Project description:Here, we treated the model cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942 with streptomycin, which selectively binds to bacterial ribosomes, at a concentration of 50 µg/mL and performed transcriptome analysis using RNA sequencing. In addition to antibiotic stress, we treated salt stress (0.4 M NaCl) and performed RNA sequencing analysis.
Project description:Huanglongbing (HLB) is a worldwide devastating disease of citrus. There are no effective control measures for this newly emerging but century-old disease. Previously, we reported a combination of Penicillin G and Streptomycin was effective in eliminating or suppressing the associated bacterium, ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ (Las). Here we report the bacterial composition and community structure in HLB-affected citrus plants during a growing season and while being treated with antibiotic combinations PS (Penicillin G and Streptomycin) and KO (Kasugamycin and Oxytetracycline) using the Phylochip™ G3 array.
Project description:Antibiotic resistance can arise by several mechanisms, including mutation in transcription factors that regulate drug efflux pumps. In this work, we identified EmrR as a MarR family transcription factor involved in antibiotic resistance in Chromobacterium violaceum, a Gram-negative bacterium that occurs in soil and water and can act as a human opportunistic pathogen. Antibiogram and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assays showed that the ΔemrR mutant presented increased resistance to the antibiotic nalidixic acid in respect to the wild-type strain. The emrR gene is near to a putative operon emrCAB, which encode the efflux pump EmrCAB. DNA Microarray analysis showed that EmrR represses the emrCAB operon and some other putative transporters. Northern blot assays validated that EmrR represses the emrCAB operon and this repression can be released by salicylate, but not other compounds such as nalidixic acid or ethidium bromide. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) showed that EmrR binds directly to the promoter regions of emrR, emrCAB and other genes to exert negative regulation. Therefore, in response to compounds as salicylate, EmrR derepresses the operon emrCAB causing overexpression of the efflux pump EmrCAB and increased resistance to nalidixic acid in C. violaceum.
Project description:Bacteria can circumvent the effect of antibiotics by transitioning to a poorly understood physiological state that does not involve conventional genetic elements of resistance. Here we examine antibiotic susceptibility with a Class A β-lactamase+ invasive strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae that was isolated from a lethal outbreak within laboratory colonies of Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus monkeys. Bacterial responses to the ribosomal synthesis inhibitors streptomycin and doxycycline resulted in distinct proteomic adjustments that facilitated decreased susceptibility to each antibiotic.
Project description:Understanding constraints which shape antibiotic resistance is key for predicting and controlling drug resistance. Here, we performed high-throughput laboratory evolution of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and its ciprofloxacin resistance-inducing derivatives.This study aims to explore the mechanism of acquired ciprofloxacin resistance in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae.
Project description:Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major human pathogen in both community and health care settings, which causes a wide range of infections. Its resistance to β-lactam antibiotics and methicillin in particular, greatly complicates treatment options and success rate due to the limited number of antibiotics with activity against MRSA. To further the development of alternative therapeutics, the mechanisms that mediate antibiotic resistance in MRSA need to be fully understood. Cannabinoid compounds including cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabinol (CBN) have shown promise as potential antibiotic adjuvants. In the present study, MRSA cells were subjected to antibiotic stress from methicillin in combination with three cannabinoid compounds, and subsequently analysed using metaproteomics to assess the metabolic response. Subjecting MRSA to methicillin made the cells more viable and increased their energy production, as well as upregulation of penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP2). The cannabinoids all showed antimicrobial activity against MRSA, and inhibited the energy production of the cells as well as PBP2 when used in combination with methicillin. Furthermore, all three cannabinoid compounds inhibited resistance mechanisms in MRSA, resulting in a decrease in the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of methicillin when used in combination.
Project description:Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a serious public and economic threat. The rate of bacteria acquiring AMR surpasses the rate of new antibiotics discovery, projecting more deadly AMR infections in the future. The Pathogen Box is an open-source library of drug-like compounds that can be screened for antibiotic activity. We have screened molecules of the Pathogen Box against Vibrio cholerae, the cholera-causing pathogen, and successfully identified two compounds, MMV687807 and MMV675968, that inhibit growth. RNA-seq analyses of V. cholerae after incubation with each compound revealed that both compounds affect cellular functions on multiple levels including carbon metabolism, iron homeostasis, and biofilm formation. In addition, whole-genome sequencing analysis of spontaneous resistance mutants identified an efflux system that confers resistance to MMV687807. We also identified that the dihydrofolate reductase is the likely target of MMV675968 suggesting it acts as an analog of trimethoprim but with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) 14-fold lower than trimethoprim in molar concentration. In summary, these two compounds that effectively inhibit V. cholerae and other bacteria may lead to the development of new antibiotics for better treatment of the cholera disease.
