Project description:Photoautotrophic cyanobacteria convert CO2 and produce various bioproducts. However, effective cell harvesting from liquid cultivation is a main obstacle. Automatic bio-flocculation provides a potential solution. In a Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (Syn) culture, we found that Syn co-flocculated with the natural contaminated fungi (identified as Penicillium sp.) as sphere biomass cluster with space inside, under the treatment of antibiotic erythromycin, but not without erythromycin. The optimized co-cultivation for five days using the initial Syn density of 0.4 OD730, 5 mg/100 ml fresh weight of Penicillium inoculum, and 5 µM EM in the BG11 medium with no organic compounds produced a complete biomass co-flocculation up to 2.0 g/L, equivalent to the atmospheric CO2 capture of 0.6 g/L/d: the 7.9-times biomass level and 7.2-times CO2 capture amount performed by the axenic Syn culture. A major constituent in Syn-Penicillium flocculated biomass is protein contents ranging from 39-61% of dry weight. In addition, increasing EM concentrations (from 0.3 to 10 µM) enlarged the co-flocculate diameter from x to Y and increasing the culture volumes (from 100 to 200-400 mL) altered co-flocculate surface texture from relatively smooth to rough with thorns. This co-flocculation may be further developed for CO2 capture and biomass utilization as amimal feed with a high protein contents. Syn with Penicillium_1; Synechocystis with Penicillium replicate 1 Syn with Penicillium_2; Synechocystis with Penicillium replicate 2 Syn with Penicillium_3; Synechocystis with Penicillium replicate 3 Syn without EM_1; Synechocystis without Erytromycin treatment replicate 1 Syn without EM_2; Synechocystis without Erytromycin treatment replicate 1 Syn without EM_3; Synechocystis without Erytromycin treatment replicate 1 Syn with EM_1; Synechocystis with Erytromycin treatment replicate 1 Syn with EM_2; Synechocystis with Erytromycin treatment replicate 1 Syn with EM_3; Synechocystis with Erytromycin treatment replicate 1 LR_Syn with Penicillium with EM_1; Large star structure of Synechocystis with Penicillium under EM treatment replicate 1 LR_Syn with Penicillium with EM_2; Large star structure of Synechocystis with Penicillium under EM treatment replicate 2 LR_Syn with Penicillium with EM_3; Large star structure of Synechocystis with Penicillium under EM treatment replicate 3 SS_Syn with Penicillium with EM_1; Small smooth structure of Synechocystis with Penicillium under EM treatment replicate 1 SS_Syn with Penicillium with EM_2; Small smooth structure of Synechocystis with Penicillium under EM treatment replicate 2 SS_Syn with Penicillium with EM_3; Small smooth structure of Synechocystis with Penicillium under EM treatment replicate 3
Project description:In this paper, we examine orthologs of a transcriptional regulator in three fungal species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans, and Histoplasma capsulatum. We show that, despite an estimated 600 million years since those species diverged from a common ancestor, Wor1 in C. albicans, Ryp1 in H. capsulatum, and Mit1 in S. cerevisiae recognize the same DNA motif. Previous work established that Wor1 regulates white-opaque switching in C. albicans and that its ortholog Ryp1 regulates the yeast to mycelial transition in H. capsulatum. Here we show that the ortholog Mit1 in S. cerevisiae also regulates a morphological transition, in this case pseudohyphal growth. Full genome chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments show that Mit1 binds to the control regions of approximately 94 genes including the previously known regulators of pseudohyphal growth. Through a comparison of full genome chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments for Mit1 in S. cerevisiae, Wor1 in C. albicans, and Wor1 ectopically expressed in S. cerevisiae, we conclude that genes controlled by the orthologous regulators overlap only slightly between these two species. We suggest that the ancestral Wor1/Mit1/Ryp1 protein controlled aspects of cell morphology and that evolutionary movement of genes in and out of the Wor1/Mit1/Ryp1 regulon is responsible, in part, for the differences of morphological forms among these species. Consistent with this idea, ectopic expression of C. albicans Wor1 or H. capsulatum Ryp1 can drive the pseudohyphal growth program in S. cerevisiae.
Project description:Histoplasma capsulatum is a fungal pathogen that infects both healthy and immunocompromised hosts. In endemic regions, H. capsulatum grows in the soil and causes respiratory and systemic disease when inhaled by humans. An interesting aspect of H. capsulatum biology is that it adopts specialized developmental programs in response to its environment. In the soil, it grows as filamentous chains of cells (mycelia) that produce asexual spores (conidia). When the soil is disrupted, conidia aerosolize and are inhaled by mammalian hosts. Inside a host, conidia germinate into yeast-form cells that colonize immune cells and cause disease. Despite the ability of conidia to initiate infection and disease, they have not been explored on a molecular level. Here we develop methods to purify H. capsulatum conidia and show that these cells germinate into either filaments at room temperature or into yeast-form cells at 37C. Conidia internalized by macrophages germinate into the yeast form and proliferate within the macrophages, ultimately lysing the host cells. Similarly, infection of mice with purified conidia is sufficient to establish infection and yield viable yeast-form cells in vivo. To characterize conidia on a molecular level, we perform whole-genome expression profiling of conidia, yeast, and mycelia from two highly diverged H. capsulatum strains. In parallel, we use homology and protein domain analysis to manually annotate the predicted genes of both strains. Analyses of the resultant data define sets of transcripts that reflect the unique molecular states of H. capsulatum conidia, yeast and mycelia. This series gives the results for the G186AR strain.
Project description:Histoplasma capsulatum is a fungal pathogen that infects both healthy and immunocompromised hosts. In endemic regions, H. capsulatum grows in the soil and causes respiratory and systemic disease when inhaled by humans. An interesting aspect of H. capsulatum biology is that it adopts specialized developmental programs in response to its environment. In the soil, it grows as filamentous chains of cells (mycelia) that produce asexual spores (conidia). When the soil is disrupted, conidia aerosolize and are inhaled by mammalian hosts. Inside a host, conidia germinate into yeast-form cells that colonize immune cells and cause disease. Despite the ability of conidia to initiate infection and disease, they have not been explored on a molecular level. Here we develop methods to purify H. capsulatum conidia and show that these cells germinate into either filaments at room temperature or into yeast-form cells at 37C. Conidia internalized by macrophages germinate into the yeast form and proliferate within the macrophages, ultimately lysing the host cells. Similarly, infection of mice with purified conidia is sufficient to establish infection and yield viable yeast-form cells in vivo. To characterize conidia on a molecular level, we perform whole-genome expression profiling of conidia, yeast, and mycelia from two highly diverged H. capsulatum strains. In parallel, we use homology and protein domain analysis to manually annotate the predicted genes of both strains. Analyses of the resultant data define sets of transcripts that reflect the unique molecular states of H. capsulatum conidia, yeast and mycelia. This series gives the results for the G217B strain.