Dissertationen zum Thema „Bacterial transcriptome“

Bionanotechnology is an intersection between biology and nanotechnology, a field in which novel applications for very small materials are being realised at an alarming rate. Nanoparticles have 3 dimensions that can be measured in nanometers, their small size conferring upon them different properties from individual atoms or the bulk material. The interactions between these unique materials and microorganisms are often toxic, thus have been exploited for antimicrobial applications. However, there is a considerable paucity of data for the underlying molecular mechanisms. This study has been carried out to investigate the interactions that occur between nanoparticles and bacteria with the objective of identifying these toxicological mechanisms and novel nanoparticle effects, using the model Gram negative organism Escherichia coli K12. This study has identified metal nanoparticles that are a superior vehicle for the delivery of toxic metal ions to E. coli. The nanoparticles associate with the bacterial surface, but do not cross the cell wall. They then dissolve, releasing a concentration of metal ions that accumulate at the bacterial-nanoparticle interface, enhancing the antibacterial efficacy compared to the concentration of metal ions in the bulk solution phase. Measurement of the whole transcriptome response to silver nanoparticles in comparison to the silver ion indicates that the different modes of ion delivery may induce a differential stress response. Moreover, this data identifies molecular mechanisms that are involved in the toxicity of this metal that is now becoming increasingly prevalent in society. The dissolution based toxic effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles are augmented by an interaction with ultra-violet light, offering an alternative mode for nanoparticle toxicity.

Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam) est une bactérie à gram négatif causant le Cassava Bacterial Blight (CBB) sur Manihot esculenta Crantz. Le manioc représente une des sources les plus importantes de carbohydrates pour près d'un milliard de personnes sur terre et une source importante d'énergie du fait de sa forte concentration en amidon. Le CBB constitue une limitation importante à la production massive de manioc et nos connaissances sur cette maladie sont encore insuffisantes. La pathogénie de nombreuses phytobactéries dépend de l'injection d'effecteurs de type III via un système de sécrétion de type III dans la cellule eucaryote hôte Parmi tous les effecteurs référencés aujourd'hui, les effecteurs de type TAL pour Transcription Activator-Like sont particulièrement intéressant. Une fois injectés dans la cellule végétale, les effecteurs TAL sont importés au noyau et y modulent l'expression de gènes cibles au bénéfice de la bactérie. Chez Xam, TALE1Xam est le seul gène de cette famille qui a été étudié au niveau fonctionnel. Cette étude a pour objectif majeur d'identifier les gènes de manioc dont l'expression est modifiée en présence de TALE1Xam. Le transcriptome de plantes de manioc inoculées avec XamΔTALE1Xam vs. XamΔTALE1Xam (TALE1Xam) a été analysé par RNAseq. Les données obtenues confrontées à la recherche bioinformatique de promoteurs de gènes potentiellement directement activés par TALE1Xam ont permis d'établir une liste de gènes ciblés par TALE1Xam candidats. Un candidat majeur ressort de cette analyse comme étant particulièrement intéressant, il s'agit d'un gène codant un facteur de transcription de type B3 régulant l'activité de protéines de type "Heat Shock". L'analyse fonctionnelle de ce candidat permettra de valider sa fonction en tant que gène de sensibilité du manioc à Xam
Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam) is a gram negative bacteria causing the Cassava Bacterial Blight (CBB) in Manihot esculenta Crantz . Cassava represents one of the most important sources of carbohydrates for around one billion people around the world as well as a source of energy due to its high starch levels content. The CBB disease represents an important limitation for cassava massive production and little is known about this pathosystem. Bacterial pathogenicity often relies on the injection in eucaryotic host cells of effector proteins via a type III secretion system (TTSS). Between all the type III effectors described up to now, Transcription Activator-Like Type III effectors (TALE) appear as particularly interesting. Once injected into the plant cell, TAL effectors go into the nucleus cell and modulate the expression of target host genes to the benefit of the invading bacteria by interacting directly with plant DNA. In Xam, only one gene belonging to this family has been functionally studied so far. It consists on TALE1xam. This work aim to identify cassava genes whose expression will be modified upon the presence of TALE1xam. By means of cassava plants challenged with Xam Δ TALE1xam vs. Xam + TALE1xam together with the TAL effectors code, statistical analyses between RNAseq experiments and a microarray containing 5700 cassava genes, we seek out direct TALE1xam target genes. Hence, through transcriptomic, functional qRT validation and specific artificial TALEs design we proposed that TALE1xam is potentially interacting with a Heat Shock Transcription Factor B3. Moreover we argue that this gene is responsible of the susceptibility during Xam infection. Furthermore this work represents the first complete transcriptomic approach done in the cassava/Xam interaction and open enormous possibilities to understand and study CBB

Rickettsia rickettsii é o agente etiológico da febre maculosa das Montanhas Rochosas, a mais letal dentre as riquetsioses que acometem o homem. A principal espécie de carrapato-vetor de R. rickettsii na área metropolitana da cidade de São Paulo é Amblyomma aureolatum. Quando um carrapato em jejum no solo encontra um hospedeiro vertebrado e inicia a alimentação sanguínea, R. rickettsii é exposta a uma elevação da temperatura e aos componentes da refeição sanguínea. Ambos os estímulos foram previamente associados à reativação da virulência da bactéria em carrapatos, porém, os fatores responsáveis por essa conversão do fenótipo avirulento em virulento não foram completamente elucidados até o momento. Dessa forma, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo determinar os efeitos desses dois estímulos ambientais sobre o perfil de expressão gênica dessa bactéria durante a infecção de A. aureolatum. Inicialmente, estabelecemos um sistema de propagação de riquétsias para obter material genético suficiente para a padronização dos procedimentos de preparação de amostras para os experimentos de microarranjos. Para tal, estabelecemos, pela primeira vez, a infecção de uma cepa patogênica brasileira de R. rickettsii em células embrionárias do carrapato Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (BME26). Através da utilização de microarranjos de oligonucleotídeos customizados, analisamos os efeitos da elevação da temperatura em 10°C e da alimentação sanguínea sobre o perfil transcricional da bactéria infectando o conjunto de órgãos de fêmeas de A. aureolatum. Esse é o primeiro estudo da expressão gênica global de uma bactéria do gênero Rickettsia infectando um carrapato-vetor natural. Apesar de ambos os estímulos terem promovido um aumento da carga bacteriana, a alimentação sanguínea teve um efeito maior, também modulando cinco vezes mais genes que a elevação da temperatura. Dentre os genes induzidos, alguns codificam fatores de virulência, tais como componentes do sistema de secreção do tipo IV (T4SS), sugerindo que esse importante sistema de secreção bacteriano seja utilizado para secretar efetores durante a ingestão de sangue pelo carrapato. Através de análises in silico de domínios conservados das proteínas hipotéticas, identificamos outros componentes do T4SS de R. rickettsii ainda não descritos na literatura. A alimentação sanguínea também induziu a expressão de genes codificadores de enzimas antioxidantes, o que pode corresponder a uma tentativa de R. rickettsii de se proteger contra os efeitos deletérios de radicais livres produzidos pelos carrapatos alimentados. Por fim, analisamos a transcrição de uma seleção de genes de R. rickettsii em glândulas salivares e intestinos de carrapatos machos e fêmeas através de RT-qPCR microfluídica. Os resultados mostraram que a elevação da temperatura e a alimentação modulam um conjunto específico de genes em cada tecido analisado, tendo sido possível definirem-se assinaturas transcricionais tecido-específicas. Os genes diferencialmente expressos identificados neste estudo devem ser caracterizados funcionalmente, podendo ser considerados como futuros alvos para o desenvolvimento de vacinas.
Rickettsia rickettsii is the causative agent of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which is the most lethal spotted fever rickettsiosis that affects humans. The main tick species that transmits R. rickettsii in the metropolitan area of São Paulos city is Amblyomma aureolatum. When an infected and starving tick begins blood feeding from a vertebrate host, R. rickettsii is exposed to a temperature elevation and to components in the blood meal. These two environmental stimuli have been previously associated with the reactivation of rickettsial virulence in ticks, but the factors responsible for this phenotype conversion have not been completely elucidated. The main aim of the present work was to determine the effects of these two environmental stimuli on the R. rickettsii transcriptional profile during A. aureolatum infection. We initially established an effective system for rickettsia propagation to generate a substantial quantity of genetic material for microarray standardization. For that, for the first time, we established an in vitro infection of the virulent Brazilian R. rickettsii strain in the BME26 tick embryonic cell line from Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus. Using customized oligonucleotide microarrays, we analyzed the effects of a 10°C temperature elevation and a blood meal on the transcriptional profile of R. rickettsii infecting whole organs of Amblyomma aureolatum female ticks. This is the first bacterial transcriptome study of the Rickettsia genus when infecting a natural tick vector. Although both stimuli significantly increased the bacterial load, blood feeding had a greater effect, also modulating five-fold more genes than the temperature upshift. Among the genes induced by blood-feeding, some encode virulence factors, such as Type IV Secretion System (T4SS) components, suggesting that this important bacterial transport system is used to secrete effectors during the acquisition of the blood meal by the tick. Using an in silico conserved domain analysis of hypothetical proteins, we identified additional T4SS components of R. rickettsii that were never previously described. Blood-feeding also up-regulated the expression of antioxidant enzymes, which might correspond to an attempt by R. rickettsii to protect itself against the deleterious effects of free radicals produced by fed ticks. Finally, we studied the transcriptional profile of selected genes of R. rickettsii on the salivary glands and midguts of male and female ticks by microfluidic RT-qPCR. Results showed that temperature upshift and blood feeding modulate specific sets of genes in each tissue, allowing for the establishment of a tissue-specific transcriptional signature. The modulated genes identified in this study require further functional analysis and may have potential as future targets for vaccine development.

The detection of non-protein-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes in bacteria and their diverse regulatory mode of action moved the experimental and bio-computational analysis of ncRNAs into the focus of attention. Regulatory ncRNA transcripts are not translated to proteins but function directly on the RNA level. These typically small RNAs have been found to be involved in diverse processes such as (post-)transcriptional regulation and modification, translation, protein translocation, protein degradation and sequestration. Bacterial ncRNAs either arise from independent primary transcripts or their mature sequence is generated via processing from a precursor. Besides these autonomous transcripts, RNA regulators (e.g. riboswitches and RNA thermometers) also form chimera with protein-coding sequences. These structured regulatory elements are encoded within the messenger RNA and directly regulate the expression of their “host” gene. The quality and completeness of genome annotation is essential for all subsequent analyses. In contrast to protein-coding genes ncRNAs lack clear statistical signals on the sequence level. Thus, sophisticated tools have been developed to automatically identify ncRNA genes. Unfortunately, these tools are not part of generic genome annotation pipelines and therefore computational searches for known ncRNA genes are the starting point of each study. Moreover, prokaryotic genome annotation lacks essential features of protein-coding genes. Many known ncRNAs regulate translation via base-pairing to the 5’ UTR (untranslated region) of mRNA transcripts. Eukaryotic 5’ UTRs have been routinely annotated by sequencing of ESTs (expressed sequence tags) for more than a decade. Only recently, experimental setups have been developed to systematically identify these elements on a genome-wide scale in prokaryotes. The first part of this thesis, describes three experimental surveys of exploratory field studies to analyze transcript organization in pathogenic bacteria. To identify ncRNAs in Pseudomonas aeruginosa we used a combination of an experimental RNomics approach and ncRNA prediction. Besides already known ncRNAs we identified and validated the expression of six novel RNA genes. Global detection of transcripts by next generation RNA sequencing techniques unraveled an unexpectedly complex transcript organization in many bacteria. These ultra high-throughput methods give us the appealing opportunity to analyze the complete RNA output of any species at once. The development of the differential RNA sequencing (dRNA-seq) approach enabled us to analyze the primary transcriptome of Helicobacter pylori and Xanthomonas campestris. For the first time we generated a comprehensive and precise transcription start site (TSS) map for both species and provide a general framework for the analysis of dRNA-seq data. Focusing on computer-aided analysis we developed new tools to annotate TSS, detect small protein-coding genes and to infer homology of newly detected transcripts. We discovered hundreds of TSS in intergenic regions, upstream of protein-coding genes, within operons and antisense to annotated genes. Analysis of 5’ UTRs (spanning from the TSS to the start codon of the adjacent protein-coding gene) revealed an unexpected size diversity ranging from zero to several hundred nucleotides. We identified and validated the expression of about 60 and about 20 ncRNA candidates in Helicobacter and Xanthomonas, respectively. Among these ncRNA candidates we found several small protein-coding genes that have previously evaded annotation in both species. We showed that the combination of dRNA-seq and computational analysis is a powerful method to examine prokaryotic transcriptomes. Experimental setups are time consuming and often combined with huge costs. Another limitation of experimental approaches is that genes which are expressed in specific developmental stages or stress conditions are likely to be missed. Bioinformatic tools build an alternative to overcome such restraints. General approaches usually depend on comparative genomic data and evolutionary signatures are used to analyze the (non-)coding potential of multiple sequence alignments. In the second part of my thesis we present our major update of the widely used ncRNA gene finder RNAz and introduce RNAcode, an efficient tool to asses local protein-coding potential of genomic regions. RNAz has been successfully used to identify structured RNA elements in all domains of life. However, our own experience and the user feedback not only demonstrated the applicability of the RNAz approach, but also helped us to identify limitations of the current implementation. Using a much larger training set and a new classification model we significantly improved the prediction accuracy of RNAz. During transcriptome analysis we repeatedly identified small protein-coding genes that have not been annotated so far. Only a few of those genes are known to date and standard proteincoding gene finding tools suffer from the lack of training data. To avoid an excess of false positive predictions, gene finding software is usually run with an arbitrary cutoff of 40-50 amino acids and therefore misses the small sized protein-coding genes. We have implemented RNAcode which is optimized for emerging applications not covered by standard protein-coding gene annotation software. In addition to complementing classical protein gene annotation, a major field of application of RNAcode is the functional classification of transcribed regions. RNA sequencing analyses are likely to falsely report transcript fragments (e.g. mRNA degradation products) as non-coding. Hence, an evaluation of the protein-coding potential of these fragments is an essential task. RNAcode reports local regions of high coding potential instead of complete protein-coding genes. A training on known protein-coding sequences is not necessary and RNAcode can therefore be applied to any species. We showed this with our analysis of the Escherichia coli genome where the current annotation could be accurately reproduced. We furthermore identified novel small protein-coding genes with RNAcode in this extensively studied genome. Using transcriptome and proteome data we found compelling evidence that several of the identified candidates are bona fide proteins. In summary, this thesis clearly demonstrates that bioinformatic methods are mandatory to analyze the huge amount of transcriptome data and to identify novel (non-)coding RNA genes. With the major update of RNAz and the implementation of RNAcode we contributed to complete the repertoire of gene finding software which will help to unearth hidden treasures of the RNA World.

Les pathogènes bactériens cytosoliques S. flexneri et L. monocytogenes échappent à l'immunité extracellulaire de la muqueuse en induisant leur entrée et leur mode de vie intracellulaire dans l'épithélium intestinal. Dans leur cellule hôte, ils peuvent rapidement s’échapper de leur vacuole d'internalisation, envahir le cytosol et éviter l’élimination par la dégradation cellulaire en se propageant directement de cellule à cellule.Afin d’initier l’invasion intestinale, ces deux pathogènes ciblent les cellules M préleveusesd'antigènes qui recouvrent les sites d'induction immunitaire. Toutefois le mode de vie de ces pathogènes dans les cellules M, le mécanisme de propagation de l'infection à partir de ce pointd’entrée vers les entérocytes voisins ainsi que le mécanisme d'évasion de l'induction de l'immunité adaptative sont très peu caractérisés. Dans cette étude, nous présentons un nouveau modèle physiologique d'infection apicale par S. flexneri de cellules M humaines in vitro, qui récapitule les étapes précoces de l'invasion de l’épithelium intestinal par le pathogène. Nous montrons qu'une population de S. flexneri est rapidement transcytosée, en 15 minutes, à travers les cellules M. Nous amenons une nouvelle approche microscopie en temps réel de l'infection des cellules M, qui révèle qu'une deuxième sous-population de bactéries induit son entrée plus tardivement dans les cellules M, accompagnée de projections membranaires apicales, suivie par une rupture vacuolaire et l’initiation de la réplication cytosoliique des bactéries dans les cellules M. Nous découvrons que S.flexneri a également la capacité de se propager des cellules M aux cellules voisines par la motilité liéeà l'actine, qui constitue la voie principale de propagation basolatérale de l'infection. En étendant notre étude à L. monocytogenes, nous observons qu’à la différence de S. flexneri, cette bactérie détourne le processus de transcytose à travers les cellules M en utilisant le facteur de virulence ActA. Cependant, nous notons que L. monocytogenes se propage dans l'épithélium exclusivement par la motilité liée à l'actine, de façon similaire à S. flexneri. Nous proposons que la subversion de la voie de transcytose au travers des cellules M et l'évitement des tissus immunitaires sous-jacents sont des caractéristiques partagées par les pathogènes cytosoliques, leur permettant d'échapper à l'induction de l'immunité adaptative.Par ailleurs, nous présentons une approche de tri basée sur la fluorescence d’entérocytes individuels aux stades successifs de l'infection par S. flexneri, combinée avec une analyse transcriptomique parPCR quantitative en multiplex. Cette méthode révèle la production de réponses distinctes chez les entérocytes hôtes en fonction de la localisation subcellulaire du pathogène. Nous observons la production d'une réponse bystander forte, impliquant de multiples voies de signalisation corrélées chez les enterocytes non infectés. De plus nous détectons la production de profils de réponses distincts chez l’hôte en fonction de la localisation vacuolaire ou cytosolique de la bactérie chez les entérocytes infectés. Nous montrons que le facteur de virulence OspF contribue à atténuer les réponses des entérocytes infectés et à perturber des voies de signalisation autrement corrélées chez l’hôte.En conclusion, nos études exposent de nouvelles stratégies de subversion immunitaire liées aux modes de vie intracellulaires de bactéries entériques cytosoliques, soulignant l'importance des cellules M dans la propagation bactérienne initiale et le détournement de l'immunité adaptative, ainsi que l'organisation et la perturbation des réponses immunitaires innées chez les entérocytes au cours de l’infection
Cytosolic bacterial pathogens S. flexneri and L. monocytogenes subvert extracellular mucosal immunity by inducing their uptake and intracellular lifestyle in the intestinal epithelium. Within the host, they are able to rapidly escape their internalization vacuole, invade the cytosol and escape cellular degradation by spreading from cell-to-cell. Antigen sampling M cells overlying immune induction sites are targeted by these pathogens to initiate intestinal invasion. However, the intracellular lifestyle of these pathogens within M cells, the mechanism of spread of the infection toneigh boring enterocytes from this entry point and the mechanism of S. flexneri evasion of adaptive immunity is poorly characterized. We present a novel physiologic model of apical S. flexneri infection of human in vitro M cells which recapitulates the early steps of epithelial invasion. We show that a subset of S. flexneri is rapidly transcytosed, within 15 minutes, through M cells. We establish a newtime-lapse imaging approach of M cell infections, which reveals that another subset of bacteriainduces apical ruffling upon entry, vacuolar rupture and replicates within the M cells at later timepoints. Remarkably, these bacteria are able to spread from M cells to neighboring cells by actinbased-motility, which we show constitutes the main route of basolateral spreading of the infection.As we extend our study to L. monocytogenes, we observe that unlike S. flexneri, the bacterium diverts M cell transcytosis via the virulence factor ActA. However, we discover that L. monocytogenes spreads within the epithelium exclusively by actin-based motility, similar to S. flexneri. We propose that subversion of M cell transcytosis and avoidance of underlying immune tissues are features shared by cytosolic pathogens, allowing their escape from induction of adaptive immunity.In addition, we submit a pipeline of fluorescence-based single cell sorting of enterocytes atsuccessive stages of infection combined with transcriptional analysis by multiplex qPCR. This methodreveals the production of distinct responses in host enterocytes according to subcellular pathogen localizations. We observe the production of a strong bystander response involving multiplecorrelated host pathways in non-infected enterocytes. Moreover, we detect the output of distinct host response patterns according to vacuolar or cytosolic bacterial localizations in infectedenterocytes. We further show that the virulence effector OspF contributes to dampen infected host responses and disrupt otherwise correlated host signaling pathways. To conclude, our studies expose new immune subversion strategies linked to the intracellular life styles of cytosolic enteric bacteria, highlighting the importance of M cells in initial bacterial dissemination and diversion of adaptive immunity, and the organization and disruption of innate immune responses provoked in enterocytes during infection

