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Rationale: Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from chronic cystic fibrosis lung infections display multiple phenotypes indicating extensive population diversity.

Objectives: We aimed to examine how such diversity is distributed within and between patients, and to study the dynamics of single-strain phenotypic diversity in multiple patients through time.

Methods: Sets of 40 P. aeruginosa isolates per sputum samples were analyzed for a series of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. Population differentiation between patients, between samples within patients, and between isolates within samples was analyzed.

Measurements and Main Results: We characterized 15 traits for a total of 1,720 isolates of an important and widely disseminated epidemic strain of P. aeruginosa from 10 chronically infected patients with cystic fibrosis multiply sampled during 2009. Overall, 43 sputum samples were analyzed and 398 …