The genome of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia encodes a cell-cell signaling system that is highly related to the diffusible signal factor (DSF)-dependent system of the phytopathogen Xanthomonas campestris. Here we show that in S. maltophilia, DSF signaling controls factors contributing to the virulence and antibiotic resistance of this important nosocomial pathogen.

We have determined that the mutational inactivation of the SmeDEF efflux pump and the SmQnr quinolone resistance protein widens the mutant selection windows for ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia by reducing their MICs. Resistant mutants arising from a strain lacking SmeDEF and SmQnr presented levels of susceptibility similar to those of the wild-type strain. This indic...

Phenotypic heterogeneity at the cellular level in response to various stresses, e.g., antibiotic treatment has been reported for a number of bacteria. In a clonal population, cell-to-cell variation may result in phenotypic heterogeneity that is a mechanism to survive changing environments including antibiotic therapy. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has been frequently isolated from cystic fibrosi...

It has been reported that targeted disruption of ampD I or mrcA causes β-lactamase hyperproduction in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. We show here that β-lactamase-hyperproducing laboratory selected mutants and clinical isolates can have wild-type ampD I and mrcA genes, implicating mutation of at least one additional gene in this phenotype. The involvement of mutations at multiple loci in the act...

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is increasingly identified as an opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised, cancer and cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Knowledge on innate immune responses to S. maltophilia and its potential modulation is poor. The present work investigated the ability of 12 clinical S. maltophilia strains (five from CF patients, seven from non-CF patients) and one environmental s...

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is an emerging nosocomial pathogen. Despite the broad spectrum of syndromes associated with S. maltophilia infections, little is known about its virulence factors, including siderophore production. The aims of this work were to detect S. maltophilia siderophores and to determine their chemical nature. We studied 31 S. maltophilia isolates from device-associated infe...

Genomic resource of type strains and historically important strains of genus Stenotrophomonas allowed us to reveal the existence of 18 distinct species by applying modern phylogenomic criterions. Apart from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, S. africana represents another species of clinical importance. Interestingly, Pseudomonas hibsicola, P. beteli, and S. pavani that are of plant origin are close...

A group of flavones, isoflavones, flavanones, and chalcones was subjected to small-scale biotransformation studies with the Gram-negative Stenotrophomonas maltophilia KB2 strain in order to evaluate the capability of this strain to transform flavonoid compounds and to investigate the relationship between compound structure and transformation type. The tested strain transformed flavanones and ch...

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a multidrug-resistant nosocomial pathogen that is difficult to identify unequivocally using current methods. Accordingly, because the presence of this microorganism in a patient may directly determine the antimicrobial treatment, conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR assays targeting 23S rRNA were developed for the specific identification...

INTRODUCTION Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is an environmental bacterium increasingly involved in nosocomial infections and resistant to most antibiotics. It is important to recognize and efficiently treat infections with this bacterium as soon as possible. CASE PRESENTATION We present a case of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia prosthetic valve endocarditis secondary to an indwelling catheter infe...