Project description:Maintenance of an anaerobic respiratory system in the obligate human pathogen, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, suggests that an anaerobic lifestyle may be important during the course of infection. However, at this point there have been no studies analyzing the complete gonococcal transcriptome response to anaerobiosis. Here we performed deep sequencing to compare the gonococcal transcriptomes of aerobic and anaerobically grown cells. We found that the anaerobic stimulon in gonococci was large, and that 198 chromosomal genes were found to be differentially expressed. We also observed a large induction of genes encoded within the cryptic plasmid, pJD1. Secondary analysis of genes found to be differentially expressed by RNA-seq using translational-lacZ fusions or RT-PCR demonstrated the RNA-seq results to be very reproducible. Surprisingly, many genes of prophage origin were induced anaerobically, as well as several transcriptional regulators previously unknown to be involved in anaerobic growth. We also confirmed expression and regulation of a small RNA, likely a functional equivalent of fnrS in the Enterobacteriaceae family. Several novel factors were identified to be anaerobically regulated, as well as a large number of hypothetical proteins were induced.
Project description:Maintenance of an anaerobic respiratory system in the obligate human pathogen, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, suggests that an anaerobic lifestyle may be important during the course of infection. However, at this point there have been no studies analyzing the complete gonococcal transcriptome response to anaerobiosis. Here we performed deep sequencing to compare the gonococcal transcriptomes of aerobic and anaerobically grown cells. We found that the anaerobic stimulon in gonococci was large, and that 198 chromosomal genes were found to be differentially expressed. We also observed a large induction of genes encoded within the cryptic plasmid, pJD1. Secondary analysis of genes found to be differentially expressed by RNA-seq using translational-lacZ fusions or RT-PCR demonstrated the RNA-seq results to be very reproducible. Surprisingly, many genes of prophage origin were induced anaerobically, as well as several transcriptional regulators previously unknown to be involved in anaerobic growth. We also confirmed expression and regulation of a small RNA, likely a functional equivalent of fnrS in the Enterobacteriaceae family. Several novel factors were identified to be anaerobically regulated, as well as a large number of hypothetical proteins were induced. Two biological replicates of cells grown aerobically or anaerobically with nitrite were analyzed, for a total of four samples subject to SOLiD RNA sequencing.
Project description:In this study wild-type, fur mutant, and complemented fur mutant strains of the human pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae F62 were grown under high (100 uM iron) or low (100 uM desferal) iron conditions to identify genes whose expression was regulated by iron and/or Fur. This study looked at the response 3 hours after the addition of iron or desferal.
Project description:Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the etiologic agent of gonorrhea, is frequently asymptomatic in women, often leading to chronic infections. One factor contributing to this may be biofilm formation. N. gonorrhoeae can form biofilms over glass and plastic surfaces. There is also evidence that biofilm formation may occur during natural cervical infection. To further study the mechanism of this biofilm formation, transcriptional profiles of N. gonorrhoeae biofilm were compared to planktonic profiles. Biofilm RNA was extracted from N. gonorrhoeae 1291 grown for 48 hours in continuous flow chambers over glass. Planktonic RNA was extracted from the biofilm runoff. When biofilm was compared to planktonic growth, 3.8 % of the genome was differentially regulated. Genes highly up-regulated in biofilm included aniA, norB, and ccp, which play critical roles in anaerobic metabolism and oxidative stress tolerance. Down-regulated genes included the nuo gene cluster (NADH dehydrogenase) and the cytochrome bcI complex, which are involved in aerobic respiration and are thought to contribute to endogenous oxidative stress. Furthermore, we determined that aniA, ccp, and norB insertional mutants are attenuated for biofilm formation over glass and transformed human cervical epithelial cells (THCEC). This data suggests that biofilm formation could minimize oxidative stress during cervical infection and allow N. gonorrhoeae to maintain a nitric oxide steady state that may be anti-inflammatory.
Project description:The overall goals and objectives of this study are to investigate the transcriptomics of Neisseria gonorrhoeae using RNA-seq. This work will look at gene expression, start points of transcription, transcriptional termination, and differences between these in different conditions and between strains and growing cultures over time.
Project description:Microarray comparative genome hybridization (mCGH) data was collected from one Neisseria cinerea, two Neisseria lactamica, two Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and 48 Neisseria meningitidis isolates. For N. meningitidis, these isolates are from diverse clonal complexes, invasive and carriage strains, and all major serogroups. The microarray platform represented N. meningitidis strains MC58, Z2491, and FAM18 and N. gonorrhoeae FA1090.
Project description:Deep sequencing of cDNA of Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria that were grown in suspension or adherent to acid-washed glass coverslips, in media where zinc was sequestered or available in excess.
Project description:Hfq is an RNA chaperone, which functions as a pleiotropic regulator for RNA metabolism in bacteria. To characterize the role of Hfq in pathogenicity of Neisseria gonorrhoeae we generated a N. gonorrhoeae hfq mutant, MS11hfq.Transcriptional analysis using a custom-made N. gonorrhoeae microarray revealed that 369 open reading frames were differentially regulated in MS11hfq compared to the wild-type (wt) strain (202 were upregulated, 167 were downregulated).