Project description:The purpose of this study is to determine whether the presence of pathogenic Escherichia coli in colon is associated with psychiatric disorders.
| 2230352 | ecrin-mdr-crc
Project description:Genetic Determinants of pOXA-48 Plasmid Maintenance and Propagation in Escherichia coli
Project description:DegP (HtrA: High Temperature Requirement A) is a periplasmic protease with minor chaperone activity that plays a key role in the quality control of protein folding in the envelope of Escherichia coli. Periplasmic and outer membrane proteins that fail to fold in the periplasm can be proteolysed, while others are chaperoned to their native folded state by DegP. In a ΔdegP strain, E. coli is unable to survive the protein folding stress induced at 42º C. Utilizing this phenotype, we developed a plasmid-based selection of suppression of heat-induced lethality in a ΔdegP strain. Plasmid libraries of various prokaryotic genomes were screened for proteins that overcame heat-induced lethality. We identified FevR, a putative transcription factor from Citrobacter amalonaticus having close homologs in environmental E. coli capable of overcoming envelope stress. Through genetic characterization, FevR is shown to induce expression of a periplasmic chaperone-proline isomerase fkpA. Over-expression of FkpA alone is sufficient to suppress heat-induced lethality of a ΔdegP strain. This study demonstrates the use of genetic selections to uncover the hidden potential of E. coli to improve its protein folding capacity.
Project description:The transcriptome of Escherichia coli K-12 has been widely studied over a variety of conditions for the past decade while such studies involving E. coli O157:H7, its pathogenic cousin, are just now being conducted. To better understand the impact of intracellular life within a ruminant and environmental protozoan on E. coli O157:H7, global transcript levels of strain EDL933 cells inside Acanthamoeba were compared to cell grown in the protozoan media (ATCC PYG712) by microarray.
Project description:Escherichia coli, the common inhabitant of the mammalian intestine, exhibits considerable intraspecies genomic variation, which has been suggested to reflect adaptation to different ecological niches. Also, regulatory trade-offs, e.g., between catabolic versatility and stress protection, are thought to result in significant physiological differences between strains. For these reasons, the relevance of experimental observations made for “domesticated” E. coli strains with regard to the behaviour of this species in its natural environments is often questioned and frequently doubts are raised on the status of E. coli as a defined species. We therefore investigated the variability of important eco-physiological functions such as carbon substrate uptake and breakdown capabilities as well as stress defence mechanisms in the genomes of commensal and pathogenic E. coli strains. Furthermore, eco-physiological properties of environmental strains were compared to standard laboratory strain K-12 MG1655. Catabolic, stress protection, and carbon- and energy source transport operons showed a very low intraspecies variability in 57 commensal and pathogenic E. coli. Environmental isolates adapted to glucose-limited growth in a similar way as E. coli MG1655, namely by increasing their catabolic flexibility and by inducing high affinity substrate uptake systems. Our results indicate that the major eco-physiological properties are highly conserved in the natural population of E. coli. This questions the proposed dominant role of horizontal gene transfer for niche adaptation. Keywords: CGH, E. coli, gDNA, environmental strains, eco-physiology
Project description:Comparative genomic hybridization between Escherichia coli strains to determine core and pan genome content of clinical and environmental isolates Two color experiment, Escherichia coli Sakai (reference), clinical and environmental Escherichia coli strains (testers): At least two replicates including a single dye swap for each reference-tester comparison
Project description:Plasmids are widely used across molecular biology and are becoming increasingly valuable products, but robust plasmid replication is held back by stability issues in the host. This study investigated how Escherichia coli responds to plasmid stress at the transcriptional level by modulating plasmid copy number, plasmid size, selection marker and carbon source. This GEO contains controls from this study alone.
Project description:Multiple infection sources for enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 are known, including food of animal origin and produce. The ecology of this pathogen outside its human host is largely unknown. One third of its annotated genes still are hypothetical. To identify genetic determinants expressed under environmental factors, we applied strand-specific RNA-sequencing of strain E. coli EDL933 under 11 different biotic and abiotic conditions: LB medium at pH4, pH7, pH9, or at 15°C; LB with nitrite or trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole; LB-agar surface, M9 minimal medium, spinach leaf juice, surface of living radish sprouts, and cattle feces. Of 5379 annotated genes, only 144 are transcriptionally completely inactive under all conditions. Of 1,771 hypothetical genes, 1,672 exhibit significant transcriptional signals under at least one condition. The pathogenicity island LEE showed highest transcriptional activity in LB medium, minimal medium, and after treatment with antibiotics. Unique sets of genes, including many hypothetical genes, are highly up regulated on radish sprouts, cattle feces, or in the presence of antibiotics. For instance, azoR is biotechnologically important, but its environmental function has been elusive. This gene is highly active on radish sprouts. Further, we observed induction of the shiga-toxin carrying phages by antibiotics and confirmed active biofilm related genes on radish sprouts, in cattle feces, and on agar plates. Thus, environmental transcriptomics uncovers hitherto unknown gene functions and regulatory patterns of Escherichia coli O157:H7.
Project description:Comparative genomic hybridization between Escherichia coli strains to determine core and pan genome content of clinical and environmental isolates
Project description:Escherichia coli, the common inhabitant of the mammalian intestine, exhibits considerable intraspecies genomic variation, which has been suggested to reflect adaptation to different ecological niches. Also, regulatory trade-offs, e.g., between catabolic versatility and stress protection, are thought to result in significant physiological differences between strains. For these reasons, the relevance of experimental observations made for “domesticated” E. coli strains with regard to the behaviour of this species in its natural environments is often questioned and frequently doubts are raised on the status of E. coli as a defined species. We therefore investigated the variability of important eco-physiological functions such as carbon substrate uptake and breakdown capabilities as well as stress defence mechanisms in the genomes of commensal and pathogenic E. coli strains. Furthermore, eco-physiological properties of environmental strains were compared to standard laboratory strain K-12 MG1655. Catabolic, stress protection, and carbon- and energy source transport operons showed a very low intraspecies variability in 57 commensal and pathogenic E. coli. Environmental isolates adapted to glucose-limited growth in a similar way as E. coli MG1655, namely by increasing their catabolic flexibility and by inducing high affinity substrate uptake systems. Our results indicate that the major eco-physiological properties are highly conserved in the natural population of E. coli. This questions the proposed dominant role of horizontal gene transfer for niche adaptation. Keywords: comparative genomic hybridisation