Unknown,Transcriptomics,Genomics,Proteomics

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A temperature-responsive network links cell shape and virulence traits in a primary fungal pathogen -- RNAi mutants (1)

ABSTRACT: The ability to grow at host temperature is a critical trait for most pathogenic microbes of humans. Thermally dimorphic fungal pathogens, including Histoplasma capsulatum, are a class of soil fungi that undergo a dramatic change in cell shape and virulence gene expression in response to host temperature. Here we elucidate a complex temperature-responsive network in H. capsulatum, which switches from an environmental filamentous form to a pathogenic yeast form. We dissect the circuit driven by three regulators that control yeast-phase growth, and demonstrate that these factors, including two deeply conserved Velvet family proteins of unknown function, associate with DNA. We identify and characterize a fourth regulator of this pathway, and define cis-acting motifs that recruit these transcription factors to a tightly interwoven network of temperature-responsive target genes. Our results provide the first comprehensive analysis of the complex transcriptional network that links temperature to morphology and virulence in thermally dimorphic fungi. This submission gives the expression profiling results. cDNA from each ryp mutants and wild-type controls was labeled with Cy5 and competitively hybridized against the Cy3-labeled pooled reference sample using H. capsulatum whole-genome 70-mer oligonucleotide microarray. For the experiments with ryp T-DNA mutants, there were 4 to 6 replicates for each strain and condition, and for the experiments with ryp knockdown strains, there were 3 to 12 replicates for each strain and condition. The T-DNA and knockdown experiments are being submitted as separate series, with samples further divided based on G217B platform version.

ORGANISM(S): Ajellomyces capsulatus

SUBMITTER: Mark Voorhies

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-46938 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress

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Project description:Histoplasma capsulatum is a fungal pathogen that infects both healthy and immunocompromised hosts. In endemic regions, H. capsulatum grows in the soil and causes respiratory and systemic disease when inhaled by humans. An interesting aspect of H. capsulatum biology is that it adopts specialized developmental programs in response to its environment. In the soil, it grows as filamentous chains of cells (mycelia) that produce asexual spores (conidia). When the soil is disrupted, conidia aerosolize and are inhaled by mammalian hosts. Inside a host, conidia germinate into yeast-form cells that colonize immune cells and cause disease. Despite the ability of conidia to initiate infection and disease, they have not been explored on a molecular level. Here we develop methods to purify H. capsulatum conidia and show that these cells germinate into either filaments at room temperature or into yeast-form cells at 37C. Conidia internalized by macrophages germinate into the yeast form and proliferate within the macrophages, ultimately lysing the host cells. Similarly, infection of mice with purified conidia is sufficient to establish infection and yield viable yeast-form cells in vivo. To characterize conidia on a molecular level, we perform whole-genome expression profiling of conidia, yeast, and mycelia from two highly diverged H. capsulatum strains. In parallel, we use homology and protein domain analysis to manually annotate the predicted genes of both strains. Analyses of the resultant data define sets of transcripts that reflect the unique molecular states of H. capsulatum conidia, yeast and mycelia. This series gives the results for the G186AR strain. Samples were labeled with Cy5 or with Cy3 and competitively hybridized to custom glass slide 70-mer oligomer microarrays in a closed-circuit experimental design (e.g. direct, pairwise comparisons of yeast and mycelial samples, mycelial and conidial samples, and yeast and conidial samples). Dye-swap hybridizations were performed for these pairwise comparisons, as well as an additional technical replicate hybridization for the conidia/yeast comparison, for a total of 7 hybridizations.

Project description:Histoplasma capsulatum is a fungal pathogen that infects both healthy and immunocompromised hosts. In endemic regions, H. capsulatum grows in the soil and causes respiratory and systemic disease when inhaled by humans. An interesting aspect of H. capsulatum biology is that it adopts specialized developmental programs in response to its environment. In the soil, it grows as filamentous chains of cells (mycelia) that produce asexual spores (conidia). When the soil is disrupted, conidia aerosolize and are inhaled by mammalian hosts. Inside a host, conidia germinate into yeast-form cells that colonize immune cells and cause disease. Despite the ability of conidia to initiate infection and disease, they have not been explored on a molecular level. Here we develop methods to purify H. capsulatum conidia and show that these cells germinate into either filaments at room temperature or into yeast-form cells at 37C. Conidia internalized by macrophages germinate into the yeast form and proliferate within the macrophages, ultimately lysing the host cells. Similarly, infection of mice with purified conidia is sufficient to establish infection and yield viable yeast-form cells in vivo. To characterize conidia on a molecular level, we perform whole-genome expression profiling of conidia, yeast, and mycelia from two highly diverged H. capsulatum strains. In parallel, we use homology and protein domain analysis to manually annotate the predicted genes of both strains. Analyses of the resultant data define sets of transcripts that reflect the unique molecular states of H. capsulatum conidia, yeast and mycelia. This series gives the results for the G217B strain. Samples were labeled with Cy5 or with Cy3 and competitively hybridized to custom glass slide 70-mer oligomer microarrays in a closed-circuit experimental design (e.g. direct, pairwise comparisons of yeast and mycelial samples, mycelial and conidial samples, and yeast and conidial samples). Dye-swap hybridizations were performed for these pairwise comparisons, and hybridizations to an additional conidial biological replicate were performed for the conidia/yeast and conidia/mycelia comparisons, for a total of 8 hybridizations.

