Project description:Clostridioides difficile interactions with the gut mucosa are crucial for colonisation and establishment of infection, however key infection events during the establishment of disease are still poorly defined. To better understand the initial events that occur during C. difficile colonisation, we employed a dual RNA-sequencing approach to study the host and bacterial transcriptomic profiles during C. difficile infection in a dual-environment in vitro human gut model. Temporal changes in gene expression were analysed over 3-24h post infection and comparisons were made with uninfected controls.
Project description:Gene expression level of Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) strain R20291 comparing control C. difficile carring pMTL84151 as vector plasmid with C. difficile conjugated with a pMTL84151-03890 gene. Goal was to determine the effects of 03890 gene conjugation on C. difficile strain R20291 gene expression.
Project description:Clostridioides difficile is a Gram-positive opportunistic pathogen that results in 220,000 infections, 12,000 deaths, and upwards of $1 billion in medical costs in the US each year. C. difficile is highly resistant to a variety of antibiotics, but we have a poor understanding of how C. difficile senses and responds to antibiotic stress, and how such sensory systems affect clinical outcomes. There has been recent interest in using a daptomycin analog, Surotomycin, to treat C. difficile infections. We have identified a spontaneous C. difficile mutant that displays increased daptomycin resistance. We performed whole-genome sequencing that this mutant possessed a nonsense mutation, S605*, in draS which encodes a putative sensor histidine kinase of a two-component system (TCS). The draSS605* mutant has approximately a 4-8-fold increase in daptomycin MIC compared to WT. We found that expression of constitutively active DraRD54E in WT increases daptomycin resistance 8-16-fold and increases bacitracin resistance ~4-fold. We found that a selection of lipid II inhibiting compounds leads to increased activity of the luciferase-based reporter, PdraR-sLucopt including vancomycin, bacitracin, ramoplanin, and daptomycin. Using RNA-seq we identified the DraRS regulon. Interestingly, we found that DraRS can induce expression of the previously identified hex locus required for synthesis of a novel glycolipid produced in C. difficile. Our data suggest that induction of the hex locus by DraR explains some, but not all, of the DraR-induced daptomycin and bacitracin resistance.
Project description:The experiment intends to reveal the difference in gene expression profiles between the wild-type strain and the ∆cwp66 mutant of Clostridioides difficile. We first constructed the ∆cwp66 mutant, and the phenotypic changes of the ∆cwp66 mutant against the wild-type strain were studied. To further elucidate the mechanism of phenotypic changes of the ∆cwp66 mutant, RNA-sequencing experiments were carried out to reveal the underlying mechanism of phenotypic changes.
Project description:The intestines house a diverse microbiota that must compete for nutrients to survive, but the specific limiting nutrients that control pathogen colonization are not clearly defined. Clostridioides difficile colonization typically requires prior disruption of the microbiota, suggesting that outcompeting commensals for resources is key in establishing C. difficile infection (CDI). The immune protein calprotectin (CP) is released into the gut lumen during CDI to chelate zinc (Zn) and other essential nutrient metals. Yet, the impact of Zn limitation on C. difficile colonization is unknown. To define C. difficile responses to Zn limitation, we performed RNA sequencing on C. difficile exposed to CP. In media with CP, C. difficile upregulated genes involved in metal homeostasis and amino acid metabolism.
Project description:Clostridioides difficile can cause severe infections in the gastrointestinal tract and affects almost half a million people in the U.S every year. Upon establishment of infection, a strong immune response is induced. We sought to investigate the dynamics of the mucosal host response during C. difficile infection.