Project description:Acinetobacter baumannii AB042, a triclosan-resistant mutant, was examined for modulated gene expression using whole genome sequencing, transcriptomics, and proteomics in order to understand the mechanism of triclosan-resistance as well as its impact on A. Baumannii.
Project description:The experiment contains native Tn-seq data for Acinetobacter baumannii strain AB5075 with different genetic alterations. The strain was grown at 37 degrees in LB medium and genomic DNA was isolated. We then used PCR to select for DNA regions containing a junction between ISAba13 and chromosomal DNA. Libraries were then prepared using these DNA fragments.
Project description:Asymptomatic gut colonization increases the risk of clinical infection and transmission by the multidrug-resistant pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. Ornithine utilization was shown to be critical for A. baumannii competition with the resident microbiota to persist in gut colonization, but the regulatory mechanisms and cues are unknown. Here, we identify a transcriptional regulator, AstR, that specifically activates the expression of the A. baumannii ornithine utilization operon astNOP. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that AstR was co-opted from the Acinetobacter arginine utilization ast(G)CADBE locus and is specialized to regulate ornithine utilization in A. baumannii. Reporter assays showed that astN promoter expression was activated by ornithine but inhibited by glutamate and other preferred amino acids. astN promoter expression was similarly activated by incubation with fecal samples from conventional mice but not germ-free mice, suggesting AstR-dependent activation of the astN promoter responds to intermicrobial competition for amino acids. Finally, AstR was required for A. baumannii to colonize the gut in a mouse model. Together, these results suggest that pathogenic Acinetobacter species evolved AstR to regulate ornithine catabolism, which is required to compete with the microbiota during gut colonization.
Project description:A major reservoir for spread of the emerging pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is hopsital surfaces, where bacteria persist in a desiccated state. To identify gene products influencing desiccation survival, a transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) screen was performed. Using this approach, we identified genes both positively and negatively impacting the desiccation tolerance of A. baumannii.
Project description:We performed RNAseq for gene expression analysis for six strains of Acinetobacter Baumannii isolated from blood samples (defined as strains 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6) of patients hospitalized at the University Hospital \\"San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d'Aragona\\" (Salerno, Italy)