Project description:Surfing motility is a complex adaptation that is different from swarming motility and requires the stringent stress response in Pseudomonas aeruginosa LESB58 Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease that affects mucin-producing body organs such as the lungs. Characteristic of CF is the production of thick and sticky mucus that can lead to progressive airway obstruction. The glycoprotein mucin is the major macromolecular component of mucus. Recently, we identified that the presence of mucin induced a rapid surface adaptation termed surfing motility in motile bacteria. P. aeruginosa, the main colonizing pathogen in CF employs several stress coping mechanisms to survive the highly viscous environment of the CF lung. Here, RNA-Seq was used to study the stringent stress response in the hypervirulent CF isolate LESB58 (Liverpool Epidemic Strain) via transcriptional profiling. As the stringent response is regulated by relA and spoT, we created a double knockout of these genes in LESB58 to study the impact of these stress regulators on surfing motility using RNA-Seq.
Project description:The stringent response was defined in Lactococcus lactis through transcript profiling after the addition of a chemical inductor, the norvaline. Gene expression was measured in the exponential growth phase (reference sample) and at 1.6 h after norvaline addition. Four hundred and sixty one differentially expressed genes were identified and constituted the stringent response regulon. Keywords: stress response, time course Stringent response was imposed through norvaline addition during the growth of Lactococcus lactis IL1403 under controlled conditions (30 °C, pH 6.6, nitrogen atmosphere). Cell samples were harvested in exponential phase and 1.6 h after norvaline addition. Total RNA was extracted from these samples and radiolabelled cDNA were prepared and hybridized on nylon arrays. 2053 amplicons specific of Lactococcus lactis IL1403 genes were spotted twice on the array. The 2 time-points were analyzed simultaneously and 3 independent repetitions were performed.
Project description:This study is an analysis of changes in gene expression during stringent response in Vibrio cholerae. V. cholerae cells in mid-log were treated with serine hydroxamate and gene expression was compared to untreated cells. Keywords: Stress response, stringent response
Project description:The stringent response was defined in Lactococcus lactis through transcript profiling after the addition of a chemical inductor, the norvaline. Gene expression was measured in the exponential growth phase (reference sample) and at 1.6 h after norvaline addition. Four hundred and sixty one differentially expressed genes were identified and constituted the stringent response regulon. Keywords: stress response, time course
Project description:Campylobacter jejuni is a highly prevalent food-borne pathogen that causes diarrhoeal disease in humans. A natural zoonotic, it must overcome significant stresses both in vivo and during transmission despite the absence of several traditional stress response genes. Its ability to interact with and invade human intestinal epithelial cells closely correlates with virulence. A C. jejuni microarray-based screen revealed that several known virulence genes and several uncharacterized genes, including spoT, were rapidly upregulated during infection of human epithelial cells. spoT and its homologue relA have been shown in other bacteria to regulate the stringent response, an important stress response that to date had not been demonstrated for C. jejuni. We have found that C. jejuni mounts a stringent response that is regulated by spoT. Detailed analyses of a C. jejuni delta spoT mutant revealed that the stringent response is required for several specific stress, transmission and antibiotic resistance-related phenotypes. These include stationary phase survival, growth and survival under low CO2/high O2 conditions, and rifampicin resistance. A secondary suppressor strain that specifically rescues the low CO2 growth defect of the delta spoT mutant was also isolated. The stringent response additionally proved to be required for the virulence-related phenotypes of adherence, invasion, and intracellular survival in two human epithelial cell culture models of infection; spoT is the first C. jejuni gene shown to participate in longer term survival in epithelial cells. Comparing wt to the delta spoT mutant also revealed a strong correlation between gene expression profiles and phenotype differences observed. Together, these data demonstrate a critical role for the C. jejuni stringent response in multiple aspects of C. jejuni biology and pathogenesis. Set of arrays organized by shared biological context, such as organism, tumors types, processes, etc. Keywords: Logical Set
Project description:Campylobacter jejuni is a highly prevalent food-borne pathogen that causes diarrhoeal disease in humans. A natural zoonotic, it must overcome significant stresses both in vivo and during transmission despite the absence of several traditional stress response genes. Its ability to interact with and invade human intestinal epithelial cells closely correlates with virulence. A C. jejuni microarray-based screen revealed that several known virulence genes and several uncharacterized genes, including spoT, were rapidly upregulated during infection of human epithelial cells. spoT and its homologue relA have been shown in other bacteria to regulate the stringent response, an important stress response that to date had not been demonstrated for C. jejuni. We have found that C. jejuni mounts a stringent response that is regulated by spoT. Detailed analyses of a C. jejuni delta