Project description:Model endophyte Azoarcus sp. BH72 is known to contribute fixed nitrogen to its host Kallar grass by nitrogen fixation and also expresses nitrogenase genes endophytically in rice seedlings in gnotobiotic culture. Availability of fixed nitrogen is one of the important signals regulating the transcription of nitrogenase genes and hence nitrogen fixing activity. Therefore, we analysed global transcription in response to differences in the nitrogen source. Transcription profiles of cells grown microaerobically (0.6% oxygen) on minimal medium with nitrogen (N2-fixing) versus ammonium (combined nitrogen) were compared using a genome-wide microarray approach and differences in the gene expression profile were monitored.
Project description:Model endophyte Azoarcus sp. BH72 is known to contribute fixed nitrogen to its host Kallar grass by nitrogen fixation and also expresses nitrogenase genes endophytically in rice seedlings in gnotobiotic culture. Availability of fixed nitrogen is one of the important signals regulating the transcription of nitrogenase genes and hence nitrogen fixing activity. Therefore, we analysed global transcription in response to differences in the nitrogen source. Transcription profiles of cells grown microaerobically (0.6% oxygen) on minimal medium with nitrogen (N2-fixing) versus ammonium (combined nitrogen) were compared using a genome-wide microarray approach and differences in the gene expression profile were monitored. RNA from cells grown on nitrogen-free synthetic medium under nitrogen fixation (experiment) and combined nitrogen source as ammonium chloride (control) was used for two-color whole-genome microarray approach.
Project description:Neotyphodium coenophialum is an endophytic fungus that infects most tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) pastures that are commonly used in animal grazing systems in the United States. Beef cattle grazing such pastures are impaired in health and production performance, resulting in a large economic loss in US food-animal production systems. Based on clinical and biochemical blood analyte profiles, hepatic targeted gene and protein analyses, and hepatic transcriptomic profiling, microarray analysis using the WT Btau 4.0 Array (version 1.0, Affymetrix, Inc., Santa Clara, CA) was conducted to determine if grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue pastures affects pituitary gene expression profiles of growing beef steers. The specific overall hypothesis tested was that grazing high endophyte-infected pasture would alter the pituitary genomic expression profiles of the same growing steers, especially genes involved in production and secretion of prolactin, growth hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone, and adrenocorticotropic hormone. Sixteen steers were assigned to graze either a low toxic endophyte tall fescue-mixed grass (LE treatment, 5.7 ha, n = 8) or a high toxic endophyte infected tall fescue (HE treatment, 5.7 ha, n = 8) pasture located in the University of Kentucky Agricultural Research Center. All steers had ad libitum access to fresh water, an industry standard mineral-vitamin supplement, and grazed respective pastures for 89 to 105 days. Whole pituitaries were collected for RNA extraction and microarray analysis.
Project description:Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) is the most cultivated cool-season grass worldwide with crucial roles in carbon fixation and fodder for livestock. Protection of these grasses from biotic and abiotic factors are dictated through a mutually-beneficial relationship with endophytes that confer bioprotective properties. Common endophytes of the genus Epichloë promote the health and survival of cool-season forages greases and protect the plants from fluctuating environmental conditions. Climate change, and specifically, a steady increase in atmospheric CO2 levels, presents a dramatic and imminent threat faced by our ecosystem, which poses substantial pressures on plant health and survival. Defining the relationships between endophytes and the host plant may uncover mechanisms of bioprotection, which can be exploited to promote adaptable plant systems in rising CO2 conditions. In this study, we quantify changes in biomass and seed production of L. perenne L. at 400 and 800 ppm CO2 and identify endophyte-specific changes in metabolite production. Additionally, we discover protein-level changes from both the endophyte and plant perspectives, which underscore the compatible relationship between a common, natural endophyte and L. perenne L., compared to an incompatible and detrimental relationship the epichloid strain, AR1. Taken together, our data set provides new understanding into the intricacy of compatibility between endophyte and host from multiple molecular levels and suggests opportunity to promote plant robustness and survivability in rising CO2 environmental conditions through application of bioprotective epichloid strains.