Bacterial endophytes are the organisms that live inside the plant for a full or a part of their life cycle. Endophytic bacteria have captured the interest of agriculture industry due to their plant beneficial properties, such as synthesis of phytohormones, solubilization of soil nutrients, and alleviation of biotic and abiotic stresses. Several studies have reported that stress tolerant endophytic bacteria can work with a similar performance as non-stressed conditions when inoculated to the plants under stressed conditions. Combination of abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought and low nitrogen stress can have additive or agonistic effects on bacterial and plant growth, and their interactions. However, very few studies have reported the impact of combined stress on endophytic bacterial assisted plant growth promotion. Therefore, understanding the underlying mechanisms of endophytic bacterial assisted plant’s tolerance abiotic stresses may provide the means of better exploiting the beneficial abilities of endophytic bacteria in agricultural production. Thus, the aim of this thesis was to study the stress tolerance mechanisms, beneficial characteristics, and plant growth promotion characteristics of endophytic bacteria under individual and combined abiotic stresses. Transcriptome analysis of endophytic bacteria revealed that tolerance mechanisms to deal with one kind of stress is different than concurrent stresses. Salinity and drought stress largely modulated the genes involved in flagellar assembly and membrane transport, showing reduced motility under stress conditions to preserve the energy. Additionally, bacterial endophyte that can fix nitrogen was studied with maize plant growth promotion under drought and low nitrogen stress conditions. The results suggested that diazotrophic bacterial endophyte can promote plant growth under moderate individual and combined stress conditions. Plant growth promoting endophytic bacteria can be utilized as an efficient tool to increase crop production under individual and concurrent abiotic stresses.

Orientadores: Marcos Antonio Machado, Alessandra Alves de Souza
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T04:53:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Coqueiro_DanilaSouzaOliveira_D.pdf: 3034667 bytes, checksum: 7ce135c75da10c6b26032ec285344dc5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013
Resumo: Avaliou-se as alterações transcricionais em laranja 'Pera' (Citrus sinensis L. Osb.) promovidas por quitosana (CHI) e ácido salicílico (SA), utilizando RNA-seq, e o efeito destes compostos no controle do cancro cítrico (Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri) e da clorose variegada dos citros (CVC - Xylella fastidiosa). As plantas foram tratadas com CHI ou SA e após 48h e 24h, respectivamente, foram coletadas amostras foliares para avaliar seus transcriptomas. Para a avaliação dos eliciadores sobre o cancro cítrico e a CVC, as plantas foram tratadas com CHI ou SA e após 48h e 24h, respectivamente, inoculadas com as duas bactérias separadamente. A partir de 24h da inoculação, foram coletadas amostras foliares para avaliar a curva de crescimento de ambas as bactérias, a redução da severidade e/ou incidência das doenças e respostas de defesa da planta por RT-qPCR. Com os resultados do transcriptoma, observou-se que mais genes foram induzidos pelo tratamento com SA do que com CHI. O tratamento com SA aumentou a expressão de genes que participam da via de sinalização do SA na planta (WRKY50, PR2 e PR-9) e genes da biossíntese do etileno e ácido jasmônico (ACS 12, fator de transcrição contendo domínio AP2 e OPR3). Além disso, promoveu a indução de genes relacionados ao metabolismo secundário, processos redox e estresse biótico. No tratamento com CHI, foi observada maior indução de genes relacionados ao metabolismo secundário. Para ambos os tratamentos, a via da auxina foi reprimida. No experimento para controle do cancro cítrico, observou-se que ambos os eliciadores promoveram reduções na severidade e incidência da doença. Entretanto, a CHI pareceu não interferir diretamente na formação do biofilme pela bactéria, mas pode ter dificultado a multiplicação de X. citri na planta. O SA retardou a entrada da bactéria na planta e, aparentemente, inibiu mais a formação do biofilme bacteriano do que a CHI. Comparações da expressão gênica entre os eliciadores reforçam a ideia de que a CHI tem maior potencial de induzir resistência ao cancro cítrico do que SA. No experimento para o controle da CVC, observou-se que a CHI induziu importantes genes da via do SA (NPR1, TGA, EDS1) e etileno (EIN-3, PR-4) 24h após a inoculação. Aplicações exógenas de SA potencializaram o seu efeito endógeno na planta, pois houve indução de NPR1, TGA e PRs. Entretanto, não foi possível estabelecer uma relação clara entre a multiplicação de X. fastidiosa, a incidência da doença e o uso da CHI e SA em laranja 'Pera', já que na maioria das avaliações não houve redução da população bacteriana em amostras foliares e não houve redução da incidência em plantas tratadas. Com base nos resultados, observou-se que CHI e SA induziram diversos genes envolvidos em respostas de defesa em laranja 'Pera'. Entretanto, essas respostas podem ser moduladas diferencialmente a depender do patógeno que afeta a planta, pois os eliciadores foram eficientes no controle da X. citri, um patógeno que coloniza o mesófilo da planta, entretanto não foram efetivos no controle da X. fastidiosa, um patógeno que coloniza o xilema da planta, embora respostas de defesa tenham sido expressas nos momentos iniciais (24h) após a inoculação com X. fastidiosa
Abstract: This study was carried out to evaluate transcriptional modification in sweet orange 'Pera' (Citrus sinensis L. Osb.), promoted by chitosan (CHI) and salicylic acid (SA), using RNA-seq, and the effect of these compounds on citrus canker (Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri) and citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC - Xylella fastidiosa). Plants were treated with CHI or SA and after 48h and 24h, respectively, leaf samples were collected to assess the transcriptome. In the experiments for disease assessment, the plants were treated with CHI or SA and after 48h and 24h, respectively, inoculated. Starting from 24h after inoculation, leaf samples were collected to evaluate the multiplication of the pathogens (X. citri and X. fastidiosa), reduction of the severity and / or incidence and plant defense responses by RT-qPCR. Based upon the transcriptome results, it was observed that more genes were induced by SA than by CHI. SA treatment increased the expression of genes that participate in the SA signaling pathway in the plant (WRKY50, PR2 and-PR9), and genes involved in the biosynthesis of ethylene and jasmonic acid (ACS 12, transcription factor containing AP2 and OPR3 domain). Besides these, SA promoted induction of genes of secondary metabolism, redox processes and biotic stress. The treatment with CHI exhibited higher induction of genes related to secondary metabolism. For both treatments, the auxin pathway was suppressed. In the experiment for the control of citrus canker, it was observed that both elicitors reduced the severity and incidence of the disease. However, CHI seems not to interfere directly in biofilm formation, but may have hindered the multiplication of X. citri in the plant. The SA slowed down the entry of the bacteria into the plant and, apparently, inhibited the formation of biofilm more efficiently than the CHI. Comparisons of gene expression between elicitors reinforce the idea that CHI has higher potential to induce resistance to citrus canker than SA. In the experiment for the control of CVC, it was observed that the CHI induced important genes of the SA (NPR1, TGA, EDS1) and ethylene (EIN-3, PR-4) pathways 24h after inoculation. Exogenous applications of SA potentiated its endogenous effect in the plant, since there was induction of EDS-1, NPR1, TGA and PRs. However, it was not possible to establish a clear relationship between the multiplication of X. fastidiosa, the incidence of the disease and the use of CHI and SA in 'Pera' sweet orange, since most of the assessments did not show reduction of bacterial populations in leaf samples and there was no reduction of the incidence in treated plants. Based upon the results of this study, it was observed that CHI and SA induced several genes involved in defense responses in 'Pera' sweet orange. However, these responses can be modulated differentially depending on the pathogen that affects the plant. This fact was demonstrated in this study, as elicitors were effective in controlling X. citri, a pathogen that colonizes the mesophyll of the plant, but were not effective in controlling X. fastidiosa, a pathogen that colonizes the xylem of the plant, although defense responses were expressed in the early stages (24 h) after inoculation with X. fastidiosa
Doutorado
Bioquimica
Doutora em Biologia Funcional e Molecular

Bacterial endophytes are the organisms that live inside the plant for a full or a part of their life cycle. Endophytic bacteria have captured the interest of agriculture industry due to their plant beneficial properties, such as synthesis of phytohormones, solubilization of soil nutrients, and alleviation of biotic and abiotic stresses. Several studies have reported that stress tolerant endophytic bacteria can work with a similar performance as non-stressed conditions when inoculated to the plants under stressed conditions. Combination of abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought and low nitrogen stress can have additive or agonistic effects on bacterial and plant growth, and their interactions. However, very few studies have reported the impact of combined stress on endophytic bacterial assisted plant growth promotion. Therefore, understanding the underlying mechanisms of endophytic bacterial assisted plant’s tolerance abiotic stresses may provide the means of better exploiting the beneficial abilities of endophytic bacteria in agricultural production. Thus, the aim of this thesis was to study the stress tolerance mechanisms, beneficial characteristics, and plant growth promotion characteristics of endophytic bacteria under individual and combined abiotic stresses. Transcriptome analysis of endophytic bacteria revealed that tolerance mechanisms to deal with one kind of stress is different than concurrent stresses. Salinity and drought stress largely modulated the genes involved in flagellar assembly and membrane transport, showing reduced motility under stress conditions to preserve the energy. Additionally, bacterial endophyte that can fix nitrogen was studied with maize plant growth promotion under drought and low nitrogen stress conditions. The results suggested that diazotrophic bacterial endophyte can promote plant growth under moderate individual and combined stress conditions. Plant growth promoting endophytic bacteria can be utilized as an efficient tool to increase crop production under individual and concurrent abiotic stresses.

Orientador: Jesus Aparecido Ferro
Coorientador: Flávia Maria de Souza Carvalho
Coorientador: Roberto Hirochi Herai
Banca: Henrique Ferreira
Banca: José Belasque Júnior
Banca: Marcos Túlio de Oliveira
Banca: Alessandro de Mello Varani
Resumo: Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xac) é o agente causal do cancro cítrico, uma das principais doenças que acometem a citricultura mundial. Atualmente não há uma maneira eficiente de controle do cancro, e novos métodos devem ser desenvolvidos para o tratamento desta doença. Assim, o estudo dos mecanismos utilizados pela Xac durante o processo infeccioso pode revelar novos alvos para o desenvolvimento de compostos farmacológicos que possam eliminar ou controlar o patógeno. Neste estudo, a técnica de RNA-Seq foi utilizada para a identificação de genes diferencialmente expressos (GDE) na Xac em condições in vivo e in vitro. Para isso, cinco variedades de citros com níveis diferentes de suscetibilidade ao cancro cítrico, e meios de cultura indutores de fatores de virulência foram utilizados. Muitos dos genes que codificam para proteínas relacionadas ao sistema de secreção tipo 3 (T3SS), enzimas extracelulares, resposta ao estresse oxidativo, transportadores de ferro e fósforo foram induzidos pela Xac nas condições in vivo. No entanto, in vitro, os perfis de expressão para estes mesmos genes foram diferentes. Estes dados permitiram compreender melhor o ambiente intracelular do hospedeiro, e como este se relaciona com os mecanismos de ativação dos fatores de virulência e patogenicidade de Xac. Neste sentido, os dados apresentados neste estudo mostraram que o T3SS é o principal fator de virulência expresso por esta bactéria em condições in vivo. Além disso, nossos resultados sugerem t... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)
Abstract: Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xac) is the causal agent of citrus canker, a major disease affecting citrus worldwide. Currently there is no effective way of cancer control, and new methods must be developed for the treatment of this disease. Thus, the study of the mechanisms used by Xac during the infectious process can reveal new targets for the development of pharmacologic compounds that can eliminate or control the pathogen. In this study, RNA-Seq technique was used to identify Xac differentially expressed genes (DEG) in vivo and in vitro conditions. For this purpose, five citrus varieties with different levels of susceptibility to citrus canker and culture mediums inducing virulence factors were used. Many of the genes encoding proteins of the type 3 protein secretion system (T3SS), extracellular enzymes, oxidative stress response, iron and phosphorus transport were induced in Xac in vivo conditions. However, the expression profiles for these same genes were different than observed in vitro conditions. These data allowed us to better understand the intracellular environment of the host, and how this relates to the activation mechanisms of pathogenicity and virulence factors in Xac. In this context, the data presented in this study show the T3SS as the main virulence factor expressed by the bacteria in vivo conditions. Furthermore, our results also suggest that low concentrations of inorganic phosphorus (Pi) and nitrogen, that bacteria sense in the plant apoplast, are ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)
Doutor

Orientadores: Adriana Zerlotti Mercadante, Fabio Marcio Squina
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T13:26:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mandelli_Fernanda_D.pdf: 50728289 bytes, checksum: 659e38d75c97749e6177d608199540ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014
Resumo: Espécies reativas de oxigênio (ERO) e nitrogênio (ERN) são geradas dentro das células pela exposição a agentes endógenos e exógenos, estas espécies, quando em níveis normais, encontram-se envolvidas na produção de energia, regulação do crescimento celular, sinalização intercelular e síntese de substâncias biológicas importantes. Por outro lado, se produzidas em excesso, podem provocar oxidação lípidica, de proteínas ou do DNA causando o que conhecemos por estresse oxidativo. Para combater o excesso de espécies reativas, os organimos produzem moléculas antioxidantes tais como os carotenoides e enzimas como superóxido dismutase e catalase. No entanto, é difícil apontar as estratégias de adaptação dos micro-organismos em resposta a diferentes condições de estresse através do estudo individual de moléculas produzidas. Diante do exposto, esta pesquisa teve por objetivo elucidar o genoma, proteoma e transcriptoma bem como a produção de carotenoides da bactéria termófila Thermus filiformis quando submetida à algumas condições de cultivo: presença e ausência de H2O2 e temperatura de crescimento abaixo (63 ?C) e acima (77 ?C) do seu ótimo (70 ?C). Para tanto, o genoma e transcriptoma foram analisados com o emprego de tecnologias de sequenciamento de última geração e ferramentas computacionais, e a proteômica e os carotenoides foram caracterizados por cromatografia líquida e espectrometria de massas. Além disso, devido à conhecida capacidade antioxidante e alto potencial de aplicabilidade na indústria farmacêutica, cosmética e de formulação de alimentos, foi feita a clonagem, expressão e caracterização da enzima superóxido dismutase de Thermus filiformis (TfSOD). A TfSOD apresentou atividade enzimática utilizando como cofator tanto manganês quanto ferro e termoestabilidade a até 80 ?C. O sequenciamento de DNA produziu um total de 9.680.471 reads pareados e uma montagem com n50 = 85,2Kb, n90 = 17,1kb, contig de maior tamanho com 275,5kb e um tamanho total de 2,46MB. A predição genética resultou em 2.403 genes codificadores de proteínas. Na análise de transcriptoma, 97,1% dos genes codificadores de proteínas preditos apresentaram expressão com valores detectáveis de RSEM (RNA-Seq by Expectation-Maximization). Através da análise do transcriptoma foram identificados 37% e 5,86% dos genes diferencialmente expressos (p-valor<0,05) nos ensaios com diferentes temperaturas e com e sem adição de H2O2, respectivamente. Através da análise do proteoma, no ensaio com diferentes temperaturas, foi encontrado um total de 27,7% proteínas diferencialmente expressas com um FDR (False Discovery Rate) < 0,05%, sendo 20% significativamente diferentes (p-valor<0,05, teste T) e, no ensaio com e sem adição de H2O2, um total de 28,3% com um FDR < 0,05%, sendo 6% significativamente diferentes (p-valor<0,05, teste T). Algumas diferenças foram observadas na produção de carotenoides de acordo com cada condição de cultivo. Quanto ao perfil de carotenoides, nas condições a 70 ?C e a 77 ?C os carotenoides majoritários foram termozeaxantina-15 e termozeaxantina-13, enquanto que para condição a 63 ?C foram termozeaxantina-15 e zeaxantina livre. A amostra cultivada a 70 ?C sem adição de H2O2 apresentou a maior quantidade de carotenoides totais (1.516 ?g/g), por outro lado o extrato rico em carotenoides que apresentou maior capacidade de desativação do radical peroxila (50,5) foi o da amostra com adição de H2O2. Os resultados do presente estudo mostram que os principais processos afetados pela mudança de temperatura e adição de peróxido de hidrogênio foram: catabolismo, transcrição e tradução de proteínas. Observou-se também que a alteração na temperatura teve uma maior influencia na expressão diferencial de genes e proteinas do que a adição de peróxido. Através das análises do trancriptoma e do proteoma de T. filiformis foram identificadas enzimas termo-estáveis com potencial de aplicação industrial, como por exemplo alfa-amilases, alfa-galactosidases e esterases. Além disso, o extrato rico em carotenoides dessa bactéria apresentou capacidade de desativar o radical peroxila superior à capacidade de extratos de frutas e até mesmo de padrões de carotenoides
Abstract: Reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen (RNS) species are produced in the cells by exposure to endogenous and exogenous agents, these species, when at normal levels, are involved in energy production, cell growth regulation, intercellular signaling and synthesis of important biological substances. On the other hand, if overproduced, can cause lipid, protein and DNA oxidation, leading to what is known as oxidative stress. To combat excessive reactive species, organisms produce antioxidant molecules such as carotenoids and enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and catalase. However, it is difficult to point out the adaptation strategies of microorganisms in response to different stress conditions through the study of individual molecules. Therefore the aim of this research was to elucidate the genome, proteome and transcriptome, as well as the carotenoid production of Thermus filiformis when submitted to the some cultivation conditions under stress: without and with hydrogen peroxide and temperature below (63 ?C) and above (77 ?C) the optimum (70 ?C). In order to achieve this aim, the genome and transcriptome were analyzed using next generation technology and computational tools, and proteome and carotenoids were characterized by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Moreover, due to its known antioxidant capacity and potential application on pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food formulations, a superoxide dismutase from Thermus filiformis (TfSOD) was cloned, expressed and characterized. The TfSOD showed cambialistic characteristics, once it had enzymatic activity with either manganese or iron as cofactor and thermostability until 80 ?C. The DNA sequencing produced a total of 9,680,471 paired reads and the produced assembly had an n50 = 85.2Kb, n90 = 17.1kb, the largest contig size = 275.5kb and total size of 2.46MB. Gene prediction resulted in 2,403 protein coding genes. In the transcriptome analysis, 97.1% of predicted protein coding genes showed detectable expression with RSEM values (RNA-Seq by Expectation-Maximization). Through the computational analysis of T. filiformis transcriptome 37% and 5.86% of the genes significantly different (p-value < 0.05) in the assays with different temperatures and with and without H2O2 were identified, respectivelly. In the total proteome analysis a total of 27.7% proteins were differentially expressed with a FDR (False Discovery Rate) < 0.05%, being 20% significantly different (p-value < 0.05, T-test) in the temperature assay and 28.3% proteins with a FDR (False Discovery Rate) < 0.05%, being 6% significantly different (p-value < 0.05, T-test) in the H2O2 assay. Some changes were observed in the carotenoid production according to the cultivation condition. Regarding to the carotenoid profile, the major carotenoids under conditions at 70 ?C (without and with H2O2) and at 77 ?C were thermozeaxanthin-15 and thermozeaxanthin-13 while at 63 ?C were thermozeaxanthin-15 and free-zeaxanthin. The sample cultivated at 70 ?C without H2O2 showed the highest amount of total carotenoid (1516 ?g/g of dry mass), on the other hand the sample with the highest antioxidant capacity was the one cultivated at 70 ?C with H2O2. The carotenoid rich extract of all conditions studied showed a peroxyl scavenging capacity higher than those carotenoid rich extracts from some fruits and from some carotenoid standards, demonstrating the potential applicability of T. filiformis extracts in industry. The results of this study show that the main processes affected by temperature change and addition of H2O2 were: catabolism, transcription and protein translation. It was also observed that the change in temperature has greater influence on the differential expression of genes and proteins than the H2O2 addition. Through trancriptome and proteome analysis of T. filiformis thermostable enzymes have been identified with potential industrial applications, such as alpha-amylases, alpha-galactosidases and esterases. Moreover, the extract rich in carotenoids of this bacterium had a greater peroxyl radical scavenging capacity than the capacity of fruit extracts and even carotenoids standards
Doutorado
Ciência de Alimentos
Doutora em Ciência de Alimentos

