Candidatus pelagibacter ubique HTCC1062 requires 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine, an abundant thiamine precursor in the sea
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ABSTRACT: Thiamine is often undetectable in ocean surface waters where Pelagibacter cells are numerically abundant. Despite this, Pelagibacter cells are missing de novo thiamine synthesis pathways. We show that an eogenous source of the thiamine precursor HMP is required for thiamine synthesis in Pelagibacter and that this precursor is abundant in the Sargasso sea. Batch cultures of P. ubique were grown in a defined arificial seawater media. Three cultures were given no thiamine amendment, and three other cultures received an excess concentration of thiamine. Cultures were harvested for microarray analyses just prior to and after thiamine limitation for the purpose of observing differences in gene expression related to thiamine limitation.
Project description:Thiamine is often undetectable in ocean surface waters where Pelagibacter cells are numerically abundant. Despite this, Pelagibacter cells are missing de novo thiamine synthesis pathways. We show that an eogenous source of the thiamine precursor HMP is required for thiamine synthesis in Pelagibacter and that this precursor is abundant in the Sargasso sea.
Project description:Nitrogen is one of the major nutrients limiting microbial productivity in the ocean, and as a result marine microorganisms have evolved specialized systems for responding to nitrogen stress. The highly abundant alphaproteobacterium Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique lacks the canonical GlnB, GlnD, and NtrB/NtrC genes for regulating nitrogen assimilation. A survey of 127 Alphaproteobacteria genomes found these genes to be highly represented in free-living and pathogenic organisms with large genomes and only missing in a subset of obligate intracellular organisms and other SAR11 strains. We examined global differences in mRNA and protein expression in Ca. P. ubique strain HTCC1062 during nitrogen-limited and nitrogen-replete stationary phase to understand how this thriving organism responds to nitrogen limitation. Transporters for ammonium (AmtB), taurine (TauA), amino acids (YhdW), and opines (OccT) were all elevated in nitrogen-limited cells, indicating they devote increased resources to the assimilation of nitrogenous compounds. Enzymes for assimilating amine into glutamine (GlnA) and glutamate (AspC, GltBD) were similarly up-regulated. Differential regulation of the transcriptional regulator NtrX in the two-component signaling system NtrY/NtrX was also observed, implicating it in the control of the nitrogen starvation response. Comparisons of the transcriptome and proteome suggest that Amt is post-transcriptionally repressed during nitrogen limitation, supporting previous studies that computationally identified a novel cis-acting riboswitch upstream of this gene. These observations support the conclusion that Ca. P. ubique has an unusually simple regulatory system that enables it to increase its capacity for the uptake of nitrogenous compounds in response to nitrogen limitation. Batch cultures of P. ubique were grown in a defined arificial seawater media. Three cultures were given no nitrogen amendment, and three other cultures received an excess concentration of NH3. Cultures were harvested for microarray analyses during log and stationary phase for the purpose of observing differences in gene expression related to nitrogen limitation. Proteomic analysis was conducted in parallel and is available at http://omics.pnl.gov .
Project description:Recent studies have shown that Pelagibacter oxidize a wide range of one carbon (C1) and methylated compounds that are ubiquitous in the oceans. However, the metabolic pathways used to oxidize and assimilate these compounds are complex and have been only partly described. To understand the metabolism of these compounds in Pelagibacter and to identify candidate genes involved in these pathways, we used microarray to study changes in gene expression in response to five different compounds (trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), methylamine, dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), methanol, and glycine betaine (GBT)) in Pelagibacter strain HTCC1062. This project will examine the transcriptional response of the marine microorganism Pelagibacter HTCC1062 to five methylated compounds. To do this, 18 flasks were innoculated with cells - 3 flasks without any methylated compounds and rest of 15 treated with different methylated compounds respectively (TMAO (trtmA), methylamine (trtmB), DMSP (trtmC), methanol (trtmD) and glycine betaine (trtmE)). Cells were all harvested at the same timepoint in the exponential phase.
