Project description:The unprecedented magnitude of the 2013-2016 Makona Ebola virus (M-EBOV) epidemic likely resulted from multiple epidemiologic factors that set it apart from previous outbreaks. Nonetheless, genetic adaptations that distinguish M-EBOV from previous isolates may also have contributed to the scale of the epidemic. Of particular interest is a M-EBOV glycoprotein (GP) variant, GP-A82V, that was first detected at the inflection point of the 2013-2016 outbreak - when the number of cases increased exponentially - and which completely supplanted the earlier M-EBOV sequence. We found that, as compared with the earlier strain, GP-A82V increased the ability of M-EBOV to fuse with and infect cells of primate origin, including human blood dendritic cells, without altering innate immune signaling in target cells. Residue 82 is located at the NPC1-binding site on M-EBOV GP and the increased infectivity of GP-A82V was restricted to cells from species in which the NPC1 orthologue bears primate-defining residues at the critical interface. We utilized HIV-derived lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with founder and A82V containing M-EBOV GPs to explore the potential that this modification alters how human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MDDCs) respond to EBOV GP stimulation.
Project description:A food-borne outbreak of haemorrhagic colitis (HC) and HUS caused by E. coli O103:H25 occurred in Norway, 2006. The outbreak included 17 registered cases, of which 10 developed HUS. The aim of this study was to characterize two E. coli O103:H25 isolates from this outbreak. Only one of the isolates carry the stx2 gene (by PCR). Since they have the same typing profile by typing method MLVA, we expect the isolates to have identical gene content except from an Stx2-encoding phage. Therefore, we further investigate whether the Stx2-encoding phage has any impact on the gene expression. Keywords: mixed, gene expression, comparative genomic hybridization Triplicate samples of mRNA from a test strain O157:H7 EDL933 and two outbreak strains - one Stx positive and one stx negative were co-hybridized with genomic DNA from the same strain. Triplicate samples of the Stx positive strain grown at acidic conditions was also co-hybridized with genomic DNA from the Stx positive strain. Genomic DNA for each strain is technical replicates only.
Project description:A food-borne outbreak of haemorrhagic colitis (HC) and HUS caused by E. coli O103:H25 occurred in Norway, 2006. The outbreak included 17 registered cases, of which 10 developed HUS. The aim of this study was to characterize two E. coli O103:H25 isolates from this outbreak. Only one of the isolates carry the stx2 gene (by PCR). Since they have the same typing profile by typing method MLVA, we expect the isolates to have identical gene content except from an Stx2-encoding phage. Therefore, we further investigate whether the Stx2-encoding phage has any impact on the gene expression. Keywords: mixed, gene expression, comparative genomic hybridization