Project description:Analysis of culture extracts from S. coelicolor M1154 with and without the matlystatin gene cluster. Gene cluster with various knock-out mutations.
Project description:Intracellular signaling is conserved in eukaryotes to allow for response to extracellular signals and to regulate development and cellular functions. In fungi, inositol phosphate signaling has been shown to be involved in growth, sexual reproduction, and metabolic adaptation lacking, however, reports of mushroom forming fungi so far. In Schizophyllum commune, an inositol monophosphatase has been found up-regulated during sexual development. The enzyme is crucial for inositol cycling where it catalyzes the last step of inositol phosphate metabolism restoring the inositol pool from the monophosphorylated inositol monophosphate. We overexpressed the gene in this model basidiomycete and verified its involvement in cell wall integrity and intracellular trafficking. Strong phenotypes in mushroom formation and cell metabolism were evidenced by proteome analyses. In addition, altered inositol signaling was shown to be involved in tolerance towards cesium and zinc, and increased metal tolerance towards cadmium, associated with induced expression of kinases and repression of phosphatases within the inositol cycle. The presence of the heavy metals Sr, Cs, Cd, and Zn lowered intracellular calcium levels. We could develop a model integrating inositol signaling in the known signal transduction pathways governed by Ras, G-protein coupled receptors, cAMP and elucidate different roles in development.
Project description:Cryptococcus neoformans is the most common cause of fungal meningitis, with high mortality and morbidity. The reason for the frequent occurrence of Cryptococcus infection in the central nervous system (CNS) is poorly understood. In this study, we find that inositol plays an important role in the transversal of Cryptococcus across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) both in an in vitro human BBB model and in vivo animal models. The inositol stimulation of BBB crossing is dependent upon fungal inositol transporters. The upregulation of genes involved in the inositol catabolism pathway is evident in a microarray analysis. The expression of CPS1, a gene encoding the hyaluronic acid synthase in Cryptococcus, is also upregulated by the inositol treatment. The production of hyaluronic acid increased in cells treated with inositol, which leads to the enhanced binding ability of Cryptococcus cells to the human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs) constituting the BBB. Overall, our studies provide a mechanism for inositol-dependent Cryptococcus transversal of the BBB, supporting our hypothesis that host inositol utilization by the fungus contributes to Cryptococcus CNS infection.
Project description:Cryptococcus neoformans is the most common cause of fungal meningitis, with high mortality and morbidity. The reason for the frequent occurrence of Cryptococcus infection in the central nervous system (CNS) is poorly understood. In this study, we find that inositol plays an important role in the transversal of Cryptococcus across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) both in an in vitro human BBB model and in vivo animal models. The inositol stimulation of BBB crossing is dependent upon fungal inositol transporters. The upregulation of genes involved in the inositol catabolism pathway is evident in a microarray analysis. The expression of CPS1, a gene encoding the hyaluronic acid synthase in Cryptococcus, is also upregulated by the inositol treatment. The production of hyaluronic acid increased in cells treated with inositol, which leads to the enhanced binding ability of Cryptococcus cells to the human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs) constituting the BBB. Overall, our studies provide a mechanism for inositol-dependent Cryptococcus transversal of the BBB, supporting our hypothesis that host inositol utilization by the fungus contributes to Cryptococcus CNS infection. To understand the effect of inositol on gene expression profiles during cell development, microarray experiments were performed to monitor the genes regulated by inositol. H99 overnight culture was washed with dH2O once, and cells were inoculated on SD medium with or without inositol. Cells were collected from SD plates 24 hr post-inoculation, washed with dH2O, and total RNA was purified. Total RNAs were extracted using Trizol Reagents (Invitrogen) and purified using the Qiagen RNeasy cleanup kit (Qiagen). Cy3 and Cy5-labeled cDNA were generated by incorporating amino-allyl-dUTP during reverse transcription of 5 µg of total RNA as described previously and competitively hybridized to a JEC21 whole-genome array generated previously at Washington University in Saint Louis. After hybridization, arrays were scanned with a GenePix 4000B scanner (Axon Instruments, http://www.axon.com) and analyzed by using GenePix Pro version 4.0 and BRB array tools (developed by Richard Simon and Amy Peng Lam at the National Cancer Institute; http://linus.nci.nih.gov/BRB-ArrayTools.html)
Project description:Studies of expression of mechanims of defense of the Acinetobacter sp.5-2Ac.02 from airborne hospital environment under stress conditions, such as SOS response (ROS response, heavy metals resistant mechanisms, peptides), as well as Quorum network (acetoin cluster and aromatics biodegradation cluster). Characterization functional of AcoN-like as negative regulator protein from acetoin cluster in Acinetobacter spp. Strains
Project description:This pilot, randomized phase I/II trial studies how well inositol works in preventing colorectal cancer in patients with abnormal cells (dysplasia) associated with inflammation of the colon (colitis). Patients with colitis-associated dysplasia may have an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer. Inositol is a vitamin-like substance that may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth.