Project description:Thermally dimorphic human fungal pathogens undergo a reversible program of cellular differentiation in response to their environment that is essential for infectivity and pathogenicity. In the soil, these organisms grow as highly polarized, multicellular hyphal filaments that produce infectious particles. When inhaled by a mammalian host, these cells switch to a unicellular yeast form that causes disease even in healthy hosts. Temperature is considered to be the primary environmental cue that promotes reversible cellular differentiation; however, a shift to a lower temperature in vitro induces filamentous growth in an inefficient and asynchronous manner. In a search for other signals that regulate morphogenesis, we considered the monosaccharide N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), which is a major component of microbial cell walls and is ubiquitous in the environment. GlcNAc was a potent and specific inducer of the yeast-to-filament transition in two thermally dimorphic fungi, Histoplasma capsulatum and Blastomyces dermatitidis. Micromolar concentrations of GlcNAc induced a robust morphological transition of H. capsulatum after temperature shift, indicating that fungal cells sense GlcNAc to promote filamentation. The synchronous morphologic transition stimulated by low temperature and GlcNAc allowed us to examine the temporal regulation of the transcriptome during morphogenesis to reveal candidate genes involved in establishing the filamentous growth program. Through this analysis, we identified two genes encoding GlcNAc transporters, NGT1 and NGT2, that were necessary for H. capsulatum cells to robustly filament in response to GlcNAc. Unexpectedly, NGT1 and NGT2 were important for efficient H. capsulatum yeast-to-filament conversion in standard glucose medium, suggesting that Ngt1 and Ngt2 monitor endogenous levels of GlcNAc to control multicellular filamentous growth in response to temperature. Overall, our work indicates that GlcNAc functions as a highly conserved cue of morphogenesis in fungi, which further enhances the significance of this ubiquitous sugar in cellular signaling in eukaryotes. For each time-course sample, cDNA was coupled to Cy5 and a reference cDNA pool was made by combining RNA from t = 0 and all late time course samples, which was coupled to Cy3. For end point microarray experiments (i.e., established yeast samples compared to established filamentous samples), G217B yeast cDNA was coupled to Cy5 and filament cDNA was coupled to Cy3.

Project description:Regulation of iron acquisition genes is critical for microbial survival under both iron-limiting conditions (to acquire essential iron) and iron-replete conditions (to limit iron toxicity). In fungi, iron acquisition genes are repressed under iron-replete conditions by a conserved GATA transcriptional regulator. Here we investigate the role of this transcription factor, Sre1, in the cellular responses of the fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum to iron. We showed that cells in which SRE1 levels were diminished by RNA interference were unable to repress siderophore biosynthesis and utilization genes in the presence of abundant iron, and thus produced siderophores even under iron-replete conditions. Mutation of a GATA-containing consensus site found in the promoters of these genes also resulted in inappropriate gene expression under iron-replete conditions. Microarray analysis comparing control and SRE1-depleted strains under conditions of iron limitation or abundance revealed both iron-responsive genes and Sre1-dependent genes, which comprised distinct but overlapping sets. Iron-responsive genes included putative oxidoreductases, metabolic and mitochondrial enzymes, superoxide dismutase, and nitrosative-stress response genes; Sre1-dependent genes were of diverse function. Genes regulated by iron levels and Sre1 included all of the siderophore biosynthetic genes, a gene involved in reductive iron acquisition, an iron-responsive transcription factor, and two catalases. Based on transcriptional profiling and phenotypic analyses, we conclude that Sre1 plays a critical role in the regulation of both traditional iron-responsive genes and iron-independent pathways such as regulation of cell morphology. These data highlight the evolving realization that the effect of Sre1 orthologs on fungal biology extends beyond the iron regulon. For microarray studies, initial cultures of HcLH120 (Control RNAi-1) or 123 (SRE1 RNAi-2) yeast cells were grown in 5 mL HMM, and then passaged 1:25 into 100 mL HMM. After 2 days of growth, the cultures were pelleted, washed in 100 mL of PBS, resuspended in 100 mL of mRPMI pH 6.5 and diluted to an OD600~2 in 1 L of mRPMI. After 24 hours of growth, 200 mL of culture was harvested for each of the three zero time points. Then the cultures were split into 2 X 400 mL, and 10 uM FeSO4 (final concentration) was added to one set of cultures. At each time point (.5, 1, 4, or 8 hours), 100 mL of culture was harvested for RNA extraction.

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A temperature-responsive network links cell shape and virulence traits in a primary fungal pathogen -- RNAi mutants (1)

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