Project description:The organic acids lactate and diacetate are commonly used in combination in ready-to-eat foods because they show synergistic, i.e. greater than additive, ability to inhibit the growth of Listeria monocytogenes. Full genome microarrays were used to investigate the synergistic transcriptomic response of two L. monocytogenes strains, h7858 (serotype 4b) and f6854 (serotype 1/2a), to organic acid, under conditions controlling for osmotic and cold stress. Strains were exposed to BHI broth at 7°C with 4.65% water phase (w.p.) NaCl at pH 6.1 treated with 2% w.p. potassium lactate, 0.14% w.p. sodium diacetate, the combination of both at the same levels, or no inhibitors as control. RNA was extracted 8h after exposure, during lag phase, to capture gene expression changes during adaptation to the organic acid stress. Treatment with organic acids induced massive global transcriptional changes, with 1041 and 640 genes differentially expressed in h7858 and f6854. Major effects of treatment with lactate and diacetate are (i) a total of 474 and 209 genes, for h7858 and f6854, that showed synergistic expression differences, (ii) differential expression of membrane ion transport genes including those encoding ABC transporters of metals and decreased multi-drug transporter expression many ABC, PTS, and drug transporter systems, including increased PTS sugar transport and decreased multi-drug transporter expression, and (iii) altered metabolism including induction of a nutrient limiting stress response, reduction of menaquinone biosynthesis, and a shift from fermentative production of lactate and acetate and lactate to energetically less favorable, neutral acetoin. These data suggest that additional synergies in L. monocytogenes growth inhibition could be achieved by treatments that interfere with cellular energy generation processes.
Project description:The organic acids lactate and diacetate are commonly used in combination in ready-to-eat foods because they show synergistic, i.e. greater than additive, ability to inhibit the growth of Listeria monocytogenes. Full genome microarrays were used to investigate the synergistic transcriptomic response of two L. monocytogenes strains, h7858 (serotype 4b) and f6854 (serotype 1/2a), to organic acid, under conditions controlling for osmotic and cold stress. Strains were exposed to BHI broth at 7°C with 4.65% water phase (w.p.) NaCl at pH 6.1 treated with 2% w.p. potassium lactate, 0.14% w.p. sodium diacetate, the combination of both at the same levels, or no inhibitors as control. RNA was extracted 8h after exposure, during lag phase, to capture gene expression changes during adaptation to the organic acid stress. Treatment with organic acids induced massive global transcriptional changes, with 1041 and 640 genes differentially expressed in h7858 and f6854. Major effects of treatment with lactate and diacetate are (i) a total of 474 and 209 genes, for h7858 and f6854, that showed synergistic expression differences, (ii) differential expression of membrane ion transport genes including those encoding ABC transporters of metals and decreased multi-drug transporter expression many ABC, PTS, and drug transporter systems, including increased PTS sugar transport and decreased multi-drug transporter expression, and (iii) altered metabolism including induction of a nutrient limiting stress response, reduction of menaquinone biosynthesis, and a shift from fermentative production of lactate and acetate and lactate to energetically less favorable, neutral acetoin. These data suggest that additional synergies in L. monocytogenes growth inhibition could be achieved by treatments that interfere with cellular energy generation processes. The dye-swapped, single loop design hybridizes a single biological replicate of both 2% water phase lactate (PL) and 0.14% water phase acetate (SDA) treatments to both the control (CTRL) and combination (PLSDA) treatments (4 hybridizations), using opposite dye labels for each sample, and a second biological replicate is hybridized with dye assignments swapped (4 more hybridizations) to balance labeling effects. The design was repeated twice comprising 16 hybridizations over 4 biological replicates for each strain, and 32 total hybridizations over both h7858 and f6854.
Project description:These studies were designed to examine the acute Listeria monocytogenes transcriptional response to mammalian (porcine) bile. Triplicate WT Listeria monocytogenes (strain 10403S) were grown to mid-log in BHI at 37 °C. Samples were divided, and either treated or not treated by addition of porcine bile (Sigma, to 1% final) for 30 minutes.
Project description:Listeria monocytogenes cells (strain LI0521) were digested with trypsin for the identification of surface proteins. The supernatant was filter-sterilized and subjected to identification by LC-MS/MS. Concurrently secreted or shed proteins were identified by isolating filter-sterilized supernatants following incubation of L. monocytogenes cells in buffer without trypsin. This was followed by trypsin digest of the sterilized supernatant and identification by LC-MS/MS.
Project description:The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes uses a number of transcriptional regulators, including the negative regulator CtsR, to control gene expression under different environmental conditions and in response to stress. Gene expression patterns of DctsR log phase cells were compared to both wt and ictsR-mcsA log phase cells grown with 0.5mM IPTG to identify CtsR-dependent genes.We identified 62 CtsR-dependent genes that showed significant expression ratios (adj. P < 0.05), with ≥ 1.5-fold differential expression either between ΔctsR and wt or between ΔctsR and ictsR-mcsA. Keywords: Listeria monocytogenes, CtsR regulon, log phase
Project description:The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes uses a number of transcriptional regulators, including the negative regulator HrcA, to control gene expression under different environmental conditions and in response to stress. Gene expression patterns of DhrcA stationary phase cells were compared to wt to identify hrcA-dependent genes. We identified 61 HrcA-dependent genes that showed significant expression ratios (adj. P < 0.05), with ≥ 1.5-fold differential expression between ΔhrcA and wt. Combined with microarray analysis, Hidden Markov Model searches show HrcA directly repress at least 8 genes. Keywords: Listeria monocytogenes, HrcA regulon, stationary phase
Project description:Cultivation based analyses were used to determine the resistance of a set of 140 Listeria monocytogenes strains to weak organic acids. Strains of lineage I tended to exhibit greater overall resistant to four different organic acids compared to lineage II strains. Resistant strains also possessed higher survival levels following challenge to pH 2.4 compared to sensitive strains. Transcriptomic analyses were performed to determine genetic responses relevant to growth at mildly acidic conditions (pH 5.0) and to the presence of sodium diacetate. Lineage I and II strain representatives, clinical strain ATCC 19115 and food isolate FW04/0023, were found to exhibit similar transcriptomic changes when habituated to pH 5.0 in brain heart infusion broth (BHIB) relative to growth at pH 7.2 though considerably more divergent responses were detected when 21 mM sodium diacetate was present. Homogeneity in acid habituation-related gene expression was reflected in relatively homogenous SigB, PrfA, HrCA and CodY regulon expression responses. In the presence of sodium diacetate, SigB and PrfA regulon genes found to be upregulated in sigB and prfA null mutants were overall repressed but SigB dependent-gene activation was not evident. L. monocytogenes strains responses to sodium diacetate were observed in different expression trends amongst various functionally-related gene sets and in particular the expression of the PrfA, Atp, Kdp, Cob, Pdu, Eut and Dlt operons; iron transporter and heat shock-related proteins. The results suggest there is diversity in the specific responses to weak organic acids and subsequent cytosolic acidification amongst L. monocytogenes strains though the acid tolerance response itself manifests as a more conserved set of expression responses.
Project description:The stationary phase stress response transcriptome of the human bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes was defined using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) with the Illumina Genome Analyzer. Specifically, bacterial transcriptomes were compared between stationary phase cells of L. monocytogenes 10403S and an otherwise isogenic DsigB mutant, which does not express the alternative sigma factor σB, a major regulator of genes contributing to stress response. Keywords: Transcriptome and differential expression analyses