Project description:Abiotic stresses disturb and limit nitrogen-fixing symbioses between rhizobia and their host legumes. In particular, the effect of extracellular acidity on rhizobia has been taken as a model example for analysis because of the economic impact and worldwide distribution of these symbionts in agricultural countries. Except for valuable molecular-biological studies on different rhizobia, no consolidated models have been formulated to describe the central physiologic changes that occur in acid-stressed bacteria. We present here an integrated analysis entailing the main cultural, metabolic, and molecular responses of the model bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti growing under controlled acid stress in a chemostat. A stepwise extracellular acidification of the culture medium had indicated that S. meliloti stopped growing at ca. pH 6.0–6.1. Under such a limiting acid stress the rhizobia increased the O2 consumption per cell by more than 5-fold. This phenotype, together with an increase in the transcripts for several membrane cytochromes, entails a remarkably higher aerobic-respiration rate in acid-stressed rhizobia. Changes in the transcripts encoding enzymes for lipid biosynthesis were also observed, consistent with previous data on rhizobial pH-dependent membrane remodelling. Together with increased energy demands under acidity, proteomic and transcriptomic data revealed that while at pH 7.0 the transport and biosynthesis of cellular compounds were quite active processes, under acid stress most overexpressed markers were associated with protein biosynthesis, macromolecular degradation and/or recycling, and energy metabolism. Within this context, the pentose-phosphate pathway exhibited increases in several transcripts, enzymes, and metabolites. Moreover, multivariate analysis of global metabolome data (more than 60 compounds) served to unequivocally correlate the specific-metabolite profiles with the extracellular pH for growth, with strikingly sensitive variations being observed in the rhizobial metabolomes upon extracellular-pH changes of less than 0.5 units. Except for a ca. 120-kb DNA stretch within the pSymA no specific genomic regions were associated with the observed acid-stress responses. Further practical analyses should be focussed on the phenotypic impact and time course of the observed changes during the acid-stress perception and on the search for common responses during the previously described sublethal acid-adaptive processes in rhizobia

Project description:Abiotic stresses disturb and limit nitrogen-fixing symbioses between rhizobia and their host legumes. In particular, the effect of extracellular acidity on rhizobia has been taken as a model example for analysis because of the economic impact and worldwide distribution of these symbionts in agricultural countries. Except for valuable molecular-biological studies on different rhizobia, no consolidated models have been formulated to describe the central physiologic changes that occur in acid-stressed bacteria. We present here an integrated analysis entailing the main cultural, metabolic, and molecular responses of the model bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti growing under controlled acid stress in a chemostat. A stepwise extracellular acidification of the culture medium had indicated that S. meliloti stopped growing at ca. pH 6.0â??6.1. Under such a limiting acid stress the rhizobia increased the O2 consumption per cell by more than 5-fold. This phenotype, together with an increase in the transcripts for several membrane cytochromes, entails a remarkably higher aerobic-respiration rate in acid-stressed rhizobia. Changes in the transcripts encoding enzymes for lipid biosynthesis were also observed, consistent with previous data on rhizobial pH-dependent membrane remodelling. Together with increased energy demands under acidity, proteomic and transcriptomic data revealed that while at pH 7.0 the transport and biosynthesis of cellular compounds were quite active processes, under acid stress most overexpressed markers were associated with protein biosynthesis, macromolecular degradation and/or recycling, and energy metabolism. Within this context, the pentose-phosphate pathway exhibited increases in several transcripts, enzymes, and metabolites. Moreover, multivariate analysis of global metabolome data (more than 60 compounds) served to unequivocally correlate the specific-metabolite profiles with the extracellular pH for growth, with strikingly sensitive variations being observed in the rhizobial metabolomes upon extracellular-pH changes of less than 0.5 units. Except for a ca. 120-kb DNA stretch within the pSymA no specific genomic regions were associated with the observed acid-stress responses. Further practical analyses should be focussed on the phenotypic impact and time course of the observed changes during the acid-stress perception and on the search for common responses during the previously described sublethal acid-adaptive processes in rhizobia pH 6.1 vs pH 7

