Project description:Biomineralization is a naturally occurred process, by which microorganism reduced mental ions to minerals. Bacteria-driven biomineralization is most applied in metal recycling or environmental governance, the biomineralized products are rarely used. This probably due to the attachments of microorganism derived components on minerals, such as proteins, which are treated as impurities and hard to remove. However, these microorganism generated molecules are potent in activation of immune systems, suggesting promising potentials of biomineralized products in developing immunotherapeutic strategies. In this research, we analyzed the protein components on DH5a Escherichia coli produced gold nanoparticles, to explored the generation process of gold nanoparticles in bacterial cells, as well as its immune adjuvant potentials.
2023-08-25 | PXD044359 | Pride
Project description:Research on environmental microorganisms
Project description:Staphylococcus saprophyticus is a gram-positive microorganism responsible for urinary tract infections (UTIs). Although some virulence factors have