Project description:Neotyphodium coenophialum is an endophytic fungus that infects most tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) pastures that are commonly used in animal grazing systems in the United States. Beef cattle grazing such pastures are impaired in health and production performance, resulting in a large economic loss in US food-animal production systems. Based on the clinical symptoms and laboratory analyses of blood, it was hypothesized that such affected cattle display liver-specific changes in the expression of gene transcripts that are associated with the metabolic enzymes and transporters critical for beef health and performance. Microarray analysis using the GeneChip Bovine Genome Array (Affymetrix, Inc., Santa Clara, CA) was conducted to determine if grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue pastures affects the liver gene expression profiles of growing beef steers. Nineteen steers were assigned to graze either a low toxic endophyte tall fescue-mixed grass (LE treatment, 5.7 ha, n = 9) or a high toxic endophyte infected tall fescue (HE treatment, 5.7 ha, n = 10) pasture located in the University of Kentucky Agricultural Research Center. All steers had ad libitum access to fresh water and an industry standard mineral-vitamin supplement. 88 days grazing on pasture. Approximately 2 g of tissue from the right lobe of the liver of each steer were collected for RNA extraction and microarray analysis.
Project description:Endophytic colonization is a very complex process which is not yet completely understood. Molecules exuded by the plants may act as signals which influence the ability of the microbe to colonize the host or survive in the rhizosphere. Here we investigated whether root exudates of the host might play a role in initiating the endophyte-rice interaction. The whole genome microarray approach was used to investigate the response of the diazotrophic model endophyte, Azoarcus sp. strain BH72, to exudates of O. sativa cv. Nipponbare in order to identify differentially regulated genes. Azoarcus sp. strain BH72 was grown in the presence or absence of root exudates of Oryza sativa cv. Nipponbare for two different time points, and differences in the gene expression profile were monitored.
Project description:Endophytic colonization is a very complex process which is not yet completely understood. Molecules exuded by the plants may act as signals which influence the ability of the microbe to colonize the host or survive in the rhizosphere. Here we investigated whether root exudates of the host might play a role in initiating the endophyte-rice interaction. The whole genome microarray approach was used to investigate the response of the diazotrophic model endophyte, Azoarcus sp. strain BH72, to exudates of O. sativa cv. Nipponbare in order to identify differentially regulated genes. Azoarcus sp. strain BH72 was grown in the presence or absence of root exudates of Oryza sativa cv. Nipponbare for two different time points, and differences in the gene expression profile were monitored. RNA from cells grown on synthetic medium for 1 and 4 hours respectively in presence (experiment) and absence (control) of exudates was used for two color whole genome microarray approach.
Project description:Inoculation of endophyte-free (E-) Theobroma cacao leaves with Colletotrichum tropicale (E+), the dominant foliar fungal endophyte in healthy T. cacao, induced significant changes in the expression of hundreds of host genes. Further, E+ leaves exhibit enhanced pathogen resistance, increased lignin and cellulose content, reduced maximum rates of photosynthesis (Amax), and enrichment of nitrogen-15 and carbon-13 isotopes that all correspond to the changes in expression of specific functional genes in related pathways. Moreover, a cacao gene highly up-regulated in E+ leaves increases pathogen resistance apart from any direct endophyte effects. Thus, benefits of increased pathogen resistance in E+ plants are partially due to enhanced induction of intrinsic host defense pathways, and potential costs include reduced photosynthetic capacity and endophyte metabolism of host tissues. Similar effects are likely to be properties of most plant-endophyte interactions, suggesting general relevance to the design and interpretation of studies of genetic and phenotypic expression in plants. The objective of this experiment was to identify Theobroma cacao genes that are differentially expressed between leaves inoculated with fungal endophyte Colletotrichum tropicale (E+ leaves) and control un-inoculated leaves (E- leaves) 3 days post endophyte inoculation. The experiment was conducted in a Percival growth chamber (model I35LL, 115 volts, 1/4 Hp, series: 8503122.16, Percival Scientific, Inc., Perry IA) with 12/12 h light/dark photoperiod and temperatures of 30M-BM-:C and 26M-BM-:C respectively. Inoculation was done by aspersion of endophyte spores (2X10^6 spore/ml) to a group of T. cacao seedlings and a second group of seedlings were maintained as control un-inoculated (E- leaves). Then three biological replicates (each one consisting of one leaf from different plants) per treatment E+ and four leaves per treatment E- leaves) were collected and processed for a two color oligo microarray analysis.