Inhibition of <scp>PQS</scp> signaling by the Pf bacteriophage protein <scp>PfsE</scp> enhances viral replication in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Quorum sensing, a bacterial signaling system that coordinates group behaviors as a function of cell density, plays an important role in regulating viral (phage) defense mechanisms in bacteria. The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a model system for the study of quorum sensing. P. aeruginosa is also frequently infected by Pf prophages that integrate into the host chromosome. Upon induction, Pf phages suppress host quorum sensing systems; however, the physiological relevance and mechanism of suppression are unknown. Here, we identify the Pf phage protein PfsE as an inhibitor of Pseudomonas Quinolone Signal (PQS) quorum sensing. PfsE binds to the host protein PqsA, which is essential for the biosynthesis of the PQS signaling molecule. Inhibition of PqsA increases the replication efficiency of Pf virions when infecting a new host and when the Pf prophage switches from lysogenic replication to active virion replication. In addition to inhibiting PQS signaling, our prior work demonstrates that PfsE also binds to PilC and inhibits type IV pili extension, protecting P. aeruginosa from infection by type IV pili-dependent phages. Overall, this work suggests that the simultaneous inhibition of PQS signaling and type IV pili by PfsE may be a viral strategy to suppress host defenses to promote Pf replication while at the same time protecting the susceptible host from competing phages.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".