Rhizobia are important soil bacteria due to their ability to establish nitrogen-fixing symbioses with legume plants. In this dual lifestyle, as free-living bacteria or as plant symbiont, rhizobia are often exposed to different environmental stresses. The present chapter overviews the current knowledge on the heat shock response of rhizobia, highlighting how these large genome bacteria respond to heat from a transcriptional point of view. Response to heat shock in rhizobia involves genome wide changes in the transcriptome that may affect more than 30% of the genome and involve all replicons. In addition to the expected upregulation of genes already known to be involved in stress response (dnaK, groEL, ibpA, clpB), the reports on the heat shock response in rhizobia also showed particular aspects of stress response in these resourceful bacteria. The transcriptional response to heat in rhizobia includes the overexpression of a large number of genes involved in transcription and carbohydrate transport and metabolism. Additional studies are needed in order to better understand the transcriptional regulation of stress response in bacteria with large genomes.

Kyoto University (京都大学)
0048
新制・課程博士
博士(農学)
甲第21812号
農博第2325号
新制||農||1066(附属図書館)
学位論文||H31||N5184(農学部図書室)
京都大学大学院農学研究科応用生物科学専攻
(主査)教授 左子 芳彦, 教授 澤山 茂樹, 准教授 吉田 天士
学位規則第4条第1項該当

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 24, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Gary Stacey. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Acidophilic iron oxidizing bacteria of the betaproteobacterial genus “Ferrovum” are ubiquitously distributed in acid mine drainage (AMD) habitats worldwide. Since their isolation and maintenance in the laboratory has proved to be extremely difficult, members of this genus are not accessible to a “classical” microbiological characterization with exception of the designated type strain “Ferrovum myxofaciens” P3G. The present study reports the characterization of “Ferrovum” strains at genome and transcriptome level. “Ferrovum” sp. JA12, “Ferrovum” sp. PN-J185 and “F. myxofaciens” Z-31 represent the iron oxidizers of the mixed cultures JA12, PN-J185 and Z-31. The mixed cultures were derived from the mine water treatment plant Tzschelln close to the lignite mining site in Nochten (Lusatia, Germany). The mixed cultures also contain a heterotrophic strain of the genus Acidiphilium. The genome analysis of Acidiphilium sp. JA12-A1, the heterotrophic contamination of the mixed culture JA12, indicates an interspecies carbon and phosphate transfer between Acidiphilium and “Ferrovum” in the mixed culture, and possibly also in their natural habitat. The comparison of the inferred metabolic potentials of four “Ferrovum” strains and the analysis of their phylogenetic relationships suggest the existence of two subgroups within the genus “Ferrovum” (i.e. the operational taxonomic units OTU-1 and OUT-2) harboring characteristic metabolic profiles. OTU-1 includes the “F. myxofaciens” strains P3G and Z-31, which are predicted to be motile and diazotrophic, and to have a higher acid tolerance than OTU-2. The latter includes two closely related proposed species represented by the strains JA12 and PN-J185, which appear to lack the abilities of motility, chemotaxis and molecular nitrogen fixation. Instead, both OTU-2 strains harbor the potential to use urea as alternative nitrogen source to ammonium, and even nitrate in case of the JA12-like species. The analysis of the genome architectures of the four “Ferrovum” strains suggests that horizontal gene transfer and loss of metabolic genes, accompanied by genome reduction, have contributed to the evolution of the OTUs. A trial transcriptome study of “Ferrovum” sp. JA12 supports the ferrous iron oxidation model inferred from its genome sequence, and reveals the potential relevance of several hypothetical proteins in ferrous iron oxidation. Although the inferred models in “Ferrovum” spp. share common features with the acidophilic iron oxidizers of the Acidithiobacillia, it appears to be more similar to the neutrophilic iron oxidizers Mariprofundus ferrooxydans (“Zetaproteobacteria”) and Sideroxydans lithotrophicus (Betaproteobacteria). These findings suggest a common origin of ferrous iron oxidation in the Beta- and “Zetaproteobacteria”, while the acidophilic lifestyle of “Ferrovum” spp. may have been acquired later, allowing them to also colonize acid mine drainage habitats.

Bacterioplankton provide important ecosystem functions by carrying out biogeochemical cycling of organic matter. Playing an important role in the microbial loop they help remineralize carbon and nutrients. Bacteria also interact with phytoplankton during phytoplankton blooms. However, fundamental understanding on the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in the degradation of phytoplankton-derived organic matter is still in its infancy. Therefore, we analysed data from a mesocosm experiment following a natural phytoplankton-bloom from an upwelling system in the North- East Atlantic Ocean. The purpose was to contribute a mechanistic understanding based on functional gene expression analysis of natural microbial assemblages. Our results show the difference in functional gene expression within a bacterial metacommunity and how this functional response drastically switches between bloom build up and senescence. Transcripts showed a broad change in gene expression involving major SEED categories, with the bloom senescence phase exhibiting a higher relative abundance in major categories such as Carbohydrates, Protein Metabolism and Amino Acids and Derivatives. Within these categories genes connected to carbon utilization and transport systems (Ton and Tol) as well as chemotaxis showed a higher abundance during bloom senescence. The change in functionality based on transcripts showed a different bacterial community composition appearing over a very short time. We thus conclude that the bacterial functional gene expression response between build-up and degradation bloom phases is remarkably different and associated with a change in the identity of bacteria with active expression. Our findings highlight the importance of bacterial substrate specialists with different functional roles during different time points of phytoplankton blooms.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-27T13:40:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2015-12-07. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2016-09-27T13:45:10Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000867476_20200307.pdf: 393558 bytes, checksum: a80584113ea061224d04a97f59685ffd (MD5)
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes)
A bactéria Xanthomonas fuscans subsp. aurantifolii tipo C (XauC) é o agente causal da cancrose C, que afeta apenas lima ácida 'Galego' (Citrus aurantifolia (Christm) Swingle). A principal característica fenotípica desta doença é a hiperplasia e hipertrofia do tecido afetado, que leva à formação de lesões erupescentes características, sendo que o responsável pela proliferação celular desordenada é um efetor tipo TAL da família AvrBs3/PthA, que é injetado na planta pelo sistema de secreção tipo III (SST3) da bactéria e é translocado até o núcleo, onde interage com regiões UPA-box (up-regulated by AvrBs3) e funciona como um ativador transcricional. As variedades de laranja doce são resistentes à cancrose C e, quando inoculadas com XauC apresentam forte reação de hipersensibilidade (HR), causando morte celular programada local (apoptose) e abscisão das folhas afetadas. O(s) mecanismo(s) que confer(em) à lima ácida 'Galego' susceptibilidade à XauC não é(são) conhecido(s). Este estudo teve como objetivo identificar, através de sequenciamento de nova geração (NGS), transcritos de plantas diferencialmente expressos envolvidos na interação patógeno-hospedeiro nos patossistemas XauC-laranja 'Hamlin' (espécie resistente) e XauC-lima ácida 'Galego' (espécie susceptível). Para isso, folhas de laranja 'Hamlin' e lima ácida 'Galego' foram inoculadas com suspensão de XauC a uma concentração de 106 ufc/mL, sendo que o controle foram folhas inoculadas com água estéril. Essas folhas foram coletadas nos tempos de 5 e 7 dias após inoculação (dai) e o RNA total foi extraído e utilizado para a análise dos transcrissomas por RNA-seq. Os transcritos obtidos do sequenciamento foram normalizados e as redundâncias foram removidas. Foi montado um banco único de dados genômicos e de transcritos de citros...
The bacterium Xanthomonas fuscans subsp. aurantifolii type C (XAC) is the causative agent of cancrose C, which affects only acid lime 'Galego' (Citrus aurantifolia (Christm) Swingle). The main phenotypic characteristic of this disease is the hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the affected tissue, leading to the formation of erupescentes characteristic lesions, and responsible for the abnormal cell growth is a transcription activator-like (TAL) effector family (also called the avrBs3/pthA family), which is injected into the plant by the type type III secretion system (T3SS) and is translocated to the nucleus, where it interacts with UPA-box regions (up-regulated by AvrBs3) and acts as a transcriptional activator. The sweet orange varieties are resistant, and when inoculated with XauC show strong hypersensitive response (HR), causing local programmed cell death (apoptosis) and abscission of affected leaves. The mechanisms that give the acid lime 'Galego' susceptibility to XauC is not known. This study aimed to identify, through next-generation sequencing (NGS), plant differentially expressed transcripts involved in host-pathogen interaction in pathosystems XauC-orange 'Hamlin' (species resistant) and XauC-acid lime 'Galego' (species susceptible). Leaves from 'Hamlin' and acid lime 'Galego' were inoculated with XauC suspension at a concentration of 106 cfu/mL (experimental) or sterile water (control) and collected at 5 and 7 days after inoculation (dai). Total RNA was extracted and used for transcriptome analysis by RNA-seq. The transcripts obtained from sequencing were normalized and redundancies removed. A single bank of genomic data and citrus transcripts was assembled, which was called CitSeqDB and is the junction of 6 public banks: AFFYM, NCBI Unigene, USDA, CITRUSGDB and PHYTOZOME. Transcripts that proved to be differentially expressed relative to controls were confronted with the bank and functional annotation was performed using ...

Orientador: Jesus Aparecido Ferro
Coorientador: José Belasque Júnior
Banca: Roberto Hirochi Herai
Banca: Fabrício José Jaciani
Banca: Flávia Maria de Souza Carvalho
Banca: Marcos Túlio de Oliveira
Resumo: A bactéria Xanthomonas fuscans subsp. aurantifolii tipo C (XauC) é o agente causal da cancrose C, que afeta apenas lima ácida 'Galego' (Citrus aurantifolia (Christm) Swingle). A principal característica fenotípica desta doença é a hiperplasia e hipertrofia do tecido afetado, que leva à formação de lesões erupescentes características, sendo que o responsável pela proliferação celular desordenada é um efetor tipo TAL da família AvrBs3/PthA, que é injetado na planta pelo sistema de secreção tipo III (SST3) da bactéria e é translocado até o núcleo, onde interage com regiões UPA-box (up-regulated by AvrBs3) e funciona como um ativador transcricional. As variedades de laranja doce são resistentes à cancrose C e, quando inoculadas com XauC apresentam forte reação de hipersensibilidade (HR), causando morte celular programada local (apoptose) e abscisão das folhas afetadas. O(s) mecanismo(s) que confer(em) à lima ácida 'Galego' susceptibilidade à XauC não é(são) conhecido(s). Este estudo teve como objetivo identificar, através de sequenciamento de nova geração (NGS), transcritos de plantas diferencialmente expressos envolvidos na interação patógeno-hospedeiro nos patossistemas XauC-laranja 'Hamlin' (espécie resistente) e XauC-lima ácida 'Galego' (espécie susceptível). Para isso, folhas de laranja 'Hamlin' e lima ácida 'Galego' foram inoculadas com suspensão de XauC a uma concentração de 106 ufc/mL, sendo que o controle foram folhas inoculadas com água estéril. Essas folhas foram coletadas nos tempos de 5 e 7 dias após inoculação (dai) e o RNA total foi extraído e utilizado para a análise dos transcrissomas por RNA-seq. Os transcritos obtidos do sequenciamento foram normalizados e as redundâncias foram removidas. Foi montado um banco único de dados genômicos e de transcritos de citros...
Abstract: The bacterium Xanthomonas fuscans subsp. aurantifolii type C (XAC) is the causative agent of cancrose C, which affects only acid lime 'Galego' (Citrus aurantifolia (Christm) Swingle). The main phenotypic characteristic of this disease is the hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the affected tissue, leading to the formation of erupescentes characteristic lesions, and responsible for the abnormal cell growth is a transcription activator-like (TAL) effector family (also called the avrBs3/pthA family), which is injected into the plant by the type type III secretion system (T3SS) and is translocated to the nucleus, where it interacts with UPA-box regions (up-regulated by AvrBs3) and acts as a transcriptional activator. The sweet orange varieties are resistant, and when inoculated with XauC show strong hypersensitive response (HR), causing local programmed cell death (apoptosis) and abscission of affected leaves. The mechanisms that give the acid lime 'Galego' susceptibility to XauC is not known. This study aimed to identify, through next-generation sequencing (NGS), plant differentially expressed transcripts involved in host-pathogen interaction in pathosystems XauC-orange 'Hamlin' (species resistant) and XauC-acid lime 'Galego' (species susceptible). Leaves from 'Hamlin' and acid lime 'Galego' were inoculated with XauC suspension at a concentration of 106 cfu/mL (experimental) or sterile water (control) and collected at 5 and 7 days after inoculation (dai). Total RNA was extracted and used for transcriptome analysis by RNA-seq. The transcripts obtained from sequencing were normalized and redundancies removed. A single bank of genomic data and citrus transcripts was assembled, which was called CitSeqDB and is the junction of 6 public banks: AFFYM, NCBI Unigene, USDA, CITRUSGDB and PHYTOZOME. Transcripts that proved to be differentially expressed relative to controls were confronted with the bank and functional annotation was performed using ...
Doutor

AU COURS DE LA THESE, L'ETUDE DU TRANSCRIPTOME DE SOUCHES GARDEL ET SENEGAL VIRULENTES ET ATTENUEES D'E. RUMINANTIUMA ETE REALISEE. UNE ANALYSE DU TRANSCRIPTOME A DIFFERENTS STADES DE DEVELOPPEMENT, A D'ABORD ETE EFFECTUEE POUR LA SOUCHE GARDEL VIRULENTE. AU STADE CORPS RETICULE (FORME INTRACELLULAIRE NON INFECTIEUSE), UNE SUREXPRESSION DES GENES CODANT POUR DES PROTEINES IMPLIQUEES DANS LE METABOLISME, LE TRANSPORT ET L'ECHANGE DE NUTRIMENTS ET DANS LA RESISTANCE AU STRESS OXYDATIF ETAIT OBSERVEE. IL SEMBLERAIT QUEE. RUMINANTIUMMETTE EN PLACE UN PANEL DE MECANISMES POUR SA SURVIE ET SON DEVELOPPEMENT A L'INTERIEUR DE LA CELLULE HOTE. AU STADE CORPS ELEMENTAIRE (FORME EXTRACELLULAlRE INFECTIEUSE), LE GENE DKSA CODANT POUR UN FACTEUR DE TRANSCRIPTION ETAIT SUREXPRIME. CE GENE A ETE MONTRE COMME ETANT IMPLIQUE DANS LA REGULATION DE FACTEURS DE VIRULENCE. IL SEMBLERAIT . DONC, QU'AU STADE CORPS ELEMENTAIRE, IL Y AIT UNE INDUCTION DE MECANISMES DE VIRULENCE. LA COMPARAISON DE L'EXPRESSION DES GENES AU STADE CORPS ELEMENTAIRE ENTRE SOUCHES VIRULENTES ET ATTENUEES A AUSSI ETE EFFECTUEE. NOS RESULTATS ONT MONTRE UNE MODIFICATION IMPORTANTE DE LA MEMBRANE POUR LES SOUCHES VIRULENTES ET ATTENUEES. POUR LES SOUCHES ATTENUEES, IL A ETE MONTRE UNE SUREXPRESSION DES GENES IMPLIQUES DANS LA BIOGENESE MEMBRANAlRE ET UNE SOUS-EXPRESSION·DES PROTEINES DE LA FAMILLE MULTIGENIQUE MAP. CES RESULTATS SUGGERENT QUE LES PROTEINES MAP JOUENT UN ROLE DE LEURRE VIS-A-VIS DE LA REPONSE IMMUNITAIRE PROTECTRICE. DES PROTEINES MEMBRANAlRES HYPOTHETIQUES SONT SUREXPRIMEES A LA FOIS CHEZ LES SOUCHES VIRULENTES ET ATTENUEES. CERTAINES D'ENTRE ELLES SUREXPRIMEES CHEZ LES SOUCHES ATTENUEES SEMBLENT ETRE DE BONS CANDIDATS VACCINAUX ET DEVRAIENT ETRE ETUDIEES
Transcriptomic study of gardel and senegal both virulent and attenuated e. ruminantium strains was conducted during my phd. an analysis of transcriptome at different stages of development has been first conducted for virulent gardel strain. at reticulate body stage (intracellular form non-infectious), over-expression of genes coding for proteins involved in metabolism, transport and exchange of nutrients and resistance to oxidative stress was observed. at this stage of development, e. ruminantium seems to activate mechanisms for its survival and development within the host cell. at elementary body stage, dksa the gene encoding for a transcription factor was over-expressed. this gene has been shown to be involved in the regulation of virulence factors. it seems, therefore, at the elementary body stage, e. ruminantium induces its virulence factors. secondly, we compare the transcriptome of elementary body between virulent and attenuated strains. our results showed an important membrane modification of attenuated and virulent strains. for attenuated strains, we observed an over-expression of genes involved in membrane biogenesis and a diminution of expression of map multigenic family. it seems that map proteins subvert the protective immune response. hypothetical membrane proteins are over-expressed in both virulent and attenuated strains. some over-expressed proteins in attenuated strains seem to be good vaccine candidates and willstudied