Project description:Plants develop mutualistic association with beneficial rhizobacteria. To understand this important phenomenon, early mechanisms for establishing the mutualism are critical. Here we report that active DNA demethylation in plants controls root secretion of myo-inositol, which triggers and further facilitates colonization of the beneficial rhizobacteria Bacillus megaterium strain YC4, thereby allowing for plant growth-promotion. YC4 promotes plant growth but the beneficial effects were lost in the Arabidopsis mutant rdd that is defective in active DNA demethylation. Roots of rdd failed to associate with YC4, meanwhile the level of myo-inositol in root exudates was drastically reduced in rdd. Supplementation of myo-inositol to rdd restored YC4 colonization and plant growth-promotion, while plants with defective myo-inositol monophosphatase also failed in establishing mutualism with YC4. myo-Inositol not only induced chemotaxis of YC4 but also increased YC4 biofilm production, consistent with the transcriptional regulation of YC4 by myo-inositol. In addition, myo-inositol preferentially attracts Bacillus megaterium among the examined bacteria species. Regardless of YC4 inoculation, myo-inositol biosynthesis and catabolism genes are down- and up-regulated, respectively, in rdd compared to wild type plants. The differential expression of myo-inositol homeostasis genes is correlated with local DNA hypermethylation, whereas genetic disruption of the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway abolished these epigenetic marks and reset the corresponding gene expression patterns, resulting in restored YC4 colonization and plant growth-promotion. Importantly, that active DNA demethylation controls myo-inositol-mediated mutualism between YC4 and plants was also demonstrated in Solanum lycopersicum. Our results uncover an important function of myo-inositol in plant-microbe interactions and its dependence on plant epigenetic regulation.
Project description:The development of new drugs against tuberculosis and diphtheria is focused on disrupting the biogenesis of the cell wall, the unique architecture of which confers resistance against current therapies. The enzymatic pathways involved in the synthesis of the cell wall by these pathogens are well understood but the underlying regulatory mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we characterize IpsA, a LacI-type transcriptional regulator conserved among Mycobacteria and Corynebacteria that plays a role in the regulation of cell wall biogenesis. IpsA triggers myo-inositol formation by activating ino1, which encodes inositol phosphate synthase. An IpsA deletion mutant of Corynebacterium glutamicum cultured on glucose displayed significantly impaired growth and presented an elongated cell morphology. Analysis of the polar lipid fraction of the cell wall revealed the absence of inositol-derived lipids. The phenotype of the C. glutamicum M-NM-^TipsA mutant was complemented by homologues from Corynebacterium diphtheriae (dip1969) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (rv3575), indicating the conserved function of IpsA in the pathogenic species. Additional targets of IpsA with putative functions in cell wall biogenesis were identified and IpsA was shown to bind to a conserved palindromic motif within the corresponding promoter regions. myo-inositol was identified as an effector of IpsA, causing the dissociation of the IpsA-DNA complex in vitro. This characterization of IpsA function and of its regulon sheds light on the complex transcriptional control of cell wall biogenesis in the mycolata taxon and generates novel targets for drug development. To identify genes which were regulated by IpsA (Cg2910), we performed DNA microarray analyses of ATCC 13032 M-NM-^TipsA against wild type. For this purpose RNA was isolated from cells cultivated in CGXII minimal medium with 2% glucose (w v-1) and harvested in the exponential growth phase at an OD600 of 1. Three biological replicates were performed.
Project description:We report next generation sequencing RNA-seq data of human gut commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron strains deficient in inositol lipid synthesis, including dBT_1522 (phosphoinositol dihydroceramide synthase knockout) and its wild-type background strain, and iSPTdBT_1526 (myo-inositol-phosphate synthase) knockout with its background strain ("iSPT," inducible serine palmitoyltransferase).