Project description:Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) are a leading cause of food-borne illness. Fruit and vegetables are recognised as an important source of the pathogen and can account for ~ 25 % of food-borne VTEC outbreaks, globally. The ability of VTEC to colonise leaves and roots of leafy vegetables, spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa), was compared. The highest levels of colonisation occurred in the roots and rhizosphere, whereas colonisation of the leaves was lower and significantly different between the species. Colonisation of the leaves of prickly lettuce (L. serriola), a wild relative of domesticated lettuce, was especially poor. Differential VTEC gene expression in spinach extracts was markedly different for three tissue types, with little overlap. Comparison of expression in the same tissue type, cell wall polysaccharides, for lettuce and spinach also showed substantial differences, again with virtually no overlap. The transcriptional response was largely dependent on temperatures that are relevant to plant growth, not warm-blooded animals. The data show that VTEC adaptation to plant hosts and subsequent colonisation potential is underpinned by wholescale changes in gene expression that are specific to both plant tissue type and to the species.
Project description:Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) are a leading cause of food-borne illness. Fruit and vegetables are recognised as an important source of the pathogen and can account for ~ 25 % of food-borne VTEC outbreaks, globally. The ability of VTEC to colonise leaves and roots of leafy vegetables, spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa), was compared. The highest levels of colonisation occurred in the roots and rhizosphere, whereas colonisation of the leaves was lower and significantly different between the species. Colonisation of the leaves of prickly lettuce (L. serriola), a wild relative of domesticated lettuce, was especially poor. Differential VTEC gene expression in spinach extracts was markedly different for three tissue types, with little overlap. Comparison of expression in the same tissue type, cell wall polysaccharides, for lettuce and spinach also showed substantial differences, again with virtually no overlap. The transcriptional response was largely dependent on temperatures that are relevant to plant growth, not warm-blooded animals. The data show that VTEC adaptation to plant hosts and subsequent colonisation potential is underpinned by wholescale changes in gene expression that are specific to both plant tissue type and to the species.
Project description:Baby leaves of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) are widely used to produce ready-to-eat salads all around the year. For this purpose, lettuce plants are cultivated under plastic tunnels and harvested at a very early growth stage, between 30-45 days after sowing depending on the season, cultivar and site of cultivation. Usually, the plastic film covering the cultivation tunnels transmits only a very small amount of the solar UVB radiation and partially attenuates UVA radiation. We used UV treatment post-harvest of fresh-cut lettuce baby leaves to compare the efficiency of two UV emission wavebands centred at 306 and 366 nm (achieved by employing narrow-band UV LEDs sources) to identify putative transcriptomic signatures. The analyses have been carried out supported by and in the frame of Project @CNR 2021, Title "EnhAncement of Natural anTIviral Compounds in ready- to-eat Vegetables", Acronym: ANTI-CoV to Dr. G. Agati. IDP-NAHEP, ICAR, Govt of India to A.R.B.
Project description:Raw RNAseq data of hydroponically grown crops (cai xin, lettuce, and spinach) subjected under 31 different conditions. Comparative analysis of gene expression across species and stress conditions were carried out.
Project description:Healthy plants are vital for successful, long-duration missions in space, as they provide the crew with life support, food production, and psychological benefits. The microorganisms that associate with plant tissues play a critical role in improving plant growth, health, and production. To that end, it is necessary to develop methodologies that investigate the metabolic activities of the plant’s microbiome in orbit to enable rapid responses regarding the care of plants in space. In this study, we developed a protocol to characterize the endophytic and epiphytic microbial metatranscriptome of red romaine lettuce, a key salad crop that was grown under International Space Station (ISS)-like conditions. Microbial transcripts enriched from host-microbe total RNA were sequenced using the Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencing platform. Results showed that this enrichment approach was highly reproducible and effective for rapid on-site detection of microbial transcriptional activity. Taxonomic analysis based on 16S and 18S rRNA transcripts identified that the top five most abundant phyla in the lettuce microbiome were Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Ascomycota. The metatranscriptomic analysis identified the expression of genes involved in many metabolic pathways, including carbohydrate metabolism, energy metabolism, and signal transduction. Network analyses of the expression data show that, within the signal transduction pathway of the fungal community, the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase signaling pathway was tightly regulated across all samples and could be a potential driver for fungal proliferation. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of using MinION-based metatranscriptomics of enriched microbial RNA as a method for rapid, on-site monitoring of the transcriptional activity of crop microbiomes, thereby helping to facilitate and maintain plant health for on-orbit space food production.
Project description:Lettuce is a widely consumed leafy vegetable, valued for its nutritional benefits and culinary versatility. Various breeding initiatives have yielded lettuce varieties such as romaine or cos lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. longifolia), characterized by pigmented germplasm and enhanced tolerance to elevated temperatures. Despite its significance, a notable need exists for targeted study investigations into its chemical composition. Thus, this study aims to define the volatile and non-volatile components of the red romaine Thurinus RZ lettuce cultivar using LC-MS and GC-MS analysis. For LC-MS analysis, a C18 column will be accompanied by gradient elution using (A) water and (B) acetonitrile, each containing 0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase. For GC-MS analysis, the HP-5 column will be accompanied by Helium as the carrier gas. The molecules determined will then be ionized, and fragments will be interpreted and annotated using the mass-to-charge (m/z) ratio, which will further be tabulated.