and plant pathogens and plant growth-promoting Pseudomonas species, including P. aeruginosa, P. plecoglossicida, several P.syringae pathovars, and P. protegens. Our aim was to provide a comprehensive view of the relevance of temperature-responsetraits in human and animal health and agricultural applications. Our analysis showed that features relevant to the bacterial-hostinteraction are adjusted to the environmental or host temperature regardless of the optimal growth temperature in the laboratory,and thus contribute to improving bacterial fitness.