Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a versatile Gram-negative bacterium that grows in soil, marshes, and coastal marine habitats, as well as on plant and animal tissues. People with cystic fibrosis, burn victims, individuals with cancer, and patients requiring extensive stays in intensive care units are particularly at risk of disease resulting from P.aeruginosa infection. The complete sequence of the genome of P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 was published in Nature (Stover et al. 406:959-964) the year 2000 in a collaboration among the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the University of Washington Genome Center and PathoGenesis Corporation. The largest bacterial genome sequenced to date when published, the 6.3-Mbp genome contains 5570 predicted genes on one chromosome. Genome annotation was carried out by PathoGenesis scientists and by scientists in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa Community Annotation Project (PseudoCAP).

As researchers begin to use this genome sequence to make new discoveries about this bacterium, the genome annotation is now being continually updated and the database content and functionality is being expanded to facilitate accelerated discovery of P.aeruginosa drug targets and vaccine candidates. This effort is being co-ordinated by Dr. Fiona Brinkman at Simon Fraser University and Dr. Bob Hancock at the University of British Columbia with database development led by Geoff Winsor of the Brinkman group. Funding for this work is gratefully provided by Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Inc., a non-profit drug discovery and development affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The original annotation associated with the publication by Stover et al. (2000)is still available, alongside the current annotation that is continually updated using recent research literature and peer-reviewed submissions by a worldwide community of participating researchers. If you are interested inparticipating, we invite you to get involved. Note that as of 2005, this database now also provides annotation of other Pseudomonas species genomes, which acts as a valuable comparative resource for P. aeruginosa research, as well as being useful for the larger Pseudomonas research community. Over the coming year we will be further enhancing this database toward more focus on comparative analysis of P. aeruginosa isolates and more specific information about putative drug and vaccine targets.