The ability to prime the immune system against an antigen, and to rapidly recall this response upon antigen reencounter is a fundamental characteristic of the adaptive immune response. The association of an antigen recognized by the immune system in a certain tissue, with the same antigen encountered at a later timepoint in a different tissue, is of primary importance to obtain a systemic and effective immune response and is the foundation behind the utilization of vaccines. The study of vaccine delivery platforms that may activate the immune system in such a manner is therefore of primary importance in the effort to design novel vaccine formulation and prime-boost strategies. The aim of the present work was to study the in vivo priming effect induced by a recombinant Streptococcus gordonii vaccine vector expressing a heterologous antigen and delivered to the vaginal tract, a unique mucosal tissue. To study the priming effect induced by the recombinant Streptococcus gordonii, we employed a prime-boost strategy and compared the cellular an humoral immune response towards the soluble antigen between recombinant- and WT-immunized mice. Using this model, we show that vaginal immunization with the recombinant Streptococcus gordonii elicited systemic production of antigen-specific antibodies, shifted the IgG subclasses profile, led to an increase in plasma cells in the lymph nodes, a higher number of antigen-specific antibody-secreting cells in the spleen and modulated the cytokine expression profile of splenocytes. The longevity of the priming effect induced by the recombinant vector was also analyzed by comparing three and six months boosting schedules. We found that the priming is boostable with a similar efficacy for at least six months (Chapter 3). These data demonstrate that vaginal priming with the recombinant S. gordonii vector results in a systemic activation of both cellular and humoral immune compartments, and that this priming effect is long-lived without significant immune waning. In this study, we also assessed the transcriptomic response of splenocytes from S. gordonii-immunized mice towards the antigen. We observed differences in immune pathways between recombinant- and WT-immunized mice, and also between the three- and six-months boosted groups (Chapter 4). In addition, we observed a gene signature correlated with antigen-specific IgG titers. These findings suggest that the immune system’s encounter with the antigen on the surface of the recombinant S. gordonii in the vaginal tract results in a differential immune activation in in response to the antigen. This work contributes to the knowledge on the capability of recombinant live vaccine vectors delivered mucosally to prime and modulate the immune response, and has important implications in the design of innovative vaccination strategies.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-09T12:28:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-07-19Bitstream added on 2015-04-09T12:48:25Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000819205.pdf: 7820938 bytes, checksum: b4045f963c89f07ea3405904f9001074 (MD5)
O cancro cítrico, causado pela bactéria Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xac), é uma das principais doenças que acometem a citricultura mundial e ataca uma ampla gama de espécies comerciais de citros, causando perdas significativas nos países produtores. A espécie de laranja doce Hamlin (Citrus sinensis) é suscetível ao cancro cítrico, enquanto a espécie de tangerina Satsuma (Citrus unshiu) é resistente. Para compreender os mecanismos moleculares relacionados aos sistemas de defesa ativados pela planta é importante identificar as alterações transcricionais de cada espécie vegetal sob estresse fitopatogênico, a fim de desvendar os elementos moleculares que são específicos de cada espécie. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi realizar uma análise comparativa temporal do transcriptoma de duas espécies cítricas contrastantes em resposta à Xac, pela técnica do RNA-Seq (Illumina). Um total de 5.673 e 6.231 transcritos diferencialmente expressos foi induzido nos tempos 24, 48 e 72 horas após a inoculação de Xac em Satsuma e Hamlin, respectivamente, enquanto 3.982 e 7.944 transcritos foram reprimidos. Deste total, 52 transcritos foram induzidos em comum, nas duas espécies, em todos os tempos de inoculação. Estes genes estão relacionados com a defesa basal da planta contra o ataque de Xac, pois apresentam genes que participam na percepção e reconhecimento do patógeno, genes que codificam fatores de transcrição e genes que participam na defesa da planta, como glucanases e proteinases. Entre os genes induzidos exclusivamente na espécie resistente Satsuma destacou-se uma proteinase aspártica. Esta proteína apresentou a maior expressão gênica no tempo 24 horas e pode estar envolvida na resistência desta espécie, visto que na espécie suscetível Hamlin, a expressão desta proteína foi menos expressiva e tardia, no tempo 48 horas. Outra resposta oposta entre as espécie foi na expressão de genes relacionados à ...
Citrus canker, caused by Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xac), is a one of the most important disease affecting citrus production worldwide and attacks a wide range of commercial species of citrus trees, causing significant losses in producing countries. Hamlin sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) is canker-sensitive, while Satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu) is canker-resistant. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the differences in responses to Xac, transcriptional profiles of these two genotypes following Xac attack were compared by RNA-Seq (Illumina). The purpose of this study was to examine simultaneous changes in gene expression profile during the early stages (24, 48 and 72 hpi) of citrus canker infection in Satsuma and Hamlin. A total of 5673 and 6231 up-regulated transcripts were identified at 24, 48 and 72 hpi in Satsuma and Hamlin, respectively, while 3982 and 7944 were down-regulated. Of these, 52 transcripts were up-regulated in common between both genotypes. These genes in common are related to basic defense against Xac, because there are genes involved in patogen perception and recognition, transcription factors and genes related to plant defense, such as glucanases and proteinases. Among up-regulated genes expressed only in Satsuma, aspartic proteinase was highlighted. This protein presented the highest gene expression 24 hpi and it can be involved in Satsuma resistance, since the expression of this protein was less pronounced and delayed in Hamlin. Another opposite response between these two genotypes was the expression of genes related to cell wall. Such genes were pectato lyase, extensin, cellulose sinthase, and xiloglucano endotransglycosilase. The genes were up-regulated in Satsuma, while in Hamlin, they were down-regulated. For genes related to plant defense, both genotypes up- regulated pathogenesis-related proteins, especially 72 hpi. However, the expression of these genes did not prevent the symptoms in ...

Orientador: Jesus Aparecido Ferro
Coorientador: Rui Pereira Leite Júnior
Banca: Alessandro de Mello Varani
Banca: José Belasque Júnior
Resumo: O cancro cítrico, causado pela bactéria Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xac), é uma das principais doenças que acometem a citricultura mundial e ataca uma ampla gama de espécies comerciais de citros, causando perdas significativas nos países produtores. A espécie de laranja doce Hamlin (Citrus sinensis) é suscetível ao cancro cítrico, enquanto a espécie de tangerina Satsuma (Citrus unshiu) é resistente. Para compreender os mecanismos moleculares relacionados aos sistemas de defesa ativados pela planta é importante identificar as alterações transcricionais de cada espécie vegetal sob estresse fitopatogênico, a fim de desvendar os elementos moleculares que são específicos de cada espécie. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi realizar uma análise comparativa temporal do transcriptoma de duas espécies cítricas contrastantes em resposta à Xac, pela técnica do RNA-Seq (Illumina). Um total de 5.673 e 6.231 transcritos diferencialmente expressos foi induzido nos tempos 24, 48 e 72 horas após a inoculação de Xac em Satsuma e Hamlin, respectivamente, enquanto 3.982 e 7.944 transcritos foram reprimidos. Deste total, 52 transcritos foram induzidos em comum, nas duas espécies, em todos os tempos de inoculação. Estes genes estão relacionados com a defesa basal da planta contra o ataque de Xac, pois apresentam genes que participam na percepção e reconhecimento do patógeno, genes que codificam fatores de transcrição e genes que participam na defesa da planta, como glucanases e proteinases. Entre os genes induzidos exclusivamente na espécie resistente Satsuma destacou-se uma proteinase aspártica. Esta proteína apresentou a maior expressão gênica no tempo 24 horas e pode estar envolvida na resistência desta espécie, visto que na espécie suscetível Hamlin, a expressão desta proteína foi menos expressiva e tardia, no tempo 48 horas. Outra resposta oposta entre as espécie foi na expressão de genes relacionados à ...
Abstract: Citrus canker, caused by Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xac), is a one of the most important disease affecting citrus production worldwide and attacks a wide range of commercial species of citrus trees, causing significant losses in producing countries. Hamlin sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) is canker-sensitive, while Satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu) is canker-resistant. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the differences in responses to Xac, transcriptional profiles of these two genotypes following Xac attack were compared by RNA-Seq (Illumina). The purpose of this study was to examine simultaneous changes in gene expression profile during the early stages (24, 48 and 72 hpi) of citrus canker infection in Satsuma and Hamlin. A total of 5673 and 6231 up-regulated transcripts were identified at 24, 48 and 72 hpi in Satsuma and Hamlin, respectively, while 3982 and 7944 were down-regulated. Of these, 52 transcripts were up-regulated in common between both genotypes. These genes in common are related to basic defense against Xac, because there are genes involved in patogen perception and recognition, transcription factors and genes related to plant defense, such as glucanases and proteinases. Among up-regulated genes expressed only in Satsuma, aspartic proteinase was highlighted. This protein presented the highest gene expression 24 hpi and it can be involved in Satsuma resistance, since the expression of this protein was less pronounced and delayed in Hamlin. Another opposite response between these two genotypes was the expression of genes related to cell wall. Such genes were pectato lyase, extensin, cellulose sinthase, and xiloglucano endotransglycosilase. The genes were up-regulated in Satsuma, while in Hamlin, they were down-regulated. For genes related to plant defense, both genotypes up- regulated pathogenesis-related proteins, especially 72 hpi. However, the expression of these genes did not prevent the symptoms in ...
Mestre

Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Staphylococcus aureus lung colonization is critical in cystic fibrosis (CF) and other chronic lung diseases, contributing to disease progression. Biofilm growth and a propensity to evolve multidrug resistance phenotypes drastically limit the available therapeutic options. In this perspective, there has been growing interest in evaluating both combination therapies, especially for drugs administrable by nebulization allowing to achieve high lung concentrations while reducing systemic toxicity, and non-antibiotic therapies based on the using of visible light capable of generating reactive oxygen species leading to bacterial killing. In this doctoral thesis, the potential synergism of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) (a mucolytic agent with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties) in combination with colistin (among the last-resort agents for the treatment of infections caused by multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria) against S. maltophilia grown in planktonic and biofilm phase, and P. aeruginosa biofilms was investigated. The transcriptomic response of a P. aeruginosa CF strain to NAC exposure was also studied. A wide collection of S. maltophilia and P. aeruginosa clinical isolates (comprising strains isolated from CF patients and colistin-resistant strains) was included in the study. On the other hand, the potential in vitro activity of violet-blue light (415 nm wavelength) against planktonic and biofilm cultures of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus strains (including strains isolated from CF patients) was investigated. The potentiation of the antimicrobial activity of light at 415 nm in the presence of potassium iodide (KI) against planktonic cultures was also evaluated. The latter investigations were part of the follow-up activities of the European project Light4Lungs aimed at develops a novel antimicrobial therapy for the treatment of chronic lung infections using inhalable light sources. Checkerboard assays carried out with S. maltophilia strains showed a synergism of NAC-colistin combinations against the strains exhibiting colistin Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) >2 mg/L (n=13), suggesting that NAC could antagonize the mechanisms involved in colistin resistance. Nonetheless, time-kill assays revealed that NAC might potentiate colistin activity also in case of lower colistin MICs. A dose-dependent potentiation of colistin activity by NAC was clearly observed against S. maltophilia biofilms, also at sub-MIC concentrations. Biofilm susceptibility testing performed against P. aeruginosa showed a limited and strain-dependent antibiofilm activity of NAC alone (8,000 mg/L). However, a relevant antibiofilm synergism of NAC-colistin combinations was observed with the majority of the P. aeruginosa strains tested. Synergism was also confirmed with the artificial sputum medium model. RNA sequencing of NAC-exposed planktonic cultures revealed that NAC (8,000 mg/L) mainly induced (i) a Zn2+ starvation response (known to induce attenuation of P. aeruginosa virulence), (ii) downregulation of genes of the denitrification apparatus, and (iii) downregulation of flagellar biosynthesis pathway. NAC-mediated inhibition of P. aeruginosa denitrification pathway and flagellum-mediated motility were confirmed experimentally. A potential antimicrobial activity of the light at 415 nm against all the tested strains (n=4) was observed. A dose-dependent effect was detected against P. aeruginosa strains grown in planktonic phase, while only a scant or no effect was observed against S. aureus cultures. Nevertheless, the addition of KI to the planktonic cultures potentiated the photokilling activity of 415 nm LED light leading to eradication of starting inocula in three out of four cases, confirming the involvement of KI in the bacterial cell death. An antibiofilm activity of the light at 415 nm was observed against both P. aeruginosa strains and S. aureus strains, with the major effects evident against clinical isolates compared to the reference strains, underlining the differences of response to oxidative stress between diverse physiological states of growth. NAC-colistin combinations, at concentrations likely achievable by topical administration, might represent a valid option for the treatment of infections caused by biofilm-associated pathogens, such as S. maltophilia and P. aeruginosa, while potentially reducing the risk of in vivo selection of colistin resistance. NAC might also have a role in reducing P. aeruginosa virulence, which could be relevant in the very early stages of lung colonization. The antibiofilm activity of violet-blue light would deserve further investigation to consolidate the obtained data for the potential clinical application of this approach, especially in biofilm-associated chronic infections. The potentiation of photokilling activity of antimicrobial light mediated by KI should be further examined.

Les composés organiques hydrophobes (HOCs), lipides et hydrocarbures, représentent une part significative de la matière organique dans l’environnement marin. Leur faible solubilité dans l’eau exige de la part des bactéries qui les dégradent des adaptations physiologiques permettant de stimuler leur transfert de masse de la phase organique vers la phase aqueuse où ils sont assimilés. La formation de biofilm à l’interface HOC-eau est l’une de ces adaptations. La bactérie marine Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus (Mh), qui est capable d’utiliser un catalogue assez large de HOCs comme les alcanes, les alcools gras et les triglycérides, a été utilisée comme modèle d’étude de la formation de biofilms aux interfaces HOCs-eau. Le but de mes recherches était de : (i) mener la caractérisation fonctionnelle des gènes aupA et aupB, qui sont surexprimés en condition de biofilm sur hexadécane et (ii) dresser, par une étude de transcriptomique, une liste de gènes potentiellement impliqués dans l’adhésion et la formation de biofilm aux interfaces HOCs-eau dans le but d’appréhender les mécanismes moléculaires mis en jeu. L’étude fonctionnelle de aupA et aupB a révélé que ces deux gènes forment un opéron dont l’expression est activée par divers types de HOCs. Il a aussi été démontré qu’ils sont impliqués dans le transport de l’hexadécane et dans la formation de biofilm sur alcanes. La protéine AupA est localisée dans la membrane externe de Mh et AupB, une lipoprotéine présumée, est située dans la membrane interne. AupA appartient à une sous-famille de transporteurs FadL-like, spécifique des bactéries marines hydrocarbonoclastes (HCB). La distribution phylogénétique de l'opéron aupAB limitée aux bactéries marines ayant la capacité de dégrader les alcanes et sa présence en nombreuses copies chez certaines souches d’Alcanivorax sp. suggèrent fortement que les protéines Aup joueraient un rôle primordial dans l’adaptation des HCB à l’utilisation d’alcanes comme sources de carbone et d’énergie. L’analyse transcriptomique des cellules de Mh adhérées (après 15 min ou 3 h de contact) ou formant un biofilm aux interfaces HOCs-eau a révélé une modification importante et précoce de leur transcriptome. De nombreux gènes intervenant dans le métabolisme des HOCs, la production de polysaccharides, la synthèse d’acides aminés et de protéines ribosomales présentent une expression modulée dès 15 min d’adhésion. La surexpression des gènes de flagelle et du chimiotactisme conjointement avec celle de gènes de pili en condition d’adhésion évoquent une possible mobilité des cellules de Mh à l’interface dans les étapes précoces du développement du biofilm. De plus, il semblerait que le facteur de transcription RpoN soit impliqué dans la régulation de la formation de biofilm chez Mh et que les prophages puissent intervenir dans la structure et/ou la dispersion du biofilm. Enfin, le rôle potentiel d’un îlot génomique dans la formation de biofilm sur trioléine a été suggéré
Hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs), such as lipids and hydrocarbons, represent a significant part of the organic matter in the marine environment. Their low solubility in water requires from bacteria that degrade them physiological adaptations to stimulate their mass transfer from the organic to the aqueous phase where they are assimilated. Biofilm formation at the HOC-water interface is one of those adaptations. The marine bacterium Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus (Mh) which is able to use a broad range of HOCs such as alkanes, fatty alcohols and triglycerides, was used as a model to study the biofilm formation at HOCs-water interfaces. The aim of my research was to (i) conduct the functional characterization of aupA and aupB genes which are overexpressed in biofilm on hexadecane, (ii) draw up a list of genes, through a transcriptomic study, that are potentially involved in adhesion and biofilm formation at HOCs-water interfaces in order to understand the molecular mechanisms involved.Functional study of aupA and aupB revealed that these two genes form an operon whose expression is activated by various types of HOCs. They have also been shown to be involved in the transport of hexadecane and in biofilm formation on alkanes. The AupA protein is localized in the outer membrane and the predicted lipoprotein AupB is located at the inner membrane. AupA belongs to a subfamily of the FadL-like transporters, specific to marine hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (HCB). The phylogenetic distribution of the aupAB operon restricted to marine bacteria having the ability to degrade alkanes and its presence in multiple copies in somestrains of Alcanivorax sp. strongly suggest that Aup proteins play a key role in the adaptation of HCB to use alkanes as carbon and energy sources. The transcriptomic analysis of Mh cells adhering (after 15 min or 3 h of contact) or forming a biofilm at HOCs-water interfaces revealed significant and early changes in their transcriptome. The expression of many genes involved in the metabolism of HOCs, polysaccharides production, amino acids and ribosomal proteins synthesis is modulated as early as 15 min of adhesion. The overexpression of flagella and chemotaxis genes together with that of pili in adhesion condition suggest a possible motility at the interface during the early stages of biofilm development. In addition, it appears that the transcription factor RpoN is involved in the regulation of biofilm formation in Mh and that prophages could play a role in the structure and/or dispersal of the biofilm. Finally, a potential role of a genomic island in biofilm formation ontriolein was suggested

This thesis was performed within the research project “TrophinOak”, which addresses the impact of multitrophic interactions on the pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) clone DF159. In this frame, the present work focuses on the genetic and physiological mechanisms ruling the interaction of the mycorrhiza helper bacterium (MHB) Streptomyces sp. AcH 505 with microcuttings of DF159 either alone or in presence of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Piloderma croceum or the fungal leaf pathogen oak powdery mildew Microsphaera alphitoides. The work consists of 3 chapters. Chapter 1 characterises the growth of AcH 505 and P. croceum in a soil-based culture system used within the TrophinOak project. Besides the establishment and evaluation of quantification methods of these microorganisms by quantitative real-time PCR, the impact of the soil microbial community and the oak on the bacterium-fungus interaction was investigated, and AcH 505 and P. croceum were visualized by scanning electron microscopy. It was observed that the presence of the soil microorganisms and the oak both affect the bacterium-fungus interaction, and that P. croceum enhances the growth of AcH 505. Chapter 2 presents a study with the oak, AcH 505 and the EM fungus P. croceum, enabling to disentangle the direct effect of the MHB on the oak from the indirect one via the EM symbiosis. The used approach was transcriptomic based on RNA sequencing. It was shown that i) differential gene expression occurred between root and the distant leaf tissues (local vs. systemic effects), different developmental stages and treatments, suggesting that oak specifically coordinates its gene expression patterns, and ii) that genes related to plant growth, defence and DNA modification were dominant among the differential expressed genes, suggesting that these processes play essential roles in both symbiotic interactions investigated. Chapter 3 represents a second transcriptome study, addressing how AcH 505 suppresses powdery mildew infection in oak by analysing RNA Sequencing data from singly- and coinoculated oaks. This study combined the systemic impact of the root associated bacterium with local effects of the leaf pathogen, thereby linking belowground and aboveground interactions. Systemic defence response is induced by the bacterium and further enhanced upon pathogen challenge, suggesting that on the leaf level, some bacterial effectors are recognized as harmful for the plant.

