Project description:Young adult N2 Caenorhabditis elegans were infected with Enterococcus faecalis or Enterococcus faecium for 8 h to determine the transcriptional host response to each enterococcal species. Analysis of differential gene expression in C. elegans young adults exposed to four different bacteria: heat-killed Escherichia coli strain OP50 (control), wild-type E. faecalis MMH594, wild-type E. faecium E007, or Bacillus subtilis PY79 (sigF::kan). Samples were analyzed at 8 hours after exposure to the different bacteria. These studies identified C. elegans genes induced by pathogen infection. Brain-heart infusion agar plates (10 ug/ml kanamycin) were used.
Project description:Analysis of changes in gene expression in Enterococcus faecalis OG1 delta-EF2638 mutant compared to wild-type OG1 strain. The deletion mutant has a growth defect when grown with aeration The mutant presented in this study is described and characterized in Vesic, D. and Kristich, C.J. 2012. A Rex-family transcriptional repressor influnces H2O2 accumulation by Enterococcus faecalis. (submitted for publication)
Project description:To investigate the transcriptional changes that Enterococcus faecalis undergoes during agar surface-penetration, which promote cell envelope remodeling and tolerance to stress.
Project description:This study was undertaken to identify how gene expression of the urothelial cells respond to Enterococcus infection over the course of infection. 239 hypervariable (HV) genes were found to vary significantly over the time points, indicating a biological role in infection. Correlational clustering showed these HV genes fell into distinct families indicating a defined sequence of events following infection. Early events (0-1.5 hours post infection) were associated with upregulation of not well-known but bladder-associated genes which represented early immune response, cytoskeleton remodeling and cell cycle. Up- and downregulated genes at the middle time period (1.5-8 hours post infection) represented a variety of processes, from immune response/suppression, cell cycle/apoptosis to metabolism and cytoskeleton remodeling. Several transcription factors point to multiple pathways activation. At the late time points (8-10 hours post infection) downregulated genes represented major events of cell death, matrix degradation and immune response decline. Confocal microscopy confirms major cell death at these time points. Several events and pathways, like immune response suppression or cytoskeleton remodeling via Wnt/β-catenin and/or Rho/Rac pathway, were identified throughout the time course of HUC infection by Enterococcus. Those may be new targets for preventing and/or cure Enterococcus caused pathology. Keywords: Enterococcus, time course, microarray, infection, gene expression
