Project description:Investigation of whole genome gene expression level changes in S. pneumoniae KCTC 5080T, S. mitis KCTC 3556T, S. oralis KCTC 13048T, and S. pseudopneumoniae CCUG 49455T. This proves that transcriptional profiling can facilitate in elucidating the genetic distance between closely related strains. A one chip study using total RNA recovered from S. pseudopneumoniae CCUG 49455T with three strain. For the the transcriptome of S. pseudopneumoniae CCUG 49455T was analyzed using the S. pneumoniae R6 microarray platform and compared with those of S. pneumoniae KCTC 5080T, S. mitis KCTC 3556T, and S. oralis KCTC 13048T strains.
Project description:Investigation of whole genome gene expression level changes in S. pneumoniae KCTC 5080T, S. mitis KCTC 3556T, S. oralis KCTC 13048T, and S. pseudopneumoniae CCUG 49455T. This proves that transcriptional profiling can facilitate in elucidating the genetic distance between closely related strains.
Project description:In order to appreciate the presence of surface protein gene homologues in commensal species S. mitis and S. oralis, comparative genomic hybridization studies using DNA microarrays were performed with 8 S. mitis and 11 S. oralis from different geographic locations. The oligonucleotide microarray was designed based on the genomes of S. pneumoniae R6 and TIGR4 as well as S. mitis B6 to include genes of 63 cell surface proteins. The denatured genomic DNA of the S. mitis and S. oralis strains was labeled with Cy3-dCTP and control S. mitis B6 DNA was labeled with Cy5-dCTP. Hybridization was performed following the manufacturers recommendations using an hybridization temperature of 40C for 16 h. For data processing, microarrays were scanned on the laser scanner Pro Scan Array GX (PerkinElmer) with the low resolution of 50 M-5m using ScanArrayExpress Software version 4.0. Photomultiplier tube was adjusted to balance the two fluorescence channels and biochips were scanned with a resolution of 10 M-5m. After elimination of background values fluorescence intensity was determined. Signals that showed an intensity ratio of 0.3 and above were considered to be positive.
Project description:Treatment of pneumococcal infections is limited by antibiotic resistance and exacerbation of disease by bacterial lysis releasing pneumolysin toxin and other inflammatory factors. We identified a novel peptide in the Klebsiella pneumoniae secretome, which enters Streptococcus pneumoniae via its AmiA-AliA/AliB permease. Subsequent downregulation of genes for amino acid biosynthesis and peptide uptake was associated with reduction of pneumococcal growth in defined medium and human cerebrospinal fluid, irregular cell shape, decreased chain length and decreased genetic transformation. The bacteriostatic effect was specific to S. pneumoniae and Streptococcus pseudopneumoniae with no effect on Streptococcus mitis, Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus or K. pneumoniae. Peptide sequence and length were crucial to growth suppression. The peptide reduced pneumococcal adherence to primary human airway epithelial cell cultures and colonization of rat nasopharynx, without toxicity. We also analysed the effect of peptide on the proteome of S. pneumoniae. We found alteration of the proteome by the peptide with some proteins turned on or off in line with the transcriptomic changes. We therefore identified a peptide with potential as a therapeutic for pneumococcal diseases suppressing growth of multiple clinical isolates, including antibiotic resistant strains, while avoiding bacterial lysis and dysbiosis.
Project description:Antibiotic resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae is often the result of horizontal gene transfer events involving closely related streptococcal species. Laboratory experiments confirmed that S. mitis DNA functions as donor in transformation experiments, using the laboratory strain S. pneumoniae R6 as recipient and chromosomal DNA of a high level penicillin resistant S. mitis B6 strain. After four transformation steps, alterations in five penicillin-binding proteins (PBP) were observed, and sequence analysis confirmed recombination events in the corresponding PBP genes. In order to detect regions where recombination with S. mitis DNA has occurred we analyzed the S. pneumoniae transformants by microarray analyses, using oligonucleotide microarrays designed for the S. pneumoniae genome and the S. mitis B6 genome as well.
