{"doi":"10.1073/pnas.2312334121","title":"A bacterial pigment provides cross-species protection from H <sub>2</sub> O <sub>2</sub> - and neutrophil-mediated killing","abstract":"Bacterial infections are often polymicrobial. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus cause chronic co-infections, which are more problematic than mono-species infections. Understanding the mechanisms of their interactions is crucial for treating co-infections. Staphyloxanthin (STX), a yellow pigment synthesized by the S. aureus crt operon, promotes S. aureus resistance to oxidative stress and neutrophil-mediated killing. We found that STX production by S. aureus , either as surface-grown macrocolonies or planktonic cultures, was elevated when exposed to the P. aeruginosa exoproduct, 2-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline N-oxide (HQNO). This was observed with both mucoid and non-mucoid P. aeruginosa strains. The induction phenotype was found in a majority of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus clinical isolates examined. When subjected to hydrogen peroxide or human neutrophils, P. aeruginosa survival was significantly higher when mixed with wild-type (WT) S. aureus , compared to P. aeruginosa alone or with an S. aureus crt mutant deficient in STX production. In a murine wound model, co-infection with WT S. aureus , but not the STX-deficient mutant, enhanced P. aeruginosa burden and disease compared to mono-infection. In conclusion, we identified a role for P. aeruginosa HQNO mediating polymicrobial interactions with S. aureus by inducing STX production, which consequently promotes resistance to the innate immune effectors H 2 O 2 and neutrophils. These results further our understanding of how different bacterial species cooperatively cause co-infections.","journal":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences","year":2024,"id":428066,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":13,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9545,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1229766,"name":"Eleanor A. McQuillen","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":975743,"name":"Pranav S. J. B. Rana","orcid":"0000-0001-6421-3185","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":622788,"name":"Erin S. Gloag","orcid":"0000-0001-8895-3444","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":288483,"name":"Matthew R. Parsek","orcid":"0000-0003-2932-7966","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230182,"name":"Daniel J. Wozniak","orcid":"0000-0003-4592-4816","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1229235,"name":"Yiwei Liu","orcid":"0000-0003-4136-8146","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":68,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:58:57.592578Z","pmid":"38170744","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}