La rhizosphère est la zone étroite de sol soumise à l’influence des racines des plantes qui libèrent un mélange moléculaire complexe : les exsudats racinaires. Ils permettent à la plante de recruter son microbiote rhizosphérique qui joue un rôle clé dans sa croissance et sa résistance aux stress biotiques et abiotiques. Dans le cadre de l’agroécologie, la compréhension du dialogue moléculaire racines-microbiote pourrait permettre de promouvoir l’installation de rhizobactéries bénéfiques pour les plantes (PGPR) dans la rhizosphère. Lors de cette thèse, la capacité des exsudats racinaires de colza (Brassica napus), de pois (Pisum sativum) et de ray-grass (Lolium perenne) à attirer et nourrir trois PGPR (Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Pseudomonas fluorescens ATCC 17400 et Azospirillum brasilense Sp245) a été mesurée et comparée grâce à la définition d’un nouvel indicateur, le score de « love match ». Pour toutes ces bactéries, les exsudats de colza sont les plus attractifs et induisent la croissance la plus rapide, ceux de pois permettent la production de biomasse la plus élevée, tandis que ceux de ray-grass sont les moins efficaces. Si l’on compare les PGPR, P. fluorescens et A. brasilense semblent répondre plus efficacement aux exsudats racinaires que B. subtilis. L’analyse transcriptomique révèle quant à elle que B. subtilis régule l’expression de nombreux gènes en réponse aux exsudats racinaires, tandis que P. fluorescens semble déjà exprimer la plupart des gènes nécessaires à cette réponse. Ces résultats mettent en évidence la sélection spécifique des PGPR par la plante à travers ses exsudats racinaires, et pourraient aider à sélectionner les exsudats les plus efficaces pour promouvoir l'établissement de bioinoculants dans la rhizosphère
The rhizosphere is the narrow zone of soil under the influence of plant roots that release a complex molecular mixture: root exudates. They allow the plant to recruit its rhizosphere microbiota, which plays a key role in its growth and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. In the context of sustainable agriculture, understanding the molecular root-microbiota dialogue could help to promote the establishment of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) in the rhizosphere. In this thesis, the ability of root exudates from rapeseed (Brassica napus), pea (Pisum sativum) and ryegrass (Lolium perenne) to attract and feed three PGPR (Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Pseudomonas fluorescens ATCC 17400 and Azospirillum brasilense Sp245) was measured and compared by defining a new indicator, the « love match » score. For all bacteria, rapeseed exudates are the most attractive and induce the fastest growth, pea exudates allow the highest biomass production, while ryegrass exudates are the least effective. When comparing PGPR, P. fluorescens and A. brasilense seem to respond more efficiently to root exudates than B. subtilis. Transcriptomic analysis reveals that B. subtilis regulates the expression of many genes in response to root exudates, whereas P. fluorescens appears to already express most of the genes required for this response. These results highlight the specific selection of PGPR by the plant through its root exudates, and could help to select the most efficient exudates in order to promote the establishment of bioinoculants in the rhizosphere

INTRODUÇÃO: Poucos estudos têm focado as modificações fisiológicas que ocorrem no trato genital de mulheres menopausadas infectadas pelo HIV e sua associação com a excreção genital do vírus. Nesse estudo de corte transversal, comparou-se a excreção genital do HIV em mulheres menopausadas e em idade fértil em acompanhamento em um centro especializado em São Paulo, Brasil. Investigou-se também a associação entre a excreção genital de RNA de HIV e a viremia em ambos os grupos. Fatores associados com a intensidade da excreção genital de HIV também foram pesquisados, incluindo achados ginecológicos e marcadores de progressão da infecção por HIV. MÉTODOS: 146 mulheres infectadas pelo HIV [73 menopausadas (M)/73 em idade fértil (F)] foram selecionadas em Serviço de Extensão ao Atendimento de Pacientes com HIV/Aids Casa da Aids do Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP, São Paulo, Brasil. As mulheres menopausadas referiram tempo médio de 8,17 anos (DP=6 anos) de menopausa. A contagem de linfócitos T CD4+ foi obtida por citometria de fluxo e a quantificação do RNA do HIV no plasma e no lavado cervicovaginal (LCV) foi realizada por RT-PCR quantitativo, utilizando-se o kit Cobas Amplicor HIV-1 Monitor Test®, no método ultrasensível. Cloreto de lítio foi introduzido no tampão para obtenção do LCV e quantificado antes e depois da coleta do lavado, a fim de determinar o fator de diluição de cada amostra. A deteção do gene SRY por PCR também foi realizada a fim de eliminar amostras com eventual contaminação espermática. A prevalência de excreção genital foi estimada para ambos os grupos e os fatores associados à intensidade da excreção viral foram investigados, utilizando-se modelo de regressão linear múltipla. As variáveis com p<0,2 na análise bivariada foram incluídas na análise multivariada, assim como o grupo em estudo (M ou F). O modelo final incluiu fatores que se mostraram independentemente associados com a intensidade da excreção genital de HIV. RESULTADOS: A prevalência de excreção genital de HIV-RNA foi similar em ambos os grupos (M: 17,8%, IC 95% 9,8 28,5; F: 22%, IC 95% 13,1 33,1, p=0,678). Similarmente, a intensidade de excreção genital do HIV também não se mostrou diferente entre os grupos (mediana - M: 1,4log/mL; F: 1,4log/mL, p=0,587). A carga viral plasmática foi detectável em 34,2% das pacientes menopausadas (IC 95% 23,5 46,3) e em 42,5% entre as pacientes em idade fértil (IC 95% 31 54,6, p=0,395). Três pacientes (2 M/1 F) exibiram excreção genital de HIV-RNA na ausência de viremia detectável. Existe evidência de correlação entre a carga viral plasmática e a genital em ambos os grupos (rM: 0,658; rF: 0,684, p<0,01). Adicionalmente, o número de células CD4+ periféricas mostrou-se negativamente correlacionada à excreção genital do HIV em ambos os grupos (rM: -0,250; rF: -0,248, p<0,05). À análise multivariada, a carga viral plasmática mostrou-se independentemente associada à ocorrência de excreção genital do HIV em ambos os grupos (OR 4,03, IC 95% 2,52 6,45, p<0,001). Já a intensidade de excreção genital mostrou-se independentemente associada ao pH vaginal (p<0,001), concentração de TNF- no LCV (p=0,01), e à carga viral plasmática (p=0,001), todos com correlação positiva. CONCLUSÕES: Apesar das modificações significativas que ocorrem na mucosa vaginal da mulher menopausada, a excreção cervicovaginal do HIV parece não ser significativamente influenciada por esse estado. A carga viral plasmática e o número de células CD4+ periféricas estão correlacionadas com a excreção genital do vírus. A frequência de excreção genital mostrouse independentemente associada à intensidade de viremia. Além disso, o aumento do pH vaginal e evidência de inflamação genital, associada à concentração de TNF- no LCV, independentemente aumentam a intensidade de excreção genital nas mulheres estudadas.
BACKGROUND: Few studies have focused on physiological modifications that occur in the genital tract of HIV-infected postmenopausal women and their association with HIV cervicovaginal shedding. In this cross-sectional study we evaluated and compared HIV genital shedding among postmenopausal and fertile-aged women under care at a specialized center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, investigating the association between HIV-RNA shedding and HIV plasma viral loads in both groups. Factors associated with higher HIV shedding were also investigated, including gynaecological features and HIV disease progression markers. METHODS: 146 women living with HIV [73 postmenopausal (PM)/73 in fertile-aged (F)] were enrolled at the HIV Clinic, University of São Paulo Medical School, Brazil. Postmenopausal women referred a mean duration of 8.17y (SD=6y) since menopause. CD4+ cell counts were obtained by flow cytometry and HIV-RNA was quantified in plasma and in cervicovaginal lavages (CVL) by RT-PCR, using Cobas Amplicor HIV-1 Monitor Ultrasensitive Test. Lithium chloride was introduced into the CVL buffer and measured before and after CVL collection in order to determine the dilution factor for each specimen. SRY gene detection by PCR was also performed in all samples in order to rule out sperm contamination. Prevalence of HIV genital shedding was estimated for both groups and factors associated with the intensity of viral shedding were investigated, using a multiple linear regression model. Variables with p<0.2 in bivariate analysis were included in multivariate analysis, as well as the study group (PM and F). The final model included factors shown to be independently associated with intensity of HIV genital shedding. RESULTS: The prevalence of HIV-RNA genital shedding was similar in both groups. (PM: 17.8%, 95%CI 9.8 28.5; F: 22%, 95%CI 13.1 33.1, p=0.678). Likewise, the intensity of HIV shedding was shown not to differ between PM and F women (means - PM: 1.4log/mL; F: 1.4log/mL, p=0.587). Plasma viral loads were detectable in 34.2% of PM patients (95%CI 23.5 46.3), as compared to 42.5% among F women (95%CI 31 54.6) (p=0.395). Three patients (2 PM/1 F) exhibited HIV-RNA genital shedding in the absence of detectable viremia. We found evidence of correlation between HIV plasma viral load and HIV cervicovaginal shedding in both groups (rPM: 0.658; rF: 0.684, p<0.01). In addition, CD4+ cell counts were shown negatively correlated to HIV shedding in both groups (rPM: -0.250; rF: -0.248, p<0.05). In multivariate analysis, HIV plasma viral load was shown independently associated with occurrence of HIV genital shedding in both groups (OR 4.03, 95%CI 2.52 6.45, p<0.001). In addition, the intensity of HIV shedding was shown independently associated with vaginal pH (p<0.001), TNF- concentrations in CVL (p=0.01), and with HIV plasma viral loads (p=0.001), all of them with positive correlation. CONCLUSION: Despite the significant changes that occur in the vaginal mucosa of postmenopausal women, HIV cervicovaginal shedding does not seem to be significantly influenced by this state. Plasma viral loads and CD4+ cell counts are correlated to HIV genital shedding. The frequency of HIV genital shedding was shown independently associated with viremia intensity. Moreover, increased vaginal pH and evidence of genital inflammation associated with TNF- concentration independently enhanced the intensity of HIV shedding in postmenopausal and fertile-aged women.

Le développement de biofilms pose de sérieux problèmes dans le domaine marin et médical. Leur grande tolérance vis-à-vis d’agents chimiques utilisés habituellement (désinfectants, antibiotiques, biocides) rend leur éradication difficile. De plus, l’utilisation de molécules biocides est largement controversée, considérant leur impact environnemental catastrophique. Les recherches se sont concentrées sur des systèmes qui, par leur composition, limitent la biocontamination. Parmi eux, on trouve des systèmes amphiphiles pouvant être composés d’une matrice hydrophobe de polydiméthylsiloxane (PDMS) et d’un copolymère amphiphile PDMS-PEG. Malgré leur efficacité, ces systèmes sont remis en cause du fait de l’origine pétrochimique du PDMS. L’objectif de ce projet de thèse est de substituer le PDMS par un biopolymère, le poly(hydroxy alcanoate) (PHA). Un système a été formulé avec du PHA en tant que matrice hydrophobe et un copolymère PHA-PEG en tant qu’additif amphiphile. Deux types de PHA ont été utilisés dans cette étude, le PHBHV (PHA à courtes chaines) et le PHAmcl (PHA à moyennes chaines). Les revêtements formulés ont été caractérisés physiquement, chimiquement et mécaniquement. Puis leur capacité anti-adhésive, anti-biofilm et fouling- release ont été évaluées sur différents microorganismes. Deux bactéries pathogènes opportunistes, Staphylococcus aureus et Pseudomonas aeruginosa, une bactérie marine, Bacillus 4J6 et deux diatomées benthiques, Phaeodactylum tricornutum et Navicula perminuta. Enfin, afin de mieux comprendre le mécanisme moléculaire impliqué dans l’adhésion de S.aureus, des analyses transcriptomiques ont été réalisées
The development of biofilms causes serious problems in the marine and medical fields. Their high tolerance to commonly used chemical agents’ disinfectants, antibiotics, biocides) makes their eradication difficult. Moreover, the use of biocide molecules is widely controversial, considering their catastrophic environmental impact. Research has therefore focused on systems that, by their composition, limit biocontamination. Among them are amphiphilic systems that can be composed of a hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix and an amphiphilic PDMS-PEG copolymer. Despite their efficiency, these systems are questioned because of the petrochemical origin of PDMS. The objective of this thesis project is to substitute PDMS with a biopolymer, poly(hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA). A system was formulated with PHA as a hydrophobic matrix and a PHA-PEG copolymer as an amphiphilic additive. Two types of PHA were used in this study, PHBHV (short chain length) and PHAmcl (medium chain length). The formulated coatings were characterized physically, chemically and mechanically. Then their anti-adhesive, anti-biofilm and fouling-release capacities were evaluated on different microorganisms. Two opportunistic pathogenic bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a marine bacterium, Bacillus 4J6 and two benthic diatoms, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Navicula perminuta. Finally, in order to better understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the adhesion of S. aureus, transcriptomic analyses were performed

Le complexe d'espèces Ralstonia solanacearum (RSSC) est un pathogène de plantes très agressif qui affecte plus de 250 espèces végétales dont la tomate, la pomme de terre, le Pelargonium, le gingembre et le bananier. De plus, ce pathogène multi-hôtes est connu pour sa capacité d'adaptation rapide à de nouvelles plantes hôtes et à de nouveaux environnements. Afin de combattre ce pathogène, il est nécessaire de mieux connaitre les mécanismes moléculaires qui gouvernent ces capacités adaptatives. Les objectifs de cette thèse ont été (1) d'identifier les bases génétiques de l'adaptation d'une souche RSSC à un cultivar résistant, (2) d'analyser le rôle potentiel des modifications épigénétiques dans l'adaptation à l'hôte et (3) d'analyser l'impact de l'espèce végétale sur les modifications génétiques, transcriptomiques et épigénétiques dans les clones bactériens adaptés. Cette étude a été menée sur des clones générés par évolution expérimentale de la souche GMI1000 de RSSC après 300 générations de passages en série sur la tomate résistante 'Hawaii 7996', l'aubergine sensible 'Zebrina' et le haricot tolérant 'Blanc précoce'. Des tests de compétition avec le clone ancestral GMI1000 ont démontré que 95% des clones évolués sur Hawaii 7996 étaient mieux adaptés à la croissance dans cette espèce de tomate que le clone ancestral. L'analyse des séquences génomiques de ces clones adaptés a révélé entre 0 et 2 mutations par clone et nous avons démontré que ces mutations étaient des mutations adaptatives. L'analyse des transcriptomes des clones évolués sur Hawaii 7996, Zebrina et Haricot a révélé un chevauchement parmi les listes des gènes différentiellement exprimés, suggérant une convergence vers un recâblage global du réseau de régulation de la virulence. Deux régulateurs de transcription, HrpG, l'activateur du régulon du système de sécrétion de type III et EfpR, un régulateur global de la virulence et des fonctions métaboliques, sont apparus comme des nœuds clés du réseau de régulation qui sont fréquemment ciblés par des modifications génétiques ou potentiellement épigénétiques affectant leur expression. Des variations transcriptomiques significatives ont également été détectées dans des clones évolués n'ayant aucune mutation, suggérant ainsi un rôle probable des modifications épigénétiques dans l'adaptation. La comparaison des profils de méthylation de l'ADN entre les clones évolués et le clone ancestral a révélé entre 13 et 35 régions différentiellement méthylées (DMRs). Aucun impact de la plante hôte sur la liste des DMRs n'est apparu. Certaines de ces DMRs ciblaient des gènes qui ont été identifiés comme étant différentiellement exprimés entre les clones évolués et le clone ancestral. Ce résultat supporte l'hypothèse que les modifications épigénétiques régulent l'expression des gènes et pourraient jouer un rôle majeur dans l'adaptation de RSSC à de nouvelles plantes hôtes
The Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC) is a destructive plant pathogen that infects more than 250-plant species including tomato, potato, pelargonium, ginger and banana. In addition, this multihost pathogen is known for rapid adaptation to new plant species and new environments. In order to overcome this pathogen, it is important to understand the molecular mechanisms that govern host adaptation. The objectives of this thesis were (1) to decipher the genetic bases of adaptation of a RSSC strain to a resistant cultivar, (2) to investigate the potential role of epigenetic modifications in host adaptation and (3) to analyze to impact of the plant species on genetic, transcriptomic and epigenetic modifications in RSSC adapted clones. This study was conducted on clones generated by experimental evolution of GMI1000 RSSC strain after 300 generation of serial passages on the resistant tomato ‘Hawaii 7996’ plant, the susceptible eggplant ‘Zebrina’ and the tolerant plant Bean ‘Blanc precoce’. Competitive experiments with the GMI1000 ancestral clone demonstrated that 95% of the clones evolved on Hawaii 7996 were better adapted to the growth into this tomato plant than the ancestral clone. Genomic sequence analysis of these adapted clones found between 0 and 2 mutations per clone and we demonstrated that they were adaptive mutations. Transcriptome analysis of the Hawaii, Zebrina and Bean evolved clones revealed a convergence towards a global rewiring of the virulence regulatory network as evidenced by largely overlapping gene expression profiles. Two transcription regulators, HrpB, the activator of the type 3 secretion system regulon and EfpR, a global regulator of virulence and metabolic functions, emerged as key nodes of this regulatory network that were frequently targeted by either genetic or potential epigenetic modification affecting their expression. Significant transcriptomic variations were also detected in evolved clones showing no mutation, suggesting a potential role of epigenetic modifications in adaptation. Comparison of the DNA methylation profiles between the evolved clones and the ancestral clone revealed between 13 and 35 differentially methylated regions (DMRs). No impact of the host plant on the list of DMRs appeared. Some of these DMRs targeted genes that were identified to be differentially expressed between the evolved clones and the ancestral clone. This result supported the hypothesis that epigenetic modifications regulate gene expression and could play a major role in RSSC adaptation to new host plants

