Project description:Escherichia coli, one of the most abundant bacterial species in the human gut microbiota, has developed a mutualistic relationship with its host, regulating immunological responses. In contrast, enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), one of the main etiologic agents of diarrheal morbidity and mortality in children under the age of five in developing countries, has developed mechanisms to reduce the immune-activator effect to carry out a successful infection. Following infection, the host cell initiates the shutting-off of protein synthesis and stress granule (SG) assembly. This is mostly mediated by the phosphorylation of translation initiator factor 2α (eIF2α). We therefore evaluated the ability of a non-pathogenic E. coli strain (E. coli HS) and an ETEC strain (ETEC 1766a) to induce stress granule assembly, even in response to exogenous stresses. In this work, we found that infection with E. coli HS or ETEC 1766a prevents SG assembly in Caco-2 cells treated with sodium arsenite (Ars) after infection. We also show that this effect occurs through an eIF2α phosphorylation (eIF2α-P)-dependent mechanism. Understanding how bacteria counters host stress responses will lay the groundwork for new therapeutic strategies to bolster host cell immune defenses against these pathogens.
Project description:All free-living microorganisms homeostatically maintain the fluidity of their membranes by adapting lipid composition to environmental temperatures. A quantitative description of how organisms maintain constant fluidity at all growth temperatures has not been achieved. By quantifying both enzymes and metabolic intermediates of the Escherichia coli fatty acid and phospholipid synthesis pathways, we discover how E. coli measures steady-state temperature and restores optimal membrane fluidity within a single generation after temperature shocks.
Project description:Membraneless droplets formed through liquid-liquid phase separation of ribonucleoprotein particles contribute to mRNA storage in eukaryotic cells. How such aggresomes contribute to mRNA dynamics under stress, and their functional role, is less understood in bacteria. Here we used multiple approaches including imaging, modelling and transcriptomics to show that prolonged stress leading to ATP depletion in Escherichia coli results in increased aggresome formation, their compaction, and enrichment of mRNA within aggresomes compared to the cytosol. Transcript length was longer in aggresomes compared to the cytosol. Mass spectrometry showed exclusion of mRNA ribonucleases from aggresomes, which was due to negative charge repulsion. Experiments with fluorescent reporters and disruption of aggresome formation showed that mRNA storage within aggresomes promoted translation and associated with reduced lag phases during growth after stress removal. Our findings suggest that mRNA storage within aggresomes confers an advantage for bacterial survival and recovery from stress.
Project description:A strain of UPEC CFT073 lacking the three known NO detoxifiaction mechanisms, Hmp, FlRd and Nrf is used to study the global effect of NO on the pathogen
Project description:While in transit within and between hosts, uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) encounter multiple stresses, including substantial levels of nitric oxide and reactive nitrogen intermediates. Strains of UPEC become conditioned to high concentrations of acidified sodium nitrite (ASN), a model system used to generate nitrosative stress. We used microarrays to define the expression profile of UPEC that have been conditioned for growth in ASN.
Project description:Environmental fluctuations lead to a rapid adjustment of the physiology of Escherichia coli, necessitating changes on every level of the underlying cellular and molecular network. Thus far, the majority of global analyses of E. coli stress responses have been limited to just one level, gene expression. Here, we incorporate the metabolite composition together with gene expression data to provide a more comprehensive insight on system level stress adjustments by describing detailed time-resolved E. coli response to five different perturbations (cold, heat, oxidative stress, lactose diauxie, and stationary phase). The metabolite response is more specific as compared with the general response observed on the transcript level and is reflected by much higher specificity during the early stress adaptation phase and when comparing the stationary phase response to other perturbations. Despite these differences, the response on both levels still follows the same dynamics and general strategy of energy conservation as reflected by rapid decrease of central carbon metabolism intermediates coinciding with downregulation of genes related to cell growth. Application of co-clustering and canonical correlation analysis on combined metabolite and transcript data identified a number of significant condition-dependent associations between metabolites and transcripts. The results confirm and extend existing models about co-regulation between gene expression and metabolites demonstrating the power of integrated systems oriented analysis.
Project description:Escherichia coli mazEF is an extensively studied stress-induced toxin-antitoxin (TA) system. The toxin MazF is an endoribonuclease that cleaves RNAs at ACA sites. By that means, under stress, the induced MazF generates a stress-induced translation machinery (STM) composed of MazF-processed mRNAs and selective ribosomes that specifically translate the processed mRNAs. Here, we performed a proteomic analysis of all the E. coli stress-induced proteins that are mediated through the chromosomally borne mazF gene. We show that the mRNAs of almost all of them are characterized by the presence of an ACA site up to 100 nucleotides upstream of the AUG initiator. Therefore, under stressful conditions, induced MazF processes mRNAs that are translated by STM. Furthermore, the presence of the ACA sites far upstream (up to 100 nucleotides) of the AUG initiator may still permit translation by the canonical translation machinery. Thus, such dual-translation mechanisms enable the bacterium under stress also to prepare proteins for immediate functions while coming back to normal growth conditions.IMPORTANCE The stress response, the strategy that bacteria have developed in order to cope up with all kinds of adverse conditions, is so far understood at the level of transcription. Our previous findings of a uniquely modified stress-induced translation machinery (STM) generated in E. coli under stress by the endoribonucleolytic activity of the toxin MazF opens a new chapter in understanding microbial physiology under stress at the translational level. Here, we performed a proteomic analysis of all the E. coli stress-induced proteins that are mediated by chromosomally borne MazF through STM.
Project description:Inorganic polyphosphate (Poly P) is a polymer of various phosphate residues linked by phosphoanhydride bonds as in ATP. It is found in all cells in nature with roles in the origin and survival of species, particularly in bacteria. To study the role of the inorganic polyphosphate in bacteria, we obtained knockout mutants of polyP metabolism genes in Escherichia coli K12. We performed DNA microarray experiments of single mutants in polyphosphate kinase 1 (PPK1), exopolyphosphatase (PPX) and also with the double mutant (PPK1 and PPX). The mutant strains growth normally in LB medium but have different colony morphology phenotypes. All mutants have flagellation problems and a detail description of all gain and lost phenotypes o these strains will be published soon because we performed a complete phenotypic microarray study of all three mutant strains.