Dataset Information

SRNA154 a newly identified regulator of nitrogen fixation in Methanosarcina mazei strain Gö1

ABSTRACT: Trans-encoded sRNA154 is exclusively expressed under nitrogen (N)-deficiency in Methanosarcina mazei strain Gö1. The respective deletion strain showed a significant growth defect under N-limitation, pointing towards a regulatory role of sRNA154 in the N-metabolism. Aiming to elucidate this regulatory function we characterized sRNA154 by biochemical and genetic approaches. 24 homologs of sRNA154 were identified in recently reported draft genomes of Methanosarcina strains, demonstrating high conservation in sequence and predicted secondary structure with two highly conserved single stranded loop regions. In silico target prediction uncovered multiple potential interactions of both conserved loops with mRNA targets 5´untranslated region and coding sequence) encoding key components of the N-metabolism. In line with the computational prediction transcriptome studies of the sRNA154 deletion mutant by an RNA-seq approach uncovered nrpA-mRNA as a potential target, encoding the transcriptional activator of the nitrogen fixation (nif)-operon. Further evidence obtained by electromobility shift-, stability- and complementation assays, strongly argues for a stabilizing effect of sRNA154 on nrpA-mRNA by binding with both loops. Studying the further predicted N-related targets showing lower transcript levels in the absence of sRNA154, demonstrated that nifH transcript levels are most likely indirectly affected by sRNA154 due to enhanced stability of the nrpA transcripts. Besides, translation of glnA2-mRNA, encoding glutamine synthetase, appears to be affected by sRNA154 masking the ribosome binding site (RBS), whereas glnA1-mRNA appears to be stabilized by sRNA154. Overall, we propose that sRNA154 has a crucial role in N-metabolism in M. mazei and allows a feed forward regulation of nif-gene expression by stabilizing nrpA mRNA.

ORGANISM(S): Methanosarcina mazei Go1

PROVIDER: GSE85456 | GEO | 2019/07/30

REPOSITORIES: GEO

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Purpose: Klebsiella oxytoca M5a1 (previously Klebsiella pneumonia M5a1) is a principle model organism for free-living biological nitrogen fixation. This strain has been used for decades in the characterisation of nitrogenase function and the genetic regulation of nitrogen fixation physiology. Currently it represents a key model for synthetic biology and biotechnology approaches. This project involves a multi-omics approach to modelling nitrogen physiology in Klebsiella oxytoca M5a1, in order to inform rational genetic engineering for improved nitrogen fixation activity. Here we studied the transition from nitrogen replete (high NH4Cl) to nitrogen starved (NH4Cl run-out) conditions, the latter of which induce nif gene expression and synthesis of the nitrogenase enzyme. We mapped RNA-sequencing (Illumina) reads to our assembled M5aI genome in order to compare the transcriptome between nitrogen replete and nitrogen fixing conditions using differential gene expression (DEG) analysis. Methods: Total RNA was extracted from fixed M5a1 cell samples after culturing in nitrogen replete (10 mM NH4Cl; one replicate) or nitrogen starved (3 hours after complete run-out of 0.5 mM NH4Cl; two replicates) growth medium (NFDM). cDNA libraries were prepared for Illumina (NextSeq 500) sequencing, with a read length of 75 nt and a depth of 100 million reads. Following processing and quality control, sequence reads were mapped to a M5a1 genomic template (GenBank WGS accession JAFHKG010000000; BioSample SAMN17288411) and gene count normalisation performed (RPKM). Differential gene expression analysis was performed using the DEseq2 package utilising settings of regularized logarithm (rlog) normalisation of read counts, Wald hypothesis testing and p-value adjustment using a False Discovery Rate threshold of 0.05. Log2 fold changes between conditions were calculated for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with an adjusted p value of <0.05. Results: Across the three samples, between 22.0-25.1 million reads (81.4-87.7%) were mapped to the genome, including 56.7-68.5% mapped to annotated genes. More than 50% of genes (2694/5279 genes) were differentially expressed (adjusted p-value <0.05) in the nitrogen starved condition with respect to the nitrogen replate condition. 925 genes were upregulated and 1117 genes downregulated by more than 2-fold. Of these, 1515 differentially expressed genes correspond to annotated proteins in the KEGG functional orthology (KO) database. The 20 nitrogen fixation (nif) genes were ranked among the 200 genes with highest calculated expression values (RPKM) in the nitrogen starved condition. Conclusions: Our study provides a detailed insight into the global gene expression profile associated with diazotrophic (nitrogen fixing) growth, revealing a dominant role for nif and other nitrogen regulatory genes in the adaptation to nitrogen stress, in addition to a large array of secondary genes indirectly associated with shifts in metabolism and growth phenotype (e.g. metabolic enzymes, gene expression machinery, transporters).

Project description:Bacteria of the genus Dehalococcoides play an important role in the reductive dechlorination of chlorinated ethenes. A systems level approach was taken in this study to examine the global transcriptomic and proteomic responses of exponentially growing D. ethenogenes strain 195 to fixed nitrogen limitation (FNL). As expected, the nitrogen-fixing (nif) genes were differentially up-regulated in the transcriptome and proteome of strain 195 during FNL. Aside from the nif operon, a putative methylglyoxal synthase-encoding gene (DET1576), which is predicted to catalyze the formation of the toxic electrophile methylglyoxal and implicated in the uncoupling of anabolism from catabolism in bacteria, was strongly up-regulated in the transcriptome and could potentially play a role in the observed growth inhibition during FNL. Carbon catabolism genes were generally down regulated in response to FNL and a number of transporters were differentially regulated in response to nitrogen limitation, with some playing apparent roles in nitrogen acquisition while others were associated with general stress responses. A number of genes related to the biological functions of nucleotide synthesis, replication, transcription, translation, and post-translational modifications were also differentially expressed. One gene coding for a putative reductive dehalogenase (DET1545) and a number coding for oxidoreductases, which have implications in energy generation and redox reactions, were also differentially regulated. Interestingly, most of the genes within the multiple integrated elements were not differentially expressed. Overall, this study elucidates the molecular responses of strain 195 to FNL and identifies differentially expressed genes that are potential biomarkers to evaluate cellular nitrogen status in the environment. Dehalococcoides ethenogenes strain 195 was grown with or without ammonium in batch cultures with trichloroethene as the electron acceptor, acetate as the carbon source, and hydrogen as the electron donor. Microarrays were used to compare the transcriptome during fixed nitrogen limitation and triplicate biological samples were prepared for each condition. Differentially expressed genes between the two growth conditions were identified using a two-tailed Student's t-test, a false discovery rate of less than 1%, an absolute hybridization signal intensity of 300 or greater in one of the two conditions, and an expression ratio of two-fold or greater.

Dataset Information

SRNA154 a newly identified regulator of nitrogen fixation in Methanosarcina mazei strain Gö1

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure