Project description:Rickettsiae are strict obligate intracellular pathogens that alternate between arthropod and mammalian hosts in a zoonotic cycle. Typically, pathogenic bacteria that cycle between environmental sources and mammalian hosts adapt to the respective environments by coordinately regulating gene expression such that genes essential for survival and virulence are expressed only upon infection of mammals. Temperature is a common environmental signal for upregulation of virulence gene expression although other factors may also play a role. We examined the transcriptional responses of Rickettsia rickettsii, the agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, to a variety of environmental signals expected to be encountered during its life cycle. R. rickettsii exposed to differences in growth temperature (25o C vs. 37o C), iron limitation, and host cell species displayed nominal changes in gene expression under any of these conditions with only 0, 5, or 7 genes, respectively, changing more than 3-fold in expression levels. R. rickettsii is not totally devoid of ability to respond to temperature shifts as cold shock (37o C vs. 4o C) induced a change greater than 3-fold in up to 57 genes. Rickettsiae continuously occupy a relatively stable environment which is the cytosol of eukaryotic cells. Because of their obligate intracellular character, rickettsiae are believed to be undergoing reductive evolution to a minimal genome. We propose that their relatively constant environmental niche has led to a minimal requirement for R. rickettsii to respond to environmental changes with a consequent deletion of non-essential transcriptional response regulators. A minimal number of transcriptional regulators in the R. rickettsii genome is consistent with this hypothesis. various growth and environmental condition comparisons
Project description:The increasing demand for non-food competitive carbon sources such as methanol for biotechnology has brought methanol-utilizing bacteria, so-called methylotrophs, to focus. The product spectrum of natural methylotrophs and their genetic accessibility is limited and as an alternative approach, the introduction of methylotrophic metabolism into a biotechnologically well-established organism, such as Escherichia coli, represents a promising concept. By performing long-term evolution over 600 days, we obtained an E. coli strain that is able to grow on methanol as its sole carbon source at rates comparable to natural methylotrophic organisms. We confirmed that the strain forms its entire biomass from methanol. Furthermore, we sequenced the genome of the evolved strain and compared it to the genome of its ancestor. Intriguingly, we found several hundreds of mutations targeting genes of various functions, such as catalysis and regulation. Like the comparison of the genome before and after evolution, the investigation of the proteome would be of high interest. Proteomics would reveal the consequences of the regulatory mutations found in the genome and provide an overall picture of the adaptations by the cell enabling it to grow on methanol. The increasing demand for non-food competitive carbon sources such as methanol for biotechnology has brought methanol-utilizing bacteria, so-called methylotrophs, to focus. The product spectrum of natural methylotrophs and their genetic accessibility is limited and as an alternative approach, the introduction of methylotrophic metabolism into a biotechnologically well-established organism, such as Escherichia coli, represents a promising concept. By performing long-term evolution over 600 days, we obtained an E. coli strain that is able to grow on methanol as its sole carbon source at rates comparable to natural methylotrophic organisms. We confirmed that the strain forms its entire biomass from methanol. Furthermore, we sequenced the genome of the evolved strain and compared it to the genome of its ancestor. Intriguingly, we found several hundreds of mutations targeting genes of various functions, such as catalysis and regulation. Like the comparison of the genome before and after evolution, the investigation of the proteome would be of high interest. Proteomics would reveal the consequences of the regulatory mutations found in the genome and provide an overall picture of the adaptations by the cell enabling it to grow on methanol.
Project description:To use whole genome microarrays to compare the differences in genome contents of 5 B. pseudomallei isolated from clinical specimens and environmental sample with B. pseudomallei K96243 reference strain and reveals variable patterns of Genomic Islands (GIs) Keywords: Comparative genomic hybridization
Project description:We isolated cells from human antral follicles of various sizes and sources and subjected them to 10x Chromium single cell sequencing
Project description:We isolated cells from human antral follicles of various stages and sources and subjected them to 10x Chromium single cell sequencing
Project description:Enteropathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis share many traits in terms of infections they cause, but their epidemiology and ecology seem to differ in many ways. Pigs are the only known reservoir for Y. enterocolitica 4/O:3 strains while Y. pseudotuberculosis strains have been isolated from variety of sources including fresh vegetables and wild animals. A comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analysis with a DNA microarray based on three Yersinia enterocolitica and four Yersinia pseudotuberculosis genomes was conducted to shed light on genomic differences between the enteropathogenic Yersinia. In total 99 strains isolated from various sources were hybridized and analyzed.