Project description:In α-proteobacteria, strict regulation of cell cycle progression is necessary for the specific cellular differentiation required for adaptation to diverse environmental niches. The symbiotic lifestyle of Sinorhizobium meliloti requires a drastic cellular differentiation that includes genome amplification. To achieve polyploidy, the S. meliloti cell cycle program must be altered to uncouple DNA replication from cell division. In the α-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus, cell cycle regulated transcription plays an important role in control of cell cycle progression but this has not been demonstrated in other α-proteobacteria. Here we describe a robust method for synchronizing cell growth that enabled the first global analysis of S. meliloti cell cycle regulated gene expression. The objective of the microarray-based cell cycle gene expression analysis was to determine which genes were transcriptionally regulated as a funciton of a cell cycle in order to understand the contribution of transcriptional regulation to the timing of cell cycle events. The microarray analysis identified 462 genes with cell cycle regulated transcripts, including several key cell cycle regulators, and genes involved in motility, attachment, and cell division. Only 28% of the 462 S. meliloti cell cycle regulated genes were also transcriptionally cell cycle regulated in C. crescentus. Furthermore, CtrA and DnaA binding motif analysis revealed little overlap between the cell cycle-dependent regulons of CtrA and DnaA in S. meliloti and C. crescentus. The predicted S. meliloti cell cycle regulon of CtrA, but not that of DnaA, was strongly conserved in more closely related α-proteobacteria with similar ecological niches as S. meliloti, suggesting that the CtrA cell cycle regulatory network may control functions of central importance to the specific lifestyles of α-proteobacteria. Gene expression levels were quantified in synchronously growing S. meliloti cultures across 8 time points and compared to gene expression levels in unsynchronized culture via a two-color custom agilent array

Project description:In α-proteobacteria, strict regulation of cell cycle progression is necessary for the specific cellular differentiation required for adaptation to diverse environmental niches. The symbiotic lifestyle of Sinorhizobium meliloti requires a drastic cellular differentiation that includes genome amplification. To achieve polyploidy, the S. meliloti cell cycle program must be altered to uncouple DNA replication from cell division. In the α-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus, cell cycle regulated transcription plays an important role in control of cell cycle progression but this has not been demonstrated in other α-proteobacteria. Here we describe a robust method for synchronizing cell growth that enabled the first global analysis of S. meliloti cell cycle regulated gene expression. The objective of the microarray-based cell cycle gene expression analysis was to determine which genes were transcriptionally regulated as a funciton of a cell cycle in order to understand the contribution of transcriptional regulation to the timing of cell cycle events. The microarray analysis identified 462 genes with cell cycle regulated transcripts, including several key cell cycle regulators, and genes involved in motility, attachment, and cell division. Only 28% of the 462 S. meliloti cell cycle regulated genes were also transcriptionally cell cycle regulated in C. crescentus. Furthermore, CtrA and DnaA binding motif analysis revealed little overlap between the cell cycle-dependent regulons of CtrA and DnaA in S. meliloti and C. crescentus. The predicted S. meliloti cell cycle regulon of CtrA, but not that of DnaA, was strongly conserved in more closely related α-proteobacteria with similar ecological niches as S. meliloti, suggesting that the CtrA cell cycle regulatory network may control functions of central importance to the specific lifestyles of α-proteobacteria. Gene expression levels were quantified in synchronously growing S. meliloti cultures across 8 time points and compared to gene expression levels in unsynchronized culture via a two-color custom agilent array A two-color array format was used with time point from synchronous culture being competed with a sample from unsynchronized culture (control same for all arrays) to determine the cell cycle-phase specific induction or repression of genes relative to batch culture which contains cells in all phases of the cell cycle. For each of the 8 cell cycle time points, four biological replicates were used resulting in 4 arrays per time point and a total of 32 arrays. The arrays also contained duplicates of each probe resulting in two technical replicates per biological replicate per time point.

Dataset Information

A consolidated analysis of the physiologic and molecular responses induced under acid stress in the legume-symbiont model-soil bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti.

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A consolidated analysis of the physiologic and molecular responses induced under acid stress in the legume-symbiont model-soil bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti.

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