Project description:Sorghum bicolor is one of the most important cereal crops in the world, predominantly grown in sub‑Saharan Africa by smallholder farmers. Despite its outstanding resilience to abiotic stresses, approximately 20% of sorghum yield is annually lost on the African continent due to infestation with the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica. Existing Striga management strategies to decrease Striga infestation often show low efficiency and are not easily integrated into current agricultural practices. Microbial-based solutions may prove an effective, low-cost mode for reducing Striga parasitism in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we demonstrate that the microbiome component of a field soil suppresses Striga infection of sorghum. Potential mechanisms underlying the soil microbiome’s influence on the host plant include root endodermal suberization and aerenchyma formation. Moreover, we observed a depletion of haustorium inducing factors, compounds essential for Striga to establish the host-parasite association, in root exudates collected from sorghum grown in the presence of the soil microbiome as compared to sterile conditions. We further identified individual microbial taxa associated with reduced Striga infection via changes in root cellular anatomy and differentiation as well as in exudate composition. Our study identifies a suite of traits that can be harnessed by individual microbial isolates or their consortia to induce Striga resistance. Combining microbes that elicit Striga resistance directly (affecting the parasite) via repression of haustorium formation with those that act indirectly (affecting the host), by reducing of Striga penetration through root tissue, can broaden the effectiveness of microbe-induced protection from Striga.
Project description:Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a disease of major economic importance in Sub-Saharan Africa. In eastern and southern Africa. Here we analysed clinical isolates of T brucei rhodensiense, resistant to suramin by shotgun proteomics . And identified parasite proteins whose expression is associated with resistance to suramin.
Project description:Non-typhoidal Salmonella serotypes (NTS) cause a self-limited gastroenteritis while pediatric patients with severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria can develop a life threatening bacteremia that is a major source of child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. We used microarrays to detail genome-scale gene expression profiles underlying gastrointestinal immune responses to bacterial infection in mice
Project description:Microbial communities in the rhizosphere make significant contributions to crop health and nutrient cycling. However, their ability to perform important biogeochemical processes remains uncharacterized. Important functional genes, which characterize the rhizosphere microbial community, were identified to understand metabolic capabilities in the maize rhizosphere using GeoChip 3.0-based functional gene array method.
Project description:Cervical cancer remains a significant health challenge for women worldwide, with a disproportionate impact on developing regions like sub-Saharan Africa. Taking advantage of recent advancements in developing suitable preclinical models to study cell proliferation, differentiation, and gene expression, we used RNA sequencing to compare the transcriptomic profiles of SiHa cervical cancer cells grown in 3D versus 2D culture systems.
Project description:Custom made functional gene micoarray (E-FGA) consisting of 13,056 mRNA-enriched anonymus microbial clones from dirverse microbial communities to profile microbial gene transcript in agricultural soils with low and high flux of N2O. A total of 96 genes displayed expression that differed significantly between low and high N2O emitting soils. Creation and validation of an cDNA microarray from environmental microbial mRNA, to use as a monitoring tool for microbial gene expression
Project description:Despite the global importance of forests, it is virtually unknown how their soil microbial communities adapt at the phylogenetic and functional level to long term metal pollution. Studying twelve sites located along two distinct gradients of metal pollution in Southern Poland revealed that both community composition (via MiSeq Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes) and functional gene potential (using GeoChip 4.2) were highly similar across the gradients despite drastically diverging metal contamination levels. Metal pollution level significantly impacted microbial community structure (p = 0.037), but not bacterial taxon richness. Metal pollution altered the relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa, including Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Planctomycetes and Proteobacteria. Also, a group of metal resistance genes showed significant correlations with metal concentrations in soil, although no clear impact of metal pollution levels on overall functional diversity and structure of microbial communities was observed. While screens of phylogenetic marker genes, such as 16S rRNA, provided only limited insight into resilience mechanisms, analysis of specific functional genes, e.g. involved in metal resistance, appeared to be a more promising strategy. This study showed that the effect of metal pollution on soil microbial communities was not straightforward, but could be filtered out from natural variation and habitat factors by multivariate statistical analysis and spatial sampling involving separate pollution gradients.