Role of GerKB in germination and outgrowth of Clostridium perfringens spores.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Paredes-Sabja D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2687284 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Role of GerKB in germination and outgrowth of Clostridium perfringens spores.
Paredes-Sabja Daniel D Setlow Peter P Sarker Mahfuzur R MR
Applied and environmental microbiology 20090410 11
Previous work indicated that Clostridium perfringens gerKA gerKC spores germinate significantly, suggesting that gerKB also has a role in C. perfringens spore germination. We now find that (i) gerKB was expressed only during sporulation, likely in the forespore; (ii) gerKB spores germinated like wild-type spores with nonnutrient germinants and with high concentrations of nutrients but more slowly with low nutrient concentrations; and (iii) gerKB spores had lower colony-forming efficiency and slo ...[more]
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Project description:Sorbic acid (SA) is widely used as a preservative, but the effect of SA on spore germination and outgrowth has gained limited attention up to now. Therefore, the effect of sorbic acid on germination of spores of B. cereus strain ATCC 14579 was analyzed both at phenotype and transcriptome level. Spore germination and outgrowth was assessed at pH 5.5 without and with 0.75, 1.5 and 3.0mM (final concentrations) undissociated sorbic acid (HSA). This resulted in distinct HSA concentration-dependent phenotypes, varying from delays in germination and outgrowth to complete blockage of germination at 3.0mM HSA. The phenotypes reflecting different stages in the germination process could be confirmed using flow cytometry and could be recognized at transcriptome level by distinct expression profiles. In the absence and presence of 0.75 and 1.5mM HSA, similar cellular ATP levels were found up to the initial stage of outgrowth, suggesting that HSA-induced inhibition of outgrowth is not caused by depletion of ATP. Transcriptome analysis revealed the presence of a limited number of transcripts in dormant spores, outgrowth related expression, and genes specifically associated with sorbic acid stress, including alterations in cell envelope and multi-drug resistance. The potential role of these HSA-stress associated genes in spore outgrowth is discussed.
2010-11-01 | GSE19186 | GEO
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2010-11-01 | E-GEOD-19186 | biostudies-arrayexpress
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Project description:The members of the genus Clostridium, such as the other spore-forming anaerobic bacteria, have a complex and strictly regulated life-cycle but very little is known about genetic pathways involved at different stages. Clostridium sporogenes, Gram positive bacterium usually involved in food spoilage and frequently isolated from late blowed cheese is genetically indistinguishable from proteolytic Clostridium botulinum and is the non-neurotoxigenic counterpart often used as exemplar for the toxic subtypes. In this work we have performed a microscopy study combined with a custom array-based analysis of C. sporogenes cycle, from dormant spores to early stationary phase. We identified in spores a total of 211 transcripts validating the ipothesis that mRNAs are abundant and strikingly different from those present in growing cells. The spores transcripts included genes responsible of different life-sustaining functions, suggesting the theory of transcripts entrapment or of a basic poly-functional genes activation for future steps. In addition, after three hours from the beginning of the germination process, a 20% of the total up-regulated genes were temporally expressed in germinating spores. The vegetative condition appears to be the more active in terms of gene transcription and protein synthesis and also genes for germination and sporulation factors seem to be expressed at this point. These results suggest that spores are not silent entities and a wider knowledge about genetic pathways involved in Clostridium life cycle could be of help for a better understanding also of pathogenic clostridia types.
2012-06-13 | GSE38619 | GEO