Project description:Globally, multiple heavy metal contamination is an increasingly common problem. As heavy metals have the potential to disrupt microbially-mediated biogeochemical cycling, it is critical to understand their impact on microbial physiology. However, systems-level studies on the effects of a combination of heavy metals on bacteria are lacking. Here, we use a native Bacillus cereus isolate from the subsurface of the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR; Oak Ridge, TN, USA) subsurface— representing a highly abundant species at the site— to assess the combined impact of eight metal contaminants. Using this metal mixture and individual metals, all at concentrations based on the ORR site geochemistry, we performed growth experiments and proteomic analyses of the B. cereus strain, in combination with targeted MS-based metabolomics and gene expression profiling. We found that the combination of eight metals impacts cell physiology in a manner that could not have been predicted from summing phenotypic responses to the individual metals. Specifically, exposure to the metal mixture elicited global iron starvation responses not observed in any of the individual metal treatments. As nitrate is also a significant contaminant at the ORR site and nitrate and nitrite reductases are iron-containing enzymes, we also examined the effects of the metal mixture on reduction of nitrogen oxides. We found that the metal mixture inhibits the activity of these enzymes through a combination of direct enzymatic damage and post-transcriptional and post-translational regulation. Altogether, these data suggest that metal mixture studies are critical for understanding how multiple rather than individual metals influence microbial processes in the environment.
Project description:This study aimed to investigate the transcriptional differences to metal exposure in two populations of Brown trout. These trout were taken from two separate locations, one population with historic exposure to metals and evidence of metal tolerance, and a second population from a clean environment. These fish were then exposed to metals within a laboratory environment and the transcriptional response before and after exposure was assessed in both liver and gill tissues. Six biological replicates were taken from each condition/population/tissue combination.
Project description:Background: The high number of heavy metal resistance genes in the soil bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 makes it an interesting model organism to study microbial responses to heavy metals. Results: In this study the transcriptional response of this bacterium was measured after challenging it to a wide range of sub-lethal concentrations of various essential or toxic metals. Considering the global transcriptional responses for each challenge as well as by identifying the overlap in upregulated genes between different metal responses, the sixteen metals could be clustered in three different groups. Additionally, next to the assessment of the transcriptional response of already known metal resistance genes, new metal response gene clusters were identified. The majority of the metal response loci showed similar expression profiles when cells were exposed to different metals, suggesting complex cross-talk at transcriptional level between the different metal responses. The highly redundant nature of these metal resistant regions – illustrated by the large number of paralogous genes – combined with the phylogenetic distribution of these metal response regions within evolutionary related and other metal resistant bacteria, provides important insights on the recent evolution of this naturally soil dwelling bacterium towards a highly metal-resistant strain found in harsh and anthropogenic environments. Conclusions: The metal-resistant soil bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 displays myriads of gene expression patterns when exposed to a wide range of heavy metals at non-lethal concentrations. The interplay between the different gene expression clusters points towards a complex cross-regulated regulatory network governing heavy metal resistance in C. metallidurans CH34. Keywords: Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34, transcriptional regulation, heavy metal resistance
Project description:Background: The high number of heavy metal resistance genes in the soil bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 makes it an interesting model organism to study microbial responses to heavy metals. Results: In this study the transcriptional response of this bacterium was measured after challenging it to a wide range of sub-lethal concentrations of various essential or toxic metals. Considering the global transcriptional responses for each challenge as well as by identifying the overlap in upregulated genes between different metal responses, the sixteen metals could be clustered in three different groups. Additionally, next to the assessment of the transcriptional response of already known metal resistance genes, new metal response gene clusters were identified. The majority of the metal response loci showed similar expression profiles when cells were exposed to different metals, suggesting complex cross-talk at transcriptional level between the different metal responses. The highly redundant nature of these metal resistant regions – illustrated by the large number of paralogous genes – combined with the phylogenetic distribution of these metal response regions within evolutionary related and other metal resistant bacteria, provides important insights on the recent evolution of this naturally soil dwelling bacterium towards a highly metal-resistant strain found in harsh and anthropogenic environments. Conclusions: The metal-resistant soil bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 displays myriads of gene expression patterns when exposed to a wide range of heavy metals at non-lethal concentrations. The interplay between the different gene expression clusters points towards a complex cross-regulated regulatory network governing heavy metal resistance in C. metallidurans CH34. Keywords: Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34, transcriptional regulation, heavy metal resistance Two-condition experiments. Comparing samples after induction with heavy metals versus non-induced samples. Biological duplicate or triplicate. Each array contains 3 or 4 technical replicates.
Project description:Many veterans live with military grade heavy metal fragments retained in soft tissue. Retained heavy metal fragments may negatively impact health in various organ systems and can manifest as gastrointestinal, neurocognitive, pulmonary and renal disturbances. As such, a better understanding of the long-term effects of retained metals and identification of biomarkers indicative of detrimental health outcomes would benefit clinical decision making. In this study, we analyzed urine microRNAs from rats with military-relevant pure metals implanted in the gastrocnemius muscle for 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. Our results provide potential tissue targets affected by metal exposure and a list of unique or common urine microRNA biomarkers indicative of exposure to one or more metals, highlighting a complex systemic response.
