Project description:This study examined the genes under the control of FlhDC and sigmaF in E. coli. Keywords: wild-type, deletion and overexepression strains Under defined steady-state growth condition, we used two different genetic approaches to alter the modulator concentration in cells; (1) moderately expressing FlhDC or sigmaF from anhydrotetracycline (aTc) inducible and Tet repressor-controlled PLtet promoter in a plasmid-borne flhDC or fliA gene; (2) disrupting the expression of FlhDC or sigmaF in flhDC or fliA deletion mutant strains. Samples were taken from culture with wild-type or deletion strains at mid log phase (OD=0.2) or from overexpression strains at mid log phase (OD=0.2) before or 5 minutes after moderate induction. Samples were then RNA-stabilized using Qiagen RNAProtect Bacterial Reagent (Qiagen). Total RNA was then isolated using MasterPure kits (Epicentre Technologies). Purified RNA was reverse-transcribed to cDNA, labeled and hybridized to Affymetrix GeneChip E. coli Antisense Genome Arrays as recommended in the technical manual (www.affymetrix.com).
Project description:Expression and use of motility genes is a potentially beneficial but costly process in bacteria. Interestingly, many isolate strains of Escherichia coli possess motility genes but have lost the ability to activate them in conditions in which motile cells are advantageous, raising the question of how they respond to these situations. Through transcriptome profiling of strains in the E. coli single-gene knockout Keio collection, we noticed drastic upregulation of motility genes in many of the deletion strains as compared to its typically non-motile parent strain (BW25113). This switch to a motile phenotype is not a direct consequence of the genes deleted, but is instead due to a variety of secondary mutations that increase the synthesis of the major motility regulator, FlhDC. We found that a phenotypic switch to motility at a population level can be induced in non-motile E. coli strains by incubation in non-shaking liquid medium overnight but not in shaking media. Individual isolates after the overnight incubation acquired distinct mutations upstream of the flhDC operon, including different insertion sequence (IS) elements and, to a lesser extent, point mutations. The rapid sweep in the non-shaking population shows that non-motile strains without existing regulatory mechanisms can quickly adapt to a motile lifestyle by quickly acquired genetic changes.
Project description:Bacterial motility shows a strong evolvable feature depending on the environment. Hyper-motile E. coli could be isolated by evolving non-motile E. coli due to the mutations that enhanced transcriptional expression of the master regulator of the flagellum biosynthesis, FlhDC. These hyper-motile isolates showed reduced growth fitness but with the molecular mechanisms unrevealed. Here we obtained a novel type of hyper-motile isolates by evolving a weakly-motile E. coli K12 strain on the soft agar plates. These isolates carried high accumulated FlhDC proteins and they shared one single point mutation of ClpXV78F. The V78F affected the ATP binding to ClpX via steric repulsive effect and the mutated ClpXP protease lost most of its ability to degraded FlhDC and some other of its known targets. The signal tag of FlhDC for ClpXP recognition was also characterized. Intriguingly, in the hyper-motile strains, the highly enhanced expression of the motility genes was accompanied by the reduced expression of stress resistance genes relating to the reduced fitness of these isolates. Hence, ClpX appeared to be a novel and hot locus during the evolution of bacterial motility and the molecular mechanism of the trade-off between motility and growth was proposed for the first time.
Project description:Bacterial motility shows a strong evolvable feature depending on the environment. Hyper-motile E. coli could be isolated by evolving non-motile E. coli due to the mutations that enhanced transcriptional expression of the master regulator of the flagellum biosynthesis, FlhDC. These hyper-motile isolates showed reduced growth fitness but with the molecular mechanisms unrevealed. Here we obtained a novel type of hyper-motile isolates by evolving a weakly-motile E. coli K12 strain on the soft agar plates. These isolates carried high accumulated FlhDC proteins and they shared one single point mutation of ClpXV78F. The V78F affected the ATP binding to ClpX via steric repulsive effect and the mutated ClpXP protease lost most of its ability to degraded FlhDC and some other of its known targets. The signal tag of FlhDC for ClpXP recognition was also characterized. Intriguingly, in the hyper-motile strains, the highly enhanced expression of the motility genes was accompanied by the reduced expression of stress resistance genes relating to the reduced fitness of these isolates. Hence, ClpX appeared to be a novel and hot locus during the evolution of bacterial motility and the molecular mechanism of the trade-off between motility and growth was proposed for the first time.