spoT mutant revealed that the stringent response is required for several specific stress, transmission and antibiotic resistance-related phenotypes. These include stationary phase survival, growth and survival under low CO2/high O2 conditions, and rifampicin resistance. A secondary suppressor strain that specifically rescues the low CO2 growth defect of the delta spoT mutant was also isolated. The stringent response additionally proved to be required for the virulence-related phenotypes of adherence, invasion, and intracellular survival in two human epithelial cell culture models of infection; spoT is the first C. jejuni gene shown to participate in longer term survival in epithelial cells. Comparing wt to the delta spoT mutant also revealed a strong correlation between gene expression profiles and phenotype differences observed. Together, these data demonstrate a critical role for the C. jejuni stringent response in multiple aspects of C. jejuni biology and pathogenesis. Set of arrays organized by shared biological context, such as organism, tumors types, processes, etc. Computed
Project description:The stringent response is a conserved stress response employed by various bacteria to respond to and cope with conditions of amino acid starvation, carbon-source, fatty acid, oxygen/iron limitation, heat shock, antimicrobial challenge, and/or other environmental stressors. In S. aureus, the stringent response is mediated in part by enzyme RSH (relA spoT homologue) which synthesizes two nucleotide-based molecules, guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) and pentaphosphate (pppGpp), collectively known as (p) ppGpp. This response is known to result in a number of diverse physiological and metabolic changes which we further characterized in the present study. Specifically, the global transcriptome of the RSH synthase mutant (rshsyn) was compared to the WT parent S. aureus strain (NCTC 8325) by RNA-Seq analysis under both normal and nutrient-limited media conditions. In order to mimic nutrient limitation, bacteria were treated with mupirocin, an antibiotic and isoleucine analogue known to lead to isoleucine starvation. In the WT strain, in response to mupirocin-induced isoleucine starvation, genes encoding protein synthesis machinery were suppressed while genes encoding amino acid biosynthetic machinery were upregulated. This response likely employed to compensate for amino acid deprivation, was not induced in the stringent response mutant. Furthermore, under starvation conditions, biofilm-related genes (i.e. icaA, icaC, fnbA, clfB, emp) were more upregulated in the WT than the stringent response mutant. Moreover, the effect of mupirocin caused a stronger upregulation of several proteases (i.e. sspA, sspP, sppB, aur), lipases (lip, geh) and phenol soluble modulin toxins in the WT as compared to the mutant. Overall, these results suggest that under starvation conditions, RSH plays an important role in helping the cell respond to nutritional stress as well as regulates the expression of numerous colonization and virulence factors.
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major cause of nosocomial infections and also leads to severe exacerbations in cystic fibrosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Three intertwined quorum sensing systems control virulence of P. aeruginosa, with the rhl circuit playing the leading role in late and chronic infections. The majority of traits controlled by rhl transcription factor RhlR depend on PqsE, a dispensable thioesterase in Pseudomonas Quinolone Signal (PQS) biosynthesis that interferes with RhlR through an enigmatic mechanism likely involving direct interaction of both proteins. Here we show that PqsE and RhlR form a 2:2 protein complex that, together with RhlR agonist N-butanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C4-HSL), solubilizes RhlR and thereby renders the otherwise insoluble transcription factor active. We determined crystal structures of the complex and identified residues essential for the interaction. To corroborate the chaperone like activity of PqsE, we designed stability-optimized variants of RhlR that bypass the need for C4-HSL and PqsE in activating PqsE/RhlR-controlled processes of P. aeruginosa. Together, our data provide insight into the unique regulatory role of PqsE and lay groundwork for developing new P. aeruginosa-specific pharmaceuticals.
Project description:We show that NtrC couples the Ntr stress response and stringent response in N starved E. coli, which appears to be a conserved adaptive strategy employed by many bacteria to manage conditions of nutritional adversity. N starved Escherichia coli initiate the nitrogen regulation (Ntr) stress response as an adaptive mechanism to scavenge for alternative N sources. The Ntr stress response requires the global transcriptional regulator nitrogen regulatory protein C (NtrC). We discovered that the transcription of relA, the key gene responsible for the synthesis of the major effector nucleotide alamorne of the bacterial stringent response, guanosine pentaphosphate (ppGpp), is positively regulated by NtrC in N starved E. coli. we addressed Ntr stress response-ppGpp alarmone links and mapped the genome-wide binding targets of NtrC in E. coli during N starvation using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) followed by high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) to gain insight into the NtrC-dependent gene networks. To identify candidate genome regions that are preferentially associated with NtrC, we introduced an in-frame fusion encoding three repeats of the FLAG epitope to the 3-prime end of glnG in E. coli strain NCM3722, a prototrophic E. coli K-12 strain.