Pseudomonas aeruginosa diversity and adaptation in the non-Cystic Fibrosis bronchiectasis lung

Intro: In contrast to many studies using phenotyping and genomic analyses to characterise the evolution and adaptation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations during chronic lung infections of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, the study of such infections in non-CF bronchiectasis (BE) is much less well advanced. Methods: We used whole genome sequencing to (i) assess the diversity of P. aeruginosa strains causing infections in BE in the UK, (ii) assess the prevalence of multi-lineage (strain) infections, (iii) look for evidence for cross-infection or common source acquisition and (iv) characterise both adaptive mutati…