Project description:Given that transition metals are essential cofactors in central biological processes, misallocation of the wrong metal ion to a metalloprotein can have resounding and often detrimental effects on diverse aspects of cellular physiology. Therefore, in an attempt to characterize unique and shared responses to chemically similar metals we have reconstructed physiological behaviors of Halobacterium NRC-1, an archaeal halophile, in sub-lethal levels of Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II). Over 20% of all genes responded transiently within minutes of exposure to Fe(II), perhaps reflecting immediate large scale physiological adjustments to maintain homeostasis. At steady state, each transition metal induced growth arrest, attempts to minimize oxidative stress, toxic ion scavenging, increased protein turnover and DNA repair, and modulation of active ion transport. While several of these constitute generalized stress responses, up regulation of active efflux of Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II), down regulation of Mn(II) uptake and up regulation of Fe(II) chelation, confer resistance to the respective metals. We have synthesized all these discoveries into a unified systems level model to provide an integrated perspective of responses to six transition metals with emphasis on experimentally verified regulatory mechanisms. Finally, through comparisons across global transcriptional responses to different metals we provide insights into putative in vivo metal selectivity of metalloregulatory proteins and demonstrate that a systems approach can help rapidly unravel novel metabolic potential and regulatory programs of poorly studied organisms. Keywords: stress response, dose response
Project description:Heavy metals are essential integral parts of cells and environmental toxicants, whose deregulation is associated with severe cellular dysfunction and various diseases. The Hippo pathway plays a critical role in organ size control and cancer development. In this study, we use RNA-Seq to investigate the role of the Hippo pathway in regulating heavy metal response gene transcription. Specifically, the difference of transcriptional profiles between the wild-type and the Hippo pathway kinases LATS1/2-deficient HEK293A cells was examined under control- and heavy metals zinc and cadimuim treated-conditions.
Project description:The host protein calprotectin inhibits the growth of a variety of bacterial pathogens through metal sequestration in a process known as 'nutritional immunity'. Staphylococcus aureus growth is inhibited by calprotectin in vitro and calprotectin is localized in vivo to staphylococcal abscesses during infection. However, the staphylococcal adaptations that provide defense against nutritional immunity and the role of metal-responsive regulators are not fully characterized. In this work, we define the transcriptional response of S. aureus and the role of the metal-responsive regulators, Zur, Fur, and MntR, in response to metal limitation by calprotectin exposure. Additionally, we identified genes affecting the fitness of S. aureus during metal limitation through a Transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) approach. Loss of function mutations in clpP, which encodes a proteolytic subunit of the ATP-dependent Clp protease, demonstrate reduced fitness of S. aureus to the presence of calprotectin. ClpP contributes to pathogenesis in vivo in a calprotectin-dependent manner. These studies establish a critical role for ClpP to combat metal limitation by calprotectin and reveal the genes required for S. aureus to outcompete the host for metals.
Project description:A novel ArsR-SmtB family transcriptional repressor, KmtR, has been characterised from mycobacteria. Mutants of M. tuberculosis lacking kmtR show elevated expression of Rv2025c encoding a deduced CDF-family metal-exporter. KmtR-dependent repression of the cdf and kmtR operator-promoters was alleviated by nickel and cobalt in minimal medium. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) and fluorescence anisotropy (FA) show binding of purified KmtR to nucleotide sequences containing a region of dyad symmetry from the cdf and kmtR operator-promoters. A relatively large deltar(obs) in FA implies formation of high order apo-KmtR(n)-DNA and multiple complexes were detected by EMSA. Incubation of KmtR with cobalt inhibits DNA-complex assembly and metal-protein binding was confirmed by competition against 4-(2-pyridylazo)-resorcinol. KmtR is the second, to NmtR, characterised ArsR-SmtB sensor of nickel and cobalt from M. tuberculosis suggesting special significance for these ions in this pathogen. KmtR-dependent expression is elevated in complete medium with no increase in response to metals, while NmtR retains a response to nickel and cobalt under these conditions. Mixing equimolar apo-KmtR and apo-NmtR with 0.8 equivalents of nickel or cobalt gave nickel- and cobalt-dependent difference emission spectra similar to nickel(0.8)-KmtR and cobalt(0.8)-KmtR, respectively. Thus, KmtR has tighter affinities for nickel and cobalt than NmtR consistent with basal levels of these metals being sensed by KmtR but not NmtR in complete medium. More than a thousand genes encoding ArsR-SmtB related proteins are listed in databases and a proportion can be predicted to detect metals through known allosteric sites. KmtR has none of the previously defined sites. Substitution of His(88), Glu(101), His(102), His(110) or His(111) with Gln generated KmtR-variants that repress the cdf and kmtR operator-promoters even in elevated nickel and cobalt, revealing a new sensory site. Importantly, ArsR-SmtB sequence groupings do not correspond with the different sensory-motifs revealing that only the latter should be used to predict metal-sensing. Data is also available from http://bugs.sgul.ac.uk/E-BUGS-49