Project description:Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique is the most abundant marine microorganism, but is unable to utilize inorganic sulfur compounds that are plentiful in the ocean. To investigate how these cells adapt to organic sulfur limitation, batch cultures were grown in defined media containing either limiting or non-limiting amounts of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) as the sole sulfur source. Protein and mRNA expression were measured during exponential growth, immediately prior to stationary phase, and in late stationary phase. Two distinct responses were observed: one as DMSP approached exhaustion, and another after the DMSP supply was depleted. The first response was characterized by increased transcription and translation of all Ca. P. ubique genes downstream of previously confirmed S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) riboswitches: bhmT, mmuM, and metY. These genes were up to 33 times more abundant during low DMSP conditions and shunt all available sulfur to methionine. The osmotically inducible organic hydroperoxidase OsmC was the most up-regulated protein as DMSP (an osmolyte) became scarce. The second response, during sulfur-depleted stationary phase, saw increased transcription of the heme c shuttle ccmC and two small genes of unknown function (SAR11_1163 and SAR11_1164) which were 6-10 times higher in sulfur-starved cultures. No known membrane transporters were up-regulated in response to sulfur limitation, suggesting that this bacterium's strategy for coping with sulfur stress focuses on intracellularly redistributing, rather than importing, organic sulfur compounds. This supports the conclusion that the few organosulfur molecules that Ca. P. ubique is able to metabolize are rarely limiting in the marine environment. Batch cultures of P. ubique were grown in a defined arificial seawater media. Five cultures were amended with a limiting concentration of DMSP as the sole sulfur source and another four control cultures were amended with a non-limiting DMSP concentration. Cultures were harvested for microarray analyses at multiple timepoints for the purpose of observing differences in gene expression related to sulfur limitation. Proteomic analyses were conducted in parallel and are available at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride/archive/projects/PXD003672 .
Project description:We investigated the gene expression responses of Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique cultures to iron limitation. Differential expression was observed for genes in iron acquisition and incorporation operons. SfuC in particular was 16 times higher in iron-limited cultures and encodes a periplasmic iron-binding protein. Six natural seawater cultures were amended with minimal nutrients and inoculated with P. ubique. Close to maximum cell density, all carboys were supplemented with 100 nM ferrichrome (an iron-chelating siderophore) and three carboys were additionally supplemented with 1 µM FeCl3. Each of the six carboys was sampled for microarray analyses one, two, and eleven days after the ferrichrome addition.
Project description:We investigated the gene expression responses of Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique cultures to iron limitation. Differential expression was observed for genes in iron acquisition and incorporation operons. SfuC in particular was 16 times higher in iron-limited cultures and encodes a periplasmic iron-binding protein.
Project description:Candidatus pelagibacter ubique HTCC1062 requires 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine, an abundant thiamine precursor in the sea
Project description:Investigation of the gene expression responses of Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique cultures to iron limitation in natural seawater media supplemented with a siderophore to chelate iron. Quantitative peptide mass spectrometry revealed that sfuC protein abundance increased 27-fold, despite an average decrease of 59% across the global proteome.
Project description:Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique is the most abundant marine microorganism, but is unable to utilize inorganic sulfur compounds that are plentiful in the ocean. To investigate how these cells adapt to organic sulfur limitation, batch cultures were grown in defined media containing either limiting or non-limiting amounts of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) as the sole sulfur source. Protein and mRNA expression were measured during exponential growth, immediately prior to stationary phase, and in late stationary phase. Two distinct responses were observed: one as DMSP approached exhaustion, and another after the DMSP supply was depleted. The first response was characterized by increased transcription and translation of all Ca. P. ubique genes downstream of previously confirmed S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) riboswitches: bhmT, mmuM, and metY. These genes were up to 33 times more abundant during low DMSP conditions and shunt all available sulfur to methionine. The osmotically inducible organic hydroperoxidase OsmC was the most up-regulated protein as DMSP (an osmolyte) became scarce. The second response, during sulfur-depleted stationary phase, saw increased transcription of the heme c shuttle ccmC and two small genes of unknown function (SAR11_1163 and SAR11_1164) which were 6-10 times higher in sulfur-starved cultures. No known membrane transporters were up-regulated in response to sulfur limitation, suggesting that this bacterium's strategy for coping with sulfur stress focuses on intracellularly redistributing, rather than importing, organic sulfur compounds. This supports the conclusion that the few organosulfur molecules that Ca. P. ubique is able to metabolize are rarely limiting in the marine environment.
Project description:Taurine was previously reported to increase the proliferation of neural precursor cells (NPCs) from subventricular zone of the mouse brain. The results of a study that aimed to understand the mechanisms of this effect are presented here. A gene expression profile analysis indicated that genes regulated by taurine have roles in proliferation, cellular adhesion, cell survival, and mitochondrial functioning. Together with additional functional analyses, the results suggest that taurine provides more favorable conditions for cell proliferation by improving mitochondrial functioning. The total RNA from the control and taurine NPC cultures was used to produce tagged complementary DNA (cDNA) probes. Hybridation analysis used the mouse 65-mer oligo library from Sigma-Genosys to compare the expression of 23,232 gene-specific oligonucleotide probes for mouse.