Project description:Transcription profiling of wild type E. coli MG1655, intestine-adapted E. coli MG1655star, and E. coli MG1655 flhD mutant grown on glucose, mannose, and mucus. We previously isolated a spontaneous mutant of E. coli K-12, strain MG1655, following passage through the streptomycin-treated mouse intestine, which has colonization traits superior to the wild-type parent strain (Leatham, et. al., 2005, Infect Immun 73:8039-49) The intestine-adapted strain (E. coli MG1655star) grew faster on several different carbon sources compared to the wild-type and was non-motile due to deletion of the flhD gene. To further characterize E. coli MG1655star, we used several high-throughput genomic approaches. Whole-genome pyrosequencing did not reveal any changes on its genome, aside from the deletion at the flhDC locus, that could explain the colonization advantage of E. coli MG1655star. Microarray analysis revealed modest, yet significant induction of catabolic gene systems across the genome in both E. coli MG1655star and the isogenic flhD mutant. Catabolome analysis with Biolog GN2 Microplates revealed an enhanced ability of both E. coli MG1655star and the isogenic flhD mutant to oxidize a wide variety of carbon sources. The results show that intestine-adapted E. coli MG1655star is more fit than the wild-type for intestinal colonization because loss of FlhD results in elevated expression of genes involved in carbon and energy metabolism, leading to more efficient carbon source utilization, which results in a higher population size in the intestine. Hence mutations that enhance metabolic efficiency confer a colonization advantage. Three strains were profiled: E. coli MG1655 wildtype, E. coli flhD, and an intestine adapted strain, MG1655star, derived from the wildtype and isolated from feces after 15 days in the streptomycin treated mouse intestine, which proved to be a better colonizer than the wildtype, were grown on MOPS minimal medium containing 0.2% glucose or mannose, or mucus (10 mg/ml) and RNA was extracted from logarithmic phase cultures, and also from mucus grown cells in late log phase.
Project description:Transcription profiling of wild type E. coli MG1655, intestine-adapted E. coli MG1655star, and E. coli MG1655 flhD mutant grown on glucose, mannose, and mucus. We previously isolated a spontaneous mutant of E. coli K-12, strain MG1655, following passage through the streptomycin-treated mouse intestine, which has colonization traits superior to the wild-type parent strain (Leatham, et. al., 2005, Infect Immun 73:8039-49) The intestine-adapted strain (E. coli MG1655star) grew faster on several different carbon sources compared to the wild-type and was non-motile due to deletion of the flhD gene. To further characterize E. coli MG1655star, we used several high-throughput genomic approaches. Whole-genome pyrosequencing did not reveal any changes on its genome, aside from the deletion at the flhDC locus, that could explain the colonization advantage of E. coli MG1655star. Microarray analysis revealed modest, yet significant induction of catabolic gene systems across the genome in both E. coli MG1655star and the isogenic flhD mutant. Catabolome analysis with Biolog GN2 Microplates revealed an enhanced ability of both E. coli MG1655star and the isogenic flhD mutant to oxidize a wide variety of carbon sources. The results show that intestine-adapted E. coli MG1655star is more fit than the wild-type for intestinal colonization because loss of FlhD results in elevated expression of genes involved in carbon and energy metabolism, leading to more efficient carbon source utilization, which results in a higher population size in the intestine. Hence mutations that enhance metabolic efficiency confer a colonization advantage.
Project description:To get a high resolution understanding of the effect of Fur on global gene expression, we compared by high-resolution RNAseq the transcriptomes of a wild-type E. coli K-12 strain and its Fur deletion derivative grown in minimal medium with or without supplementation of iron. Three independent total RNA extraction and RNAseq assays were performed for each strain in each condition.
Project description:Expression profiling of wild type and purR deletion strains of E. coli K-12 MG1655 under both M9 minimal media and addition of adenine.
Project description:Substrains in Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 can possess various swimming motility, which is mostly resulted from different expression levels of flhDC. Here, we studied the swimming motility of two MG1655 substrains, CY562 and CY570. Our results showed that CY562 had no insertion at the promoter region of flhDC and possessed no swimming motility. In contrast, CY570 had an IS-element insertion at the promoter region of flhDC and showed a hyper-motile phenotype. Transcriptomic data suggest that expression of flhDC and the other known flagella genes was much lower in CY562 than that in CY570. Moreover, CY562 possessed higher expression levels for genes involved in stress response, especially acid-stress response, than CY570. Consistently, CY562 showed a higher survival rate under acid stress than CY570. Our data indicate that there are mechanisms conversely regulating motility and stress response in E. coli.
Project description:In this project, we investigated whether diverse spirochete species contain lysinoalanine cross-linkages between conserved residues in their flagellar hook proteins (FlgE). We examined the following species: Treponema denticola¸ Borreliella burgdorferi, Treponema phagedenis, Treponema pallidum, Brachyspira hyodysenteriae, Leptospira interrogans. For each bacterial species, we examined a variety of different sample types, including recombinantly produced FlgE, polyhooks purified from flik knock-out strains, and wild-type periplasmic filaments. Overall, our data suggests that lysinoalanine crosslinking in a conserved FlgE post-translational modification in spirochetes and is required for the unique motility of these organisms. For more information, please see the following manuscript: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.13.544825.