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The transcriptional landscape of Chlamydia pneumoniae.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Gene function analysis of the obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae is hampered by the facts that this organism is inaccessible to genetic manipulations and not cultivable outside the host. The genomes of several strains have been sequenced; however, very little information is available on the gene structure and transcriptome of C. pneumoniae. RESULTS: Using a differential RNA-sequencing approach with specific enrichment of primary transcripts, we defined the transcriptome of purified elementary bodies and reticulate bodies of C. pneumoniae strain CWL-029; 565 transcriptional start sites of annotated genes and novel transcripts were mapped. Analysis of adjacent genes for co-transcription revealed 246 polycistronic transcripts. In total, a distinct transcription start site or an affiliation to an operon could be assigned to 862 out of 1,074 annotated protein coding genes. Semi-quantitative analysis of mapped cDNA reads revealed significant differences for 288 genes in the RNA levels of genes isolated from elementary bodies and reticulate bodies. We have identified and in part confirmed 75 novel putative non-coding RNAs. The detailed map of transcription start sites at single nucleotide resolution allowed for the first time a comprehensive and saturating analysis of promoter consensus sequences in Chlamydia. CONCLUSIONS: The precise transcriptional landscape as a complement to the genome sequence will provide new insights into the organization, control and function of genes. Novel non-coding RNAs and identified common promoter motifs will help to understand gene regulation of this important human pathogen.

SUBMITTER: Albrecht M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3333780 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The transcriptional landscape of Chlamydia pneumoniae.

Albrecht Marco M Sharma Cynthia M CM Dittrich Marcus T MT Müller Tobias T Reinhardt Richard R Vogel Jörg J Rudel Thomas T

Genome biology 20111011 10

<h4>Background</h4>Gene function analysis of the obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae is hampered by the facts that this organism is inaccessible to genetic manipulations and not cultivable outside the host. The genomes of several strains have been sequenced; however, very little information is available on the gene structure and transcriptome of C. pneumoniae.<h4>Results</h4>Using a differential RNA-sequencing approach with specific enrichment of primary transcripts, we defined ...[more]

PMID: 21989159

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Project description:Purpose: To further define the enhanced metabolic activity of Chlamydia pneumoniae under hypoxia, a transcriptome screen was performed. Next-genration sequencing (NGS) has revolutioned systems-based analysis of transcriptomic pathways. The goals of this study are to compare the transcriptomic profile of C. pneumoniae, grown within HEp-2 cells under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Methods: Total RNA of C. pneumoniae infected HEp-2 cells cultured under normoxia (20% O2) or hypoxia (2% O2) was isolated by NucleoSpin RNA kit (Macherey Nagel). Human rRNA was depleted by RiboZero rRNA removal kit (Epicentre) in order to enrich bacterial RNA. The tagged cDNA libraries, in the size range of 250 –400 bp, were pooled and single-read sequencing (read length 50 bp) was performed on Illumina HiSeq 2000 by BGI-Hong Kong. Illumina reads were mapped to the Chlamydia genome (GeneBank, version AE001363.1) by TopHat (version TopHat v1.0.12. Gene expression was determined by the Htseq package and data was normalized using the RPKM conversion. Finally, the differential expression analysis was done using the Bioconductor package NOISeq version 2.6.0. The NOISeq-sim function included in the package allows for differential expression estimates in absence of replication by simulating replicates considering that reads counts follow a multinominal distribution. Results: Ranking of differentially expressed chlamydial genes by NOISeq-sim revealed 153 upregulated and 18 downregulated candidate genes. The expression profile of selected genes was validated using qRT-PCR. Most of the upregulated genes under hypoxia belong to the transcriptional and translational machinery or have unknown function. Moreover, transporters show increased expression under hypoxia such as the ATP/ADP translocase (Cpn0614) responsible for NAD uptake. Within the group of metabolic genes, numerous genes belonging to the energy metabolism and nucleotide metabolism were upregulated under hypoxia. Furthermore, thioredoxin reductase (trxB) belonging to the chlamydial redox system was upregulated. Conclusions: Our study represents the first detailed transcriptomic analysis of C. pneumoniae infected HEp-2 cells under hypoxic conditions, generated by RNA-seq technology. Our results show an increased expression of trxB, a part of the chlamydial redox system, which might reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) under hypoxia. Interestingly, infection of hypoxic cells indeed resulted in a decreased ROS generation compared to hypoxic non-infected cells. We conclude that enhanced growth of C. pneumoniae is the result of hypoxia-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and the associated metabolic switch. Particularly, mitochondrial hyperpolarization is a central mechanism which promotes C. pneumoniae growth under hypoxic conditions. Further, our data imply that mitochondrial dysfunction could also play a major role for other intracellular pathogens, since mitochondrial dysfunction usually occurs under hypoxia and could thereby influence intracellular growth.

Project description:The genome sequences of Chlamydia trachomatis mouse pneumonitis (MoPn) strain Nigg (1 069 412 nt) and Chlamydia pneumoniae strain AR39 (1 229 853 nt) were determined using a random shotgun strategy. The MoPn genome exhibited a general conservation of gene order and content with the previously sequenced C.trachomatis serovar D. Differences between C.trachomatis strains were focused on an approximately 50 kb 'plasticity zone' near the termination origins. In this region MoPn contained three copies of a novel gene encoding a >3000 amino acid toxin homologous to a predicted toxin from Escherichia coli O157:H7 but had apparently lost the tryptophan biosyntheis genes found in serovar D in this region. The C. pneumoniae AR39 chromosome was >99.9% identical to the previously sequenced C.pneumoniae CWL029 genome, however, comparative analysis identified an invertible DNA segment upstream of the uridine kinase gene which was in different orientations in the two genomes. AR39 also contained a novel 4524 nt circular single-stranded (ss)DNA bacteriophage, the first time a virus has been reported infecting C. pneumoniae. Although the chlamydial genomes were highly conserved, there were intriguing differences in key nucleotide salvage pathways: C.pneumoniae has a uridine kinase gene for dUTP production, MoPn has a uracil phosphororibosyl transferase, while C.trachomatis serovar D contains neither gene. Chromosomal comparison revealed that there had been multiple large inversion events since the species divergence of C.trachomatis and C.pneumoniae, apparently oriented around the axis of the origin of replication and the termination region. The striking synteny of the Chlamydia genomes and prevalence of tandemly duplicated genes are evidence of minimal chromosome rearrangement and foreign gene uptake, presumably owing to the ecological isolation of the obligate intracellular parasites. In the absence of genetic analysis, comparative genomics will continue to provide insight into the virulence mechanisms of these important human pathogens.

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The transcriptional landscape of Chlamydia pneumoniae.

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The transcriptional landscape of Chlamydia pneumoniae.

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