L’augmentation de température que subit la planète ces dernières décennies a de nombreuses conséquences dont la recrudescence de maladies infectieuses aussi bien chez l’homme que chez les animaux. Certaines populations de l’ormeau européen Haliotis tuberculata, vivant dans les zones les plus chaudes de Bretagne et de Normandie ont ainsi subi de très importantes mortalités depuis 1997, dues à la bactérie Vibrio harveyi. Cependant, certaines des populations les plus sévèrement touchées se sont aujourd’hui reconstruites et les mortalités semblent s’être arrêtées dans certaines de ces zones. La question se pose donc de l’apparition d’une résistance de l’ormeau face à cette maladie émergente. Pour répondre à cette question, les réponses à l’infection de plusieurs populations naturelles par cette bactérie ont été analysées. Une population présentant une forte résistance à la maladie a été identifiée.La voie d’entrée de la bactérie (ie. les branchies) a été identifiée comme jouant un rôle dans la résistance à l’infection. Par ailleurs, des infections successives ont permis de démontrer un effet d’amorçage immunitaire. Suite à une première exposition, une protection durant jusqu’à deux mois intervient contre l’effet d’inhibition de la phagocytose, provoquée normalement par une infection à V. harveyi. La différence d’expression de gènes des hémocytes d’ormeaux sensibles et résistants a été quantifiée par RNAseq pendant une infection expérimentale. Cette comparaison a montré une reconnaissance plus efficace du pathogène chez les résistants, par des récepteurs tels que les TLR ou les PGRP. La forte surexpression chez la population résistante, d’un gène impliqué dans la synthèse de mucine qui est l’un des composants principaux du mucus renforce l’hypothèse d’une forte implication des branchies dans la résistance. Enfin, une analyse in silico des séquences obtenues en RNAseq a permis d’apporter des preuves de l’existence d’un système de méthylation de l’ADN chez H. tuberculata ainsi qu’une possible implication de ce système dans l’adaptation de l’ormeau à son milieu
Increasing global temperatures have numerous consequences for marine ecosystems, including the rise of infectious diseases. Certain populations of the European abalone Haliotis tucerculata have suffered from severe and recurrent mortality since 1997 due to infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio harveyi, particularly in areas with higher average summer temperatures. Given the spatial heterogeneity in mortalities, and the observation that the historically most severely impacted populations have recovered in recent years, the question of the emergence of resistance to the disease was addressed. The mortality rate in response to infection by V. harveyi was quantified experimentally in abalone originating from three natural populations, and one population exhibiting resistance to the disease was identified. In a subsequent experiment, the immune response of abalone was compared between infected individuals from a resistant and from a susceptible population. The portal of entry of the bacterium (ie. gills) was identified as playing a role in resistance. Furthermore, successive exposures of abalone to the bacterium demonstrated an immune priming effect, such that following a first exposure, phagocytosis was no longer inhibited by infection with V. harveyi, and that this improved protection against the disease lasted for at least two months. Differences in gene expression was quantified by RNAseq in the hemocytes of resistant and susceptible abalone following exposure to the pathogen. This comparison showed that resistant abalone had more effective recognition of the bacterium by receptors as the TLR or PGRP. The substantial over-expression of a gene involved in the synthesis of mucin, the main component of mucus, (UDP-GalNAC) in the resistant population, supports the interpretation of a strong involvement of gills in the resistance. Finally, an in-silico analysis of the sequences obtained from RNAseq indicate the existence of a DNA methylation system in H. tuberculata and suggested an involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in the adaptation of abalone to its environment

Les plantes se développent et évoluent en interaction avec les organismes du sol. L'impact des vers de terre sur la croissance des plantes, généralement positif, a été attribué à des modifications physiques, chimiques ou biochimiques du sol, souvent sans démonstration rigoureuse. Dans ce travail, les techniques développées en sciences du végétal (culture in vitro, utilisation de mutants et transcriptomique) ont été utilisées afin de comprendre les mécanismes à l'origine de l'effet des vers de terre sur les plantes. Nos résultats apportent de nouvelles connaissances fondamentales: (1) la production de molécules-signal à l'intérieur des déjections de vers de terre a un impact significatif sur la croissance d'Oryza sativa et Lolium perenne. (2) Ces molécules agissent sur la voie de signalisation fortement liée à l'auxine, comme suggéré par l'effet significatif du ver de terre sur la croissance du double mutant d'A. thaliana aux1-7;axr4-2. (3) L'abondance de ces molécules-signal en présence de vers de terre pourrait être liée à la stimulation de certaines populations bactériennes capables de synthétiser de l'auxine. (4) Le ver de terre induit une accumulation de transcrits pour des gènes sous contrôle de l'acide jasmonique et de l'éthylène. Ces hormones sont notamment impliquées dans un mécanisme de résistance systémique induite (ISR), connu pour être induit par certaines rhizobactéries promotrices de la croissance des plantes. Enfin, (5) le piétin échaudage, maladie due à un champignon pathogène, déclenche chez le blé (Triticum aestivum) une réaction d'hypersensibilité et une modification de la signalisation hormonale, qui sont considérées comme des mécanismes de contrôle du métabolisme de la plante qui facilitent l'infection du pathogène. La sévérité de cette maladie est réduite en présence de vers de terre. La synthèse de ces résultats indique que les vers de terre, comme d'autres organismes du sol, modifient l'équilibre hormonal de la plante. L'homéostasie hormonale apparaît comme un élément incontournable pour prédire l'issue des interactions multiples que les plantes entretiennent avec les organismes du sol
Plants develop and evolve in interaction with soil organisms. The impact of earthworms, likely positive, has been attributed to modifications of physical, chemical or biochemical soil properties, without rigorous demonstration. In this work, techniques developed in plant science (in vitro culture, use of mutant plants and trancriptomic analysis) were used to understand the mechanism involved in the effect of earthworms on plants. Our results bring new fundamental knowledge: (1) production of signal-molecules within earthworm dejections has a positive impact on the growth of Oryza sativa and Lolium perenne. (2) These molecules act on auxin signaling, as suggested by the positive impact of the earthworm on the growth of A. thaliana double mutant aux1-7;axr4-2. (3) The abundance of these signal-molecules in presence of the earthworms could be related to the stimulation of bacterial communities able to produce auxin. (4) Earthworms induce an accumulation of gene transcripts known to be under control of jasmonic acid and ethylene. These two hormones are most notably involved in the defense mechanism called induced systemic resistance (ISR), known to be induced by plant growth promoting rhizobacteria. Finally, (5) Take-all disease, due to a pathogenic fungus, induced in wheat (Triticum aestivum) a hypersensitive response and a modification on hormone signaling, which are known as manipulations of plant metabolism in a way that facilitates pathogen infection. The severity of take-all disease was alleviated in the presence of earthworms. Synthesis of these results showed that earthworms, like other soil organisms, modify the hormone balance in the plant. Hormone homeostasis appeared to be an important element to predict the issue of the multiple interactions that plants established with soil organisms

Lactobacillus sakei est une bactérie lactique qui fait partie de la flore dominante de la viande. Elle possède un équipement génétique inhabituel chez les bactéries lactiques, dédié à l'utilisation du fer : des transporteurs et 3 régulateurs de transcription fer-dépendants de la famille Fur. Nous avons i) évalué la capacité de L. sakei à utiliser les sources de fer de son environnement en développant une méthode de microanalyse du fer par microscopie (EELS) et spectrométrie de masse (Nano-SIMS), ii) réalisé une étude fonctionnelle des 3 régulateurs Fur-like et iii) réalisé une analyse transcriptomique globale en présence de transferrine ou d'hème. Ce travail a montré que le fer sous forme complexé, transferrine ou hème, était internalisé et améliorait la survie de L. sakei. Nous avons montré que la catalase hème-dépendante n'est pas l'acteur principal de cette survie car un mutant ΔkatA survit comme la souche sauvage en présence d'hème. Nos travaux ont montré aussi que le fer et l'hème induisent des réponses globales différentes. L'hème a un effet protecteur alors que le fer induit plus de stress. Nous avons mis en évidence que les 3 régulateurs Fur-like sont fonctionnellement distincts. Le régulateur Mur est impliqué dans l'homéostasie du manganèse, le PerR régule des gènes impliqués dans la réponse au stress oxydant et le Fur est impliqué dans la séquestration du fer, la morphologie des cellules et la résistance au stress. Cette étude montre que le fer et l'hème conduisent à des réponses cellulaires différentes chez L. sakei et indique que ce métabolisme pourrait être un facteur important pour la compétitivité dans l'écosystème carné.

The sequencing of several ant genomes within the last six years open new research avenues for understanding not only the genetic basis of social species but also the complex systems such as immune responses in general. Similar to other social insects, ants live in cooperative colonies, often in high densities and with genetically identical or closely related individuals. The contact behaviours and crowd living conditions allow the disease to spread rapidly through colonies. Nevertheless, ants can efficiently combat infections by using diverse and effective immune mechanisms. However, the components of the immune system of carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus and also the factors in bacteria that facilitate infection are not well understood. To form a better view of the immune repository and study the C. floridanus immune responses against the bacteria, experimental data from Illumina sequencing and mass-spectrometry (MS) data of haemolymph in normal and infectious conditions were analysed and integrated with the several bioinformatics approaches. Briefly, the tasks were accomplished in three levels. First, the C. floridanus genome was re-annotated for the improvement of the existing annotation using the computational methods and transcriptomics data. Using the homology based methods, the extensive survey of literature, and mRNA expression profiles, the immune repository of C. floridanus were established. Second, large-scale protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and signalling network of C. floridanus were reconstructed and analysed and further the infection induced functional modules in the networks were detected by mapping of the expression data over the networks. In addition, the interactions of the immune components with the bacteria were identified by reconstructing inter-species PPIs networks and the interactions were validated by literature. Third, the stage-specific MS data of larvae and worker ants were analysed and the differences in the immune response were reported. Concisely, all the three omics levels resulted to multiple findings, for instance, re-annotation and transcriptome profiling resulted in the overall improvement of structural and functional annotation and detection of alternative splicing events, network analysis revealed the differentially expressed topologically important proteins and the active functional modules, MS data analysis revealed the stage specific differences in C. floridanus immune responses against bacterial pathogens. Taken together, starting from re-annotation of C. floridanus genome, this thesis provides a transcriptome and proteome level characterization of ant C. floridanus, particularly focusing on the immune system responses to pathogenic bacteria from a biological and a bioinformatics point of view. This work can serve as a model for the integration of omics data focusing on the immuno-transcriptome of insects
Das Sequenzieren mehrerer Ameisen Genome innerhalb der letzten 6 Jahre eröffnete neue Forschungswege, um nicht nur die genetische Grundlade sozialer Arten, sondern auch komplexere Systeme wie generelle Immunantworten zu untersuchen. Ähnlich zu anderen sozialen Insekten leben Ameisen in Kolonien, oft mit einer sehr hohen Dichte mit genetisch übereinstimmenden oder nah verwandten Individuen. Das Sozialverhalten und die engen Lebensumstände führen dazu, dass sich Krankheiten in Kolonien schnell ausbreiten können. Dennoch können Ameisen mit der Nutzung ihrer komplexen Immunsystemmechanismen Infektionen effektiv abwehren. Die Zusammensetzung des Immunsystems der Rossameise Camponotus floridanus (C. floridanus) und die Faktoren der Bakterien, welche die Infektionen verursachen sind noch nicht gut untersucht. Um einen besseren Überblick über die verschiedenen Gruppen der Immun- Gene zu bekommen und um die Immunantworten von C. floridanus gegen Bakterien zu untersuchen haben wir experimentelle Daten der Illumina Sequenzierung und der Massenspektrometrie (MS) aus der Hämolymphe unter normalen und unter infizierten Bedingungen analysiert und über verschiedene bioinformatische Ansätzen zusammengefasst. Die Aufgabe wurde in drei Ebenen unterteilt. Zuerst wurde das Genom von C. floridanus neu annotiert, die Verbesserung der existierenden Annotation wurde rechnerisch und mit Transkriptom- Daten erreicht. Mit der Nutzung der auf Homologie- basierenden Methoden, der umfassenden Überprüfung der Literatur und der Nutzung von mRNA Genexpressionsanalysen wurde für C. floridanus dieser Überblick erstellt. Anschließend wurden größere Protein- Protein- Interaktionen (PPI) und Signalnetzwerke von C. floridanus rekonstruiert und analysiert und daraufhin wurden die Infektions-induzierten funktionalen Module im Netzwerk entdeckt und die Expressionsdaten über Netzwerke abgebildet. Zusätzlich wurden die Anteile der Immunantwort bei der Interaktion mit Bakterien mittels der Rekonstruktion von zwischenartlichen PPI Netzwerken identifiziert und diese Interaktionen wurden mit Literaturwerten validiert. In der dritten und letzten Phase wurden Daten der Stadium- spezifischen Massenspektrometrie (MS) von Larven- und Arbeiterameisen analysiert und die Unterschiede in den Immunantworten aufgezeichnet. Zusammengefasst lieferten alle drei Omiks- Ebenen jeweils viele Ergebnisse, zum Beispiel führte die neue Annotation und das Transkription- Profil zu einer generellen Verbesserung der strukturellen und funktionalen Annotation und dem Aufspüren von alternativen Splicing- Ereignissen. Die Netzwerkanalyse deckte die unterschiedlich exprimierten topologisch wichtigen Proteine und die aktiven funktionalen Module auf, die Analyse der MS- Daten erbrachte Ergebnisse über die Stadium- spezifischen Unterschiede in der Immunantwort von C. floridanus gegen bakterielle Pathogene. Rundum, beginnend mit der neuen Annotation des Genoms von C. floridanus stellt diese Arbeit eine Transkriptom- und Protein Charakterisierung der Ameise C. floridanus dar. Besonders lag der Fokus auf die Antworten des Immunsystems auf Pathogene Bakterien aus biologischer- und bioinformatischer Sicht. Diese Arbeit kann als Vorlage für die Integration von Omiks Daten dienen, welche sich auf die Immun- Transkriptome von Insekten fokussieren

This research examines three potential mechanisms by which bacteria can adapt to different temperatures: changes in strain-level population structure, gene regulation and particle colonization. For the first two mechanisms, I utilize bacterial strains from the Vibrionaceae family due to their ease of culturability, ubiquity in coastal environments and status as a model system for marine bacteria. I first examine vibrio seasonal dynamics in temperate, coastal water and compare the thermal performance of strains that occupy different thermal environments. Our results suggest that there are tradeoffs in adaptation to specific temperatures and that thermal specialization can occur at a very fine phylogenetic scale. The observed thermal specialization over relatively short evolutionary time-scales indicates that few genes or cellular processes may limit expansion to a different thermal niche. I then compare the genomic and transcriptional changes associated with thermal adaptation in closely-related vibrio strains under heat and cold stress. The two vibrio strains have very similar genomes and overall exhibit similar transcriptional profiles in response to temperature stress but their temperature preferences are determined by differential transcriptional responses in shared genes as well as temperature-dependent regulation of unique genes. Finally, I investigate the temporal dynamics of particle-attached and free-living bacterial community in coastal seawater and find that microhabitats exert a stronger forcing on microbial communities than environmental variability, suggesting that particle-attachment could buffer the impacts of environmental changes and particle-associated communities likely respond to the presence of distinct eukaryotes rather than commonly-measured environmental parameters. Integrating these results will offer new perspectives on the mechanisms by which bacteria respond to seasonal temperature changes as well as potential adaptations to climate change-driven warming of the surface oceans.

Dissertation

The evolutionary success of insects is believed to be at least partially facilitated by symbioses between insects and prokaryotes. Bacterial endosymbionts confer various fitness advantages to their hosts, for example by providing nutrients lacking from the insects’ diet thereby enabling the inhabitation of new ecological niches. The Florida carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus harbours endosymbiotic bacteria of the genus Blochmannia. These primary endosymbionts mainly reside in the cytoplasm of bacteriocytes, specialised cells interspersed into the midgut tissue, but they were also found in oocytes which allows their vertical transmission. The social lifestyle of C. floridanus may facilitate the rapid spread of infections amongst genetically closely related animals living in huge colonies. Therefore, the ants require an immune system to efficiently combat infections while maintaining a “chronic” infection with their endosymbionts. In order to investigate the immune repertoire of the ants, the Illumina sequencing method was used. The previously published genome sequence of C. floridanus was functionally re-annotated and 0.53% of C. floridanus proteins were assigned to the gene ontology (GO) term subcategory “immune system process”. Based on homology analyses, genes encoding 510 proteins with possible immune function were identified. These genes are involved in microbial recognition and immune signalling pathways but also in cellular defence mechanisms, such as phagocytosis and melanisation. The components of the major signalling pathways appear to be highly conserved and the analysis revealed an overall broad immune repertoire of the ants though the number of identified genes encoding pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is comparatively low. Besides three genes coding for homologs of thioester-containing proteins (TEPs), which have been shown to act as opsonins promoting phagocytosis in other insects, six genes encoding the AMPs defesin-1 and defensin-2, hymenoptaecin, two tachystatin-like peptides and one crustin-like peptide are present in the ant genome. Although the low number of known AMPs in comparison to 13 AMPs in the honey bee Apis mellifera and 46 AMPs in the wasp Nasonia vitripennis may indicate a less potent immune system, measures summarised as external or social immunity may enhance the immune repertoire of C. floridanus, as it was discussed for other social insects. Also, the hymenoptaecin multipeptide precursor protein may be processed to yield seven possibly bioactive peptides. In this work, two hymenoptaecin derived peptides were heterologously expressed and purified. The preliminary antimicrobial activity assays indicate varying bacteriostatic effects of different hymenoptaecin derived peptides against Escherichia coli D31 and Staphylococcus aureus which suggests a functional amplification of the immune response further increasing the antimicrobial potency of the ants. Furthermore, 257 genes were differentially expressed upon immune challenge of C. floridanus and most of the immune genes showing differential expression are involved in recognition of microbes or encode immune effectors rather than signalling components. Additionally, genes coding for proteins involved in storage and metabolism were downregulated upon immune challenge suggesting a trade-off between two energy-intensive processes in order to enhance effectiveness of the immune response. The analysis of gene expression via qRT-PCR was used for validation of the transcriptome data and revealed stage-specific immune gene regulation. Though the same tendencies of regulation were observed in larvae and adults, expression of several immune-related genes was generally more strongly induced in larvae. Immune gene expression levels depending on the developmental stage of C. floridanus are in agreement with observations in other insects and might suggest that animals from different stages revert to individual combinations of external and internal immunity upon infection. The haemolymph proteome of immune-challenged ants further established the immune-relevance of several proteins involved in classical immune signalling pathways, e.g. PRRs, extracellularly active proteases of the Toll signalling pathway and effector molecules such as AMPs, lysozymes and TEPs. Additionally, non-canonical proteins with putative immune function were enriched in immune-challenged haemolymph, e.g. Vitellogenins, NPC2-like proteins and Hemocytin. As known from previous studies, septic wounding also leads to the upregulation of genes involved in stress responses. In the haemolymph, proteins implicated in protein stabilisation and in the protection against oxidative stress and insecticides were enriched upon immune challenge. In order to identify additional putative immune effectors, haemolymph peptide samples from immune-challenged larvae and adults were analysed. The analysis in this work focussed on the identification of putative peptides produced via the secretory pathway as previously described for neuropeptides of C. floridanus. 567 regulated peptides derived from 39 proteins were identified in the larval haemolymph, whereas 342 regulated peptides derived from 13 proteins were found in the adult haemolymph. Most of the peptides are derived from hymenoptaecin or from putative uncharacterised proteins. One haemolymph peptide of immune-challenged larvae comprises the complete amino acid sequence of a predicted peptide derived from a Vitellogenin. Though the identified peptide lacks similarities to any known immune-related peptide, it is a suitable candidate for further functional analysis. To establish a stable infection with the endosymbionts, the bacteria have to be transmitted to the next generation of the ants. The vertical transmission of B. floridanus is guaranteed by bacterial infestation of oocytes. This work presents the first comprehensive and detailed description of the localisation of the bacterial endosymbionts in C. floridanus ovaries during oogenesis. Whereas the most apical part of the germarium, which contains the germ-line stem cells, is not infected by the bacteria, small somatic cells in the outer layers of each ovariole were found to be infected in the lower germarium. Only with the beginning of cystocyte differentiation, endosymbionts are exclusively transported from follicle cells into the growing oocytes, while nurse cells were never infected with B. floridanus. This infestation of the oocytes by bacteria very likely involves exocytosis-endocytosis processes between follicle cells and the oocytes. A previous study suggested a down-modulation of the immune response in the midgut tissue which may promote endosymbiont tolerance. Therefore, the expression of several potentially relevant immune genes was analysed in the ovarial tissue by qRT-PCR. The relatively low expression of genes involved in Toll and IMD signalling, and the high expression of genes encoding negative immune regulators, such as PGRP-LB, PGRP-SC2, and tollip, strongly suggest that a down-modulation of the immune response may also facilitate endosymbiont tolerance in the ovaries and thereby contribute to their vertical transmission. Overall, the present thesis improves the knowledge about the immune repertoire of C. floridanus and provides new candidates for further functional analyses. Moreover, the involvement of the host immune system in maintaining a “chronic” infection with symbiotic bacteria was confirmed and extended to the ovaries
Der evolutionäre Erfolg von Insekten wird zumindest teilweise Symbiosen zwischen Insekten und Prokaryonten zugeschrieben. Dabei übertragen bakterielle Symbionten verschiedenste Fitnessvorteile an ihre Wirte. Beispielsweise ermöglicht die Bereitstellung von Nährstoffen, welche in der Nahrung des Insekts fehlen, die Erschließung neuer ökologischer Nischen. Die Florida Rossameise Camponotus floridanus trägt endosymbiontische Bakterien der Gattung Blochmannia. Diese primären Endosymbionten kommen hauptsächlich im Zytoplasma von spezialisierten Zellen des Mitteldarms, den sogenannten Bakteriozyten, vor. Blochmannien wurden aber auch in Oozyten und Eiern gefunden, was ihre vertikale Übertragung an Individuen der nächsten Generation ermöglicht. Als soziale Insekten leben C. floridanus in großen Kolonien von nah verwandten Individuen. Ihre Lebensweise begünstigt möglicherweise die schnelle Ausbreitung von Infektionen, weshalb erwartet werden müsste, dass die Ameisen ein effizientes Immunsystem besitzen. Gleichzeitig muss jedoch die „chronische“ Infektion mit den bakteriellen Symbionten aufrechterhalten werden. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde das Immunrepertoire der Ameisen mittels Illumina Sequenzierung charakterisiert. Zunächst wurde das vor kurzem publizierte Genom von C. floridanus funktionell re-annotiert. Dabei wurden 0.53% der annotierten Proteine der GO-Unterkategorie “Prozesse des Immunsystems” zugeordnet. Basierend auf Homologieanalysen wurden Gene identifiziert, die für 510 Immunproteine kodieren. Die Genprodukte spielen eine Rolle bei der Erkennung von Mikroben und in den Signalwegen des Immunsystems, sind jedoch auch an Prozessen der zellulären Immunantwort, wie beispielsweise Phagozytose und Melanisierung, beteiligt. Dabei sind Komponenten der Hauptsignalwege hoch konserviert. Obwohl die Anzahl der identifizierten Proteine, die Fremdorganismen erkennen (PRRs), und die Anzahl an antimikrobiellen Peptiden (AMPs) vergleichsweise gering ist, verfügt C. floridanus insgesamt über ein umfangreiches Immunrepertoire. Neben drei Genen, die für Thioester-enthaltende Proteine (TEPs) kodieren und wie in anderen Insekten möglicherweise eine Rolle als Opsonine bei der Phagozytose spielen, wurden sechs AMP-Gene identifiziert. Diese kodieren für Defesin-1 und Defensin-2, Hymenoptaecin, zwei Tachystatin-ähnliche und ein Crustin-ähnliches Peptid. Die geringe Anzahl an bekannten AMPs im Vergleich zur Honigbiene Apis mellifera (13 AMPs) und Wespe Nasonia vitripennis (46 AMPs) könnte ein möglicherweise geringeres Potential des Immunsystems anzeigen. Allerdings könnten zusätzliche Maßnahmen, die unter dem Begriff „Soziale Immunität“ zusammengefasst werden, das Immunrepertoire von C. floridanus ergänzen, wie es schon für andere Insekten diskutiert wurde. Zudem könnten durch proteolytische Prozessierung des Hymenoptaecin Multipeptid Präkursormoleküls sieben mögliche antimikrobielle Peptide freigesetzt werden. Für die vorliegende Arbeit wurden zwei verschiedene dieser Hymenoptaecin Peptide heterolog exprimiert und aufgereinigt. Die vorläufige funktionelle Charakterisierung der Peptide zeigt, dass diese Peptide möglicherweise bakteriostatische Wirkung mit einem unterschiedlichen Wirkspektrum gegen Escherichia coli D31 und Staphylococcus aureus entfalten. Dies erlaubt die Annahme, dass die Expression des Hymenoptaecins zu einer funktionellen Amplifikation der Immunantwort führt und das Immunrepertoire der Ameisen erweitert. Nach Injektion von bakteriellem Material in die Ameisen wurde die Expression von 257 Genen reguliert. Viele dieser Gene kodieren für Proteine zur Erkennung von Pathogenen oder kodieren für Effektoren des Immunsystems. Komponenten der Signalwege zeigten dagegen kaum Veränderungen in ihrer Expression auf. Außerdem zeigten Gene, die für Speicherproteine oder Proteine des Metabolismus kodieren, generell eine geringere Expression nach Stimulierung des Immunsystems auf. Dies lässt einen Ausgleich zwischen zwei energieintensiven Prozessen vermuten, um eine effektive Immunantwort zu ermöglichen. Darüber hinaus zeigt die Validierung der Expressionsdaten mittels qRT-PCR eine Abhängigkeit der Expression mehrerer Gene vom Entwicklungsstadium der Ameisen auf. Generell wurden die gleichen Tendenzen in der Regulation der Expression dieser Gene nach Immunstimulierung beobachtet. Allerdings wurde die Expression mehrerer immunrelevanter Gene in Larven weit stärker induziert als in Adulten. Wie es auch schon für andere Insekten gezeigt wurde, scheinen C. floridanus Larven und Arbeiterinnen auf individuelle Kombinationen externer und interner Immunfaktoren zurückzugreifen. Die vorher beschriebenen Transkriptomdaten wurden durch die Charakterisierung des Hämolymph-Proteoms von C. floridanus nach Immunstimulation ergänzt, wodurch die Immunrelevanz vieler Faktoren auch auf Proteinebene bestätigt werden konnte. Beispielsweise wurden zahlreiche PRRs und extrazellulär aktive Proteasen des Toll-Signalwegs, aber auch Immuneffektoren wie AMPs, Lysozyme und TEPs in der Hämolymphe identifiziert. Zusätzlich führte die Immunstimulation in Larven und Adulten zur Anreicherung nicht-kanonischer Proteine mit möglicher Immunfunktion, beispielsweise Vitellogenine, NPC2-ähnliche Proteine und Hemocytin. Aus einer früheren Arbeit ist bekannt, dass septische Verwundungen zusätzlich die transkriptionelle Aktivierung von Genen der Stressantwort hervorrufen können. So wurden auch in der Hämolymphe Proteine entdeckt, die eine Rolle bei der Stabilisierung von Proteinen, und dem Schutz gegen oxidativen Stress und Insektizide spielen. Zur Identifizierung weiterer möglicher Peptideffektoren wurden Hämolymphpeptid-Proben von immunstimulierten Larven und Adulten analysiert. Der Fokus der Analyse lag dabei auf der Identifizierung von Peptiden, die auf dem sekretorischen Weg gebildet werden, wie es zuvor für Neuropeptide von C. floridanus beschrieben worden war. 567 differentiell regulierte Peptide, die von 39 Proteinen abstammen, wurden in Larvenhämolymphe identifiziert, wohingegen in der Hämolymphe von Adulttieren 342 derartige Peptide, die 13 Proteinen zugeordnet werden können, gefunden wurden. Die meisten dieser Peptide können Hymenoptaecin oder bisher noch nicht charakterisierte Proteinen zugeordnet werden. Jedoch wurde ein Peptid in larvaler Hämolymphe identifiziert, dessen Aminosäuresequenz vollständig mit der Sequenz eines vorhergesagten, von Vitellogenin stammenden Peptids übereinstimmt. Weil dieses Peptid keine Ähnlichkeiten zu anderen bereits charakterisierten antimikrobiellen Peptiden aufweist, stellt es einen geeigneten Kandidaten für weitere funktionelle Analysen dar. Die bakterielle Infektion von Oozyten ermöglicht die transovariale Übertragung von B. floridanus und ermöglicht damit die Etablierung einer stabilen Infektion in der nächsten Wirtsgeneration. Die vorliegende Arbeit beinhaltet die erste umfassende und detaillierte Beschreibung der Lokalisation bakterieller Endosymbionten in Ovarien von C. floridanus. Im apikalen Germarium, in welchem sich die Keimbahn-Stammzellen befinden, liegt noch keine bakterielle Infektion des Gewebes vor. In späteren Segmenten des Germariums jedoch können Blochmannien das erste Mal in kleinen somatischen Zellen der äußeren Schicht jeder Ovariole detektiert werden. Mit beginnender Zystozytendifferenzierung werden die Endosymbionten von Follikelzellen ausschließlich in die heranwachsenden Oozyten transportiert, wobei sehr wahrscheinlich Exozytose-Endozytose-Prozesse involviert sind. Nährzellen zeigen zu keinem Zeitpunkt während der Oogenese eine bakterielle Infektion auf. Da in einer früheren Studie vorgeschlagen wurde, dass eine signifikant reduzierte Anregung der Immunantwort im Mitteldarmgewebe zur Toleranz der Endosymbionten beitragen könnte, wurde auch die Expression ausgewählter Immungene in den Ovarien durch qRT-PCR untersucht. Die relativ geringe Expression von Genen des Toll- und des IMD-Signalwegs und die zusätzlich vergleichsweise starke Genexpression negativer Regulatoren des Immunsystems, wie PGRP-LB, PGRP-SC2 und tollip, sind Indikatoren einer reduzierten Immunantwort in den Ovarien von C. floridanus. Wie schon für den Mitteldarm der Tiere vorgeschlagen, könnte dies möglicherweise sowohl zur Toleranz von Blochmannia als auch zur vertikalen Übertragung der Endosymbionten beitragen. Die vorliegende Doktorarbeit erweitert das Wissen über das Immunrepertoire von C. floridanus und es konnten vielversprechende Kandidaten für weitere funktionelle Analysen von möglichen Immunfaktoren identifiziert werden. Darüber hinaus konnten weitere Hinweise auf die Bedeutung von Immunfaktoren der Ameisen bei der Toleranz gegenüber den symbiontischen Bakterien gefunden und auf die Ovarien der Tiere ausgeweitet werden

Deep-sea corals have long been regarded as cold-water coral; however a reevaluation of their habitat limitations has been suggested after the discovery of deep-sea coral in the Red Sea where temperatures exceed 20˚C. To gain further insight into the biology of deep-sea corals at these temperatures, the work in this PhD employed a holotranscriptomic approach, looking at coral animal host and bacterial symbiont gene expression in Dendrophyllia sp., Eguchipsammia fistula, and Rhizotrochus sp. sampled from the deep Red Sea. Bacterial community composition was analyzed via amplicon-based 16S surveys and cultured bacterial strains were subjected to bioprospecting in order to gauge the pharmaceutical potential of coralassociated microbes. Coral host transcriptome data suggest that coral can employ mitochondrial hypometabolism, anaerobic glycolysis, and surface cilia to enhance mass transport rates to manage the low oxygen and highly oligotrophic Red Sea waters. In the microbial community associated with these corals, ribokinases and retron-type reverse transcriptases are abundantly expressed. In its first application to deep-sea coral associated microbial communities, 16S-based next-generation sequencing found that a single operational taxonomic unit can comprise the majority of sequence reads and that a large number of low abundance populations are present, which cannot be visualized with first generation sequencing. Bioactivity testing of selected bacterial isolates was surveyed over 100 cytological parameters with high content screening, covering several major organelles and key proteins involved in a variety of signaling cascades. Some of these cytological profiles were similar to those of several reference pharmacologically active compounds, which suggest that the bacteria isolates produce compounds with similar mechanisms of action as the reference compounds. The sum of this work offers several mechanisms by which Red Sea deep-sea corals cope with environmental conditions in which no other deep-sea corals have yet to be reported. These deep-sea coral are associated with rich microbial communities, which produce molecules that induce bioactivity. The aggregate of this work provides direction for future research of Red Sea deep-sea coral and highlights the potential pharmacological benefit of conserving these species and their unique ecosystem.

Transcription and translation are the two most important central mechanisms to control gene regulation in living organism. Although these two mechanisms have been studied intensively for last several decades, it is still not clear how all the information encoded on genomic DNA is converted to mRNA and proteins, the molecular functional components that change the characteristics of cells, depending on their needs. Here, I investigated the gene regulation of opportunistic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, using recently developed high-throughput techniques, microarray for transcriptomics and LC-MS/MS for proteomics. By analyzing transcriptome of 17 strains isolated over time from three individuals with cystic fibrosis, I identified 24 genes showing significant expression changes consistently across all strains, as evidence of parallel evolution of common traits that were beneficial in establishing chronic infection. Also, by analyzing proteome and transcriptome of two reference Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, PAO1 and PA14, under growth condition mimicking in vivo nutrition environment in cystic fibrosis patients, I revealed that protein abundances are less correlated than mRNA abundance between them, and many proteins known as virulence factors showed different abundances only in protein level, demonstrating that post-transcriptional regulation is important to understand pathogenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To boost sensitivity both in identification and quantification in shotgun proteomics, I also created a novel integrative database search algorithm, and released freely available software package termed in MSblender. These results would be valuable information for the research community to understand the regulatory mechanism of gene expression both in transcription and translation, especially related to infectious diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria. Also, I present an integrative analysis method would be generally beneficial to extract more information from conventionally used shotgun proteomics experiments.
text

Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonokok), sklasyfikowana przez Światową Organizację Zdrowia jako „patogen priorytetowy”, jest obligatoryjnym patogenem człowieka i czynnikiem etiologicznym rzeżączki. Pomimo wzrastającej wiedzy dotyczącej patogenezy N. gonorrhoeae, istotne aspekty interakcji tej bakterii z gospodarzem wciąż pozostają nieznane, co znacząco utrudnia opracowanie skutecznej terapii przeciwko temu patogenowi. Celem niniejszej pracy było poznanie: zmian zachodzących w ludzkich komórkach nabłonkowych na skutek infekcji N. gonorrhoeae oraz wpływu czynników molekularnych (białek MutL i MutS systemu naprawy DNA N. gonorrhoeae) i środowiskowych (obecność komensalnej bakterii Lactobacillus crispatus i jej białek enolazy i syntetazy glutaminowej) na oddziaływanie N. gonorrhoeae z ludzkimi komórkami nabłonkowymi. Przeprowadzona w niniejszej pracy analiza transkryptomu ludzkich komórek nabłonkowych zainfekowanych N. gonorrhoeae, w oparciu o wyniki uzyskane z wykorzystaniem techniki RNA-Seq, wykazała zmiany w ekspresji 304 genów, w komórkach zainfekowanych N. gonorrhoeae w porównaniu do komórek niezainfekowanych. Geny, których ekspresja zmieniła się w ludzkich komórkach nabłonkowych na skutek infekcji N. gonorrhoeae, przypisane zostały do procesów związanych z regulacją ekspresji genów oraz odpowiedzią immunologiczną. Wykazano również zmiany w ekspresji genów kodujących białka zaangażowane w regulację cyklu dobowego i komórkowego oraz organizację macierzy zewnątrzkomórkowej. Białka MutL oraz MutS są białkami systemów naprawy DNA, które mogą być zaangażowane w interakcje bakterii patogennych z komórkami gospodarza. Wcześniejsze analizy zademonstrowały zmiany w ekspresji genów kodujących białka związane z adhezją oraz tworzeniem biofilmów, w mutantach N. gonorrhoeae w genach kodujących białka MutL oraz MutS. W niniejszej pracy wykazano, że mutanty te tworzą biofilmy o zwiększonej biomasie i gęstości, na powierzchniach abiotycznych, w porównaniu do szczepu dzikiego N. gonorrhoeae. Ponadto, mutant N. gonorrhoeae mutS::km, charakteryzował się większą adhezją i inwazyjnością w stosunku do ludzkich komórek nabłonkowych, w porównaniu do szczepu dzikiego. Wykazano również zmiany w ekspresji genów kodujących białka związane z oddziaływaniem z komórkami gospodarza, w N. gonorrhoeae mutS::km, podczas infekcji ludzkich komórek nabłonkowych, w porównaniu do szczepu dzikiego N. gonorrhoeae. Zademonstrowano także wzrost ekspresji genów kodujących receptory wykorzystywane przez N. gonorrhoeae, w ludzkich komórkach nabłonkowych zainfekowanych N. gonorrhoeae mutS::km, w porównaniu do ekspresji tych genów w ludzkich komórkach nabłonkowych zainfekowanych szczepem dzikim. Obecność bakterii naturalnego mikrobiomu pochwy, chroniących tę niszę ekologiczną przed kolonizacją bakterii patogennych, stanowi jeden z czynników środowiskowych wpływających na patogenezę N. gonorrhoeae. W niniejszej pracy wykazano, że L. crispatus, będący jednym z dominujących gatunków naturalnego mikrobiomu żeńskich dróg rodnych oraz oczyszczone białka: enolaza oraz syntetaza glutaminowa L. crispatus, ograniczają adhezję i inwazyjność N. gonorrhoeae względem ludzkich komórek nabłonkowych. Ponadto, prekolonizacja ludzkich komórek nabłonkowych L. crispatus lub ich preinkubacja z enolazą lub syntetazą glutaminową, poprzedzająca infekcjęN. gonorrhoeae, skutkuje obniżeniem ekspresji genów CCL20 oraz TNF-α kodujących cytokiny prozapalne, w porównaniu do ekspresji analizowanych genów w komórkach zainfekowanych wyłącznie N. gonorrhoeae. Otrzymane w niniejszej pracy wyniki wskazują, że patogeneza N. gonorrhoeae, jest złożonym procesem, a na bezpośrednie oddziaływanie pomiędzy gonokokami i gospodarzem, wpływają m. in. czynniki molekularne i środowiskowe, takie jak fenotyp mutatorowy bakterii patogennej, a także obecność innych bakterii zasiedlających tę samą niszę ekologiczną.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonococcus), classified by the World Health Organization as a “priority pathogen”, is an obligatory human pathogen and an etiological agent of sexually transmitted disease – gonorrhea. Despite the growing knowledge about pathogenesis of N. gonorrhoeae, there are still many aspects of interactions of this bacterium with its host, that require investigation to effectively eradicate this microorganism. The aim of this work was to evaluate: changes in N. gonorrhoeae-infected epithelial cells, and the impact of molecular (N. gonorrhoeae DNA repair proteins MutL and MutS) and environmental (presence of commensal bacterium Lactobacillus crispatus and its proteins enolase and glutamine synthetase) factors on interactions of N. gonorrhoeae with human epithelial cells. Performed transcriptome profiling of human epithelial cells infected with N. gonorrhoeae, using RNA-Seq technique, revealed a total of 304 genes that were differentially expressed in infected cells compared to uninfected cells. Gene Ontology and pathway enrichment analyses revealed that the most enriched pathways were Gene expression (Transcription) and Immune System. Further, the differentially expressed genes also encoded proteins related to the circadian clock, extracellular matrix organization, and cell cycle regulation. Results obtained in this work demonstrated, that both N. gonorrhoeae proteins (MutL and MutS) and environmental factors influence the pathogenesis of N. gonorrhoeae. MutL and MutS proteins, are known proteins involved in DNA repair systems, however, these proteins can also be involved in the interactions of pathogenic bacteria with host’s epithelial cells. It was previously demonstrated, that in N. gonorrhoeae mutL and mutS mutants, a subset of differentially expressed genes encoded proteins that can influence adhesion and biofilm formation. Results obtained in this work demonstrated that N. gonorrhoeae mutL and mutS mutants formed denser biofilms with increased biofilm-associated biomass on the abiotic surfaces compared to the wild-type strain. N. gonorrhoeae mutS::km was also more adherent and invasive toward epithelial cells than the wild-type N. gonorrhoeae. Additionally, during infection of epithelial cells with N. gonorrhoeae mutS::km, the expression of some bacterial genes encoding proteins that can influence gonococcal adhesion was changed compared with their expression in the wild-type N. gonorrhoeae. Furthermore, during infection of epithelial cells with N. gonorrhoeae mutS mutant, expression of human genes encoding receptors utilized by N. gonorrhoeae was changed, in comparison to their expression in human epithelial cells infected with the wild-type strain. During infection, N. gonorrhoeae is exposed to many environmental factors, including presence of natural vaginal microbiome, that protect infected niche against colonization of pathogenic bacteria. In this work, it was demonstrated, that L. crispatus, which is one of the most prevalent bacteria in genitourinary tract in women, and its enolase and glutamine synthetase, impaired the adhesion and invasiveness of N. gonorrhoeae toward human epithelial cells. Moreover, precolonization of epithelial cells with L. crispatus or preincubation with L. crispatus purified enolase or glutamine synthetase prior to infection with N. gonorrhoeae, decreased the expression of proinflammatory cytokine-encoding genes: CCL20 and TNF-α, compared to their expression in untreated epithelial cells but infected with N. gonorrhoeae. Obtained results, indicate that the pathogenesis of N. gonorrhoeae is a complex process, in which beside direct interaction between host and gonococci, molecular and environmental factors play also a crucial functions, including mutator phenotype of pathogenic bacteria, and presence of other bacteria, that inhabit the same ecological niche.

The information flow through the regulatory networks in biological systems has been a rapidly growing field of research. Translation, being a very important regulatory check point, presents itself as a legitimate process for investigation. Only few regulatory factors and pathways are currently delineated that regulate translation through intermediary components in a remote manner, with global implications. In this context, this thesis studies the proteomics and transcriptomics data of Escherichia coli (E. coli) mutants, defective in translation, with the aim to unravel such regulatory factors or pathways and thus probe their regulatory aspects. Two main mics techniques are the backbone of this study; proteomics and transcriptomics. These provide a holistic view of cell states which allow us to investigate the regulation happening at the translation as well as at the transcription level. Two different proteomics techniques are used to resolve the proteomes; two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) and LC-coupled mass spectrometry. These have been introduced in the first chapter. Transcriptomics and proteomics being an evolving field, most of the techniques need optimization before applied for actual experiments and data acquisition. As part of our experimental strategy, we performed both transcriptomics and proteomics experiments in parallel. During application of 2DE based proteomics, we observed significant deficiencies in the 2DE technique itself, which we addressed as our first priority. We ran numerous optimization protocols to arrive at an optimized protocol to remove acidic region streaking (ARS) in 2DE, which is a well-known artifact. We describe the development of the modified protocol and discuss the detailed comparative analyses with recently published 2DE gels confirming the efficacy of the method in Chapter 2. The optimized 2DE technique developed by us was exploited in combination with MALDI mass spectrometry for the comparative proteomic analysis between the wild type E. coli and a mutated (ΔmetZWV::kan) strain. The proteomics results and its functional validation revealed a direct link between the flux of 10-formyltetrahydrofolate and the regulation of purine metabolism. The experimental observations were computationally modelled using flux balance analysis to understand the mechanistic detail involved in the remote regulation driven by purine metabolism and other peripheral pathways. The experimental details and the computational modelling are covered in chapter three. To gather wider perspective on the regulatory links in the E. coli organism, related to translation, we extended the omics studies using microarray technique on newer mutant strains. Our experiments aimed at obtaining differential transcript levels in the whole cell and the polysomal fraction of the E. coli cells. Three different E. coli mutants were used in this study; infC135, PthTs and folD122, which were defective in translation initiation, recycling and one carbon metabolism, respectively. The analysis revealed important routes of metabolic regulation. Few of them are worth mentioning; for example, purine and 10-fTHF metabolism that controls macromolecular synthesis, energy generation and inter-conversion of metabolites through pyruvate and also flagellar biosynthesis which is remote to translation. Transcriptomics data available from GEO database was analyzed as a background and based on the analysis we propose which of the differentially expressed genes are of generic in nature or unique to our mutants. These interesting observations about regulatory pathways are discussed in chapter four. To validate our transcriptomics results at the proteomics level and with a higher sensitivity than 2DE proteomics, we studied the whole cell proteomics data from two E. coli mutants, infC135 and PthTs, using high resolution FT-ICR mass spectrometry. Although a small number of differentially expressed proteins compared to microarray data, we could correlate the results with our transcriptomics data, especially, the proteins in the catabolic pathways. We elaborate the aforesaid study in chapter five. At the end we summarize the above omics studies to notice the following aspects emerging out. Translation, being a fundamental and essential process for the cell, disturbing it from any angle should affect many other processes which might seem remotely or not at all related to protein synthesis. This is evident from the whole study; we have been able to see some regulations which are very close to translation, but most are not directly related to translation. Apart from this we were able to point out routes of regulation which might control the amount of macromolecules synthesized, utilization of energy and metabolites and flagellar biogenesis. Another aspect is that we were able point out the gap in information between our regulation of pathways close to and remote to protein biosynthesis. Lastly, few master regulators were pointed out which might have potential functions in addition to what is known till date. A concluding discussion about these aspects has been discussed in the sixth chapter.

The information flow through the regulatory networks in biological systems has been a rapidly growing field of research. Translation, being a very important regulatory check point, presents itself as a legitimate process for investigation. Only few regulatory factors and pathways are currently delineated that regulate translation through intermediary components in a remote manner, with global implications. In this context, this thesis studies the proteomics and transcriptomics data of Escherichia coli (E. coli) mutants, defective in translation, with the aim to unravel such regulatory factors or pathways and thus probe their regulatory aspects. Two main mics techniques are the backbone of this study; proteomics and transcriptomics. These provide a holistic view of cell states which allow us to investigate the regulation happening at the translation as well as at the transcription level. Two different proteomics techniques are used to resolve the proteomes; two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) and LC-coupled mass spectrometry. These have been introduced in the first chapter. Transcriptomics and proteomics being an evolving field, most of the techniques need optimization before applied for actual experiments and data acquisition. As part of our experimental strategy, we performed both transcriptomics and proteomics experiments in parallel. During application of 2DE based proteomics, we observed significant deficiencies in the 2DE technique itself, which we addressed as our first priority. We ran numerous optimization protocols to arrive at an optimized protocol to remove acidic region streaking (ARS) in 2DE, which is a well-known artifact. We describe the development of the modified protocol and discuss the detailed comparative analyses with recently published 2DE gels confirming the efficacy of the method in Chapter 2. The optimized 2DE technique developed by us was exploited in combination with MALDI mass spectrometry for the comparative proteomic analysis between the wild type E. coli and a mutated (ΔmetZWV::kan) strain. The proteomics results and its functional validation revealed a direct link between the flux of 10-formyltetrahydrofolate and the regulation of purine metabolism. The experimental observations were computationally modelled using flux balance analysis to understand the mechanistic detail involved in the remote regulation driven by purine metabolism and other peripheral pathways. The experimental details and the computational modelling are covered in chapter three. To gather wider perspective on the regulatory links in the E. coli organism, related to translation, we extended the omics studies using microarray technique on newer mutant strains. Our experiments aimed at obtaining differential transcript levels in the whole cell and the polysomal fraction of the E. coli cells. Three different E. coli mutants were used in this study; infC135, PthTs and folD122, which were defective in translation initiation, recycling and one carbon metabolism, respectively. The analysis revealed important routes of metabolic regulation. Few of them are worth mentioning; for example, purine and 10-fTHF metabolism that controls macromolecular synthesis, energy generation and inter-conversion of metabolites through pyruvate and also flagellar biosynthesis which is remote to translation. Transcriptomics data available from GEO database was analyzed as a background and based on the analysis we propose which of the differentially expressed genes are of generic in nature or unique to our mutants. These interesting observations about regulatory pathways are discussed in chapter four. To validate our transcriptomics results at the proteomics level and with a higher sensitivity than 2DE proteomics, we studied the whole cell proteomics data from two E. coli mutants, infC135 and PthTs, using high resolution FT-ICR mass spectrometry. Although a small number of differentially expressed proteins compared to microarray data, we could correlate the results with our transcriptomics data, especially, the proteins in the catabolic pathways. We elaborate the aforesaid study in chapter five. At the end we summarize the above omics studies to notice the following aspects emerging out. Translation, being a fundamental and essential process for the cell, disturbing it from any angle should affect many other processes which might seem remotely or not at all related to protein synthesis. This is evident from the whole study; we have been able to see some regulations which are very close to translation, but most are not directly related to translation. Apart from this we were able to point out routes of regulation which might control the amount of macromolecules synthesized, utilization of energy and metabolites and flagellar biogenesis. Another aspect is that we were able point out the gap in information between our regulation of pathways close to and remote to protein biosynthesis. Lastly, few master regulators were pointed out which might have potential functions in addition to what is known till date. A concluding discussion about these aspects has been discussed in the sixth chapter.

The first chapter will provide an introduction to the physiology, pathogenesis and biology of mycobacteria. Host-pathogen interactions, different modes of resistance of the bacteria, adaptations for survival under nutrient and oxygen depleted conditions has been discussed. This is followed by a general discussion on gene expression and regulation in the microbe. The physiology of bacteria under stresses from the view of the transcriptional regulation of specific genes has also been discussed. The scope and objective of the present study in M. smegmatis covered in the thesis has been considered at the end. The next chapter discusses the characterization of msdps promoter in vivo with the help of reporter gene assay technologies. With the advent of promoterless E. coli-mycobacterium shuttle vectors, activity assays can be easily performed to characterize unknown upstream putative promoter sequences of genes. Both the 1 kb upstream as well as a 200bp upstream region of msdps gene has been characterized by. Primer extension analysis and subsequent site directed mutagenesis studies reveal +1 transcription start site and the promoter consensus sequence for the msdps gene respectively. Next chapter comprises of the method of constructing heterologous in vitro transcription machinery in mycobacteria. It is followed by characterization of transcription initiation at two dps promoters of M. smegmatis. A novel pull-down assay has been designed which enabled us to identify the sigma factors in the reconstituted RNA polymerases to be associated with the respective dps promoters and to compare the regulation of the two genes at transcription level. Further characterization through single round in vitro transcription at mycobacterial promoters has been attempted. The following two chapters provide some newer insights into the structure-function relationship of the first Dps molecule, MsDps (MsDps1) with respect to its DNA binding activity. The DNA binding activity is associated with the higher oligomeric form only. With the help of time resolved anisotropy and Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) experiments, we have monitored the nature of Dps dodecamer-DNA complex and mapped the distance between the N and C169 position in the absence and the presence of DNA. A new computational programme, Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) has been applied successfully to analyze data obtained from phase-modulation (Phi-M) lifetime experiments in order to get distribution of lifetime. In the last chapter a new method is adopted to predict amino acids important for stabilizing the interface in a trimeric structure. Subsequently, single and double amino acid mutants of the native MsDps protein has been constructed through site directed mutagenesis and are scored for the ability of the mutants to oligomerize under conditions similar to that of the native protein. This helped us to propose a hypothetical model of the overall mechanism of the protein oligomerization process in solution.

The first chapter will provide an introduction to the physiology, pathogenesis and biology of mycobacteria. Host-pathogen interactions, different modes of resistance of the bacteria, adaptations for survival under nutrient and oxygen depleted conditions has been discussed. This is followed by a general discussion on gene expression and regulation in the microbe. The physiology of bacteria under stresses from the view of the transcriptional regulation of specific genes has also been discussed. The scope and objective of the present study in M. smegmatis covered in the thesis has been considered at the end. The next chapter discusses the characterization of msdps promoter in vivo with the help of reporter gene assay technologies. With the advent of promoterless E. coli-mycobacterium shuttle vectors, activity assays can be easily performed to characterize unknown upstream putative promoter sequences of genes. Both the 1 kb upstream as well as a 200bp upstream region of msdps gene has been characterized by. Primer extension analysis and subsequent site directed mutagenesis studies reveal +1 transcription start site and the promoter consensus sequence for the msdps gene respectively. Next chapter comprises of the method of constructing heterologous in vitro transcription machinery in mycobacteria. It is followed by characterization of transcription initiation at two dps promoters of M. smegmatis. A novel pull-down assay has been designed which enabled us to identify the sigma factors in the reconstituted RNA polymerases to be associated with the respective dps promoters and to compare the regulation of the two genes at transcription level. Further characterization through single round in vitro transcription at mycobacterial promoters has been attempted. The following two chapters provide some newer insights into the structure-function relationship of the first Dps molecule, MsDps (MsDps1) with respect to its DNA binding activity. The DNA binding activity is associated with the higher oligomeric form only. With the help of time resolved anisotropy and Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) experiments, we have monitored the nature of Dps dodecamer-DNA complex and mapped the distance between the N and C169 position in the absence and the presence of DNA. A new computational programme, Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) has been applied successfully to analyze data obtained from phase-modulation (Phi-M) lifetime experiments in order to get distribution of lifetime. In the last chapter a new method is adopted to predict amino acids important for stabilizing the interface in a trimeric structure. Subsequently, single and double amino acid mutants of the native MsDps protein has been constructed through site directed mutagenesis and are scored for the ability of the mutants to oligomerize under conditions similar to that of the native protein. This helped us to propose a hypothetical model of the overall mechanism of the protein oligomerization process in solution.

Growth of bacteria in beer leads to turbidity and off-flavors, resulting in a spoiled and unpalatable product and thus economic loss. The most common beer-spoilage organisms (BSOs) are lactic acid bacteria (LAB), with Lactobacillus and Pediococcus species being the most problematic. Because of the harsh environment (low nutrients, antimicrobial compounds ethanol and hops, anaerobic), only select isolates are able to sustain growth in and spoil beer. To begin understanding the phenomenon of LAB adapting to overcome stresses in beer, ethanol tolerance, hop resistance, and nutrient acquisition mechanisms were investigated. First, ethanol tolerance was analyzed in the context of beer-spoilage ability, and it was found that it is intrinsically high in LAB, thus leading to the conclusion that LAB ability to spoil beer is not dependent on ethanol resistance levels. This was then followed by genome sequencing of the BSO Pediococcus claussenii ATCC BAA-344T (Pc344) to elucidate mechanisms being used to resist hops and acquire low abundance or alternative nutrients. Subsequent analysis of Pc344 and Lactobacillus brevis BSO 464 via reverse transcription quantitative PCR demonstrated the variability found among BSOs in the presence of beer-spoilage-related genes and their use during growth in beer. Further analysis of Pc344 was performed via RNA-sequencing to get a global view of gene expression during mid-logarithmic growth in beer. It was found that several alternative nutrients were being used by Pc344 to sustain growth, and that hop resistance was enabled by a variety of mechanisms including oxidative stress response and pH control. Finally, genomic comparison of BSOs determined that conservation is only present for closely related organisms and that no specific genes/proteins are indicative of an isolate’s beer-spoilage potential. It is more likely that horizontal gene transfer plays a major role in LAB adaption for growth in beer, and that plasmids are very important for this evolution, as was demonstrated by plasmid-variants of Pc344. The main conclusions of this thesis are therefore that hop resistance is the main factor determining ability to grow in beer, and that transfer of genetic elements is the driving force behind LAB evolving into BSOs.