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a predominant pathogen in chronic lung infections in individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). Epidemic strains of P. aeruginosa, such as the Liverpool Epidemic Strain (LES), are capable of transferring between CF patients and have been associated with increased hospital visits and antibiotic treatments. Comparative genomics and phenotypic assays have shown that antibiotic resistance profiles differ among LES isolates and that genotype–phenotype associations are difficult to establish for resistance phenotypes in clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa based on these comparisons alone. We compared two LES isolates, LESlike1 and LESB58, and the common laboratory strain P. aeruginosa PAO1 using label-free quantitative proteomics to more accurately predict functional differences between strains. The proteomes of the LES isolates were found to be more similar to each other than to PAO1. However, we also observed a number of differences in the abundance of proteins involved in quorum sensing, virulence, and antibiotic resistance, including in the comparison of LESlike1 and LESB58. Specifically, the proteomic data revealed a higher abundance of proteins involved in polymyxin and aminoglycoside resistance in LESlike1. Minimum inhibitory concentration assays confirmed that LESlike1 has higher resistance to antibiotics from these classes. These findings provide an example of the ability of proteomic data to complement genotypic and phenotypic studies to understand resistance in clinical isolates.
Project description:The multidrug resistance-encoding plasmids belonging to the IncA/C incompatibility group have recently emerged among Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica in the United States. These plasmids have a unique genetic structure compared to other enterobacterial plasmid types, a broad host range, and propensity to acquire large numbers of antimicrobial resistance genes via their accessory regions. Using E. coli strain DH5M-NM-1 harboring the prototype IncA/C plasmid pAR060302, we sought to define the baseline transcriptome of IncA/C plasmids under laboratory growth and in the face of selective pressure. The effects of ampicillin, florfenicol or streptomycin exposure were compared to cells left untreated at logarithmic phase using Illumina sequencing (RNA-Seq). Under growth in Luria-Bertani broth lacking antibiotics, much of the backbone of pAR060302 was transcriptionally inactive, including its putative transfer regions. A few plasmid backbone genes of interest were highly transcribed, including genes of a putative toxin-antitoxin system and an H-NS-like transcriptional regulator. In contrast, numerous genes within the accessory regions of pAR060302 were highly transcribed, including the resistance genes floR, blaCMY-2, aadA, and aacA. Antibiotic treatment with ampicillin or streptomycin resulted in no genes being differentially expressed compared to controls lacking antibiotics, suggesting that many of the resistance-associated genes are not differentially expressed due to exposure to these antibiotics. In contrast, florfenicol treatment resulted in the up-regulation of floR and numerous chromosomally encoded genes. Overall, the transcriptome mapping of pAR060302 suggests that it mitigates the fitness costs of carrying resistance-associated genes through global regulation with its transcriptional regulators. Bacterial strains and growth conditions. E. coli strain DH5M-NM-1 harboring pAR060302 was grown in 10 mL DifcoTM Luria-Bertani (LB) broth aliquots at 37M-BM-: C with shaking until an OD600 of 0.5. A total of 8 cultures were independently grown representing two biological replicates per condition tested. Six of the cultures were amended, 2 cultures per antibiotic, with ampicillin (50 M-BM-5g/mL final concentration), florfenicol (30 M-BM-5g/mL final concentration), or streptomycin (50 M-BM-5g/mL final concentration) and allowed to incubate at 37M-BM-: C with shaking for an additional 30 min. Two cultures were not amended with any antibiotic. Cells were pelleted and RNA was purified using a commercially available RNA extraction kit (Qiagen). RNA preparations were then subjected to a DNase treatment to eliminate DNA contamination from the sample (Qiagen). A treatment was also included to deplete ribosomal RNA using a commercially available kit (MicrobExpress, Ambion). The two biological replicates for each growth condition were pooled for sequencing. Ilumina sequencing for transcriptome mapping. cDNA libraries were generated with an insert size of 100 bp and sequenced with 76-base cycles of single-end reads using a Genome Analyzer II (Illumina) platform according to manufacturerM-bM-^@M-^Ys protocols at the Biomedical Genomics Center (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA). Approximately 160,000 plasmid-mapped reads each were obtained for the ampicillin and streptomycin treated samples, and 260,000 plasmid-mapped reads each for the control and florfenicol treatment samples. Genome-mapped read counts were as follows: control, ~6.4 million reads, florfenicol treatment, ~5.7 million reads, ampicillin treatment, ~1.7 million reads, and streptomycin treatment, ~5.2 million reads. We only used those reads uniquely mapped on plasmid or chromosomal DNA for global normalization and further analysis. RNAseq data analysis. cDNA reads were trimmed so that the quality at each base position was above 30 (~15-20 bp) and then mapped either to the E. coli K-12 MG1655 published genome sequence (Genbank accession no. NC_000913) or to the pAR060302 published sequence (Genbank accession no. NC_092692) using BOWTIE. The E. coli strain DH5M-NM-1 has an incomplete annotation and for this reason the E. coli K-12 annotation was used, representing an estimation of differentially expressed genes due to exposure of antimicrobials. The reads mapped per kilobase of gene per million (RPKM) reads was calculated using either the E. coli chromosome or the pAR060302 annotation and was used for global normalization. The per kilobase cDNA length normalized the effect of different length of cDNAs such that the sequence reads have a equal chance to map on the long cDNA regions and the short cDNA regions. After RPKM normalization, each sample is comparable to each other. An R package, DEGseq, was used to identify differentially expressed genes between the control and each antibiotic treatment condition. A cutoff of q-value < 0.05 and a fold change of > 3 were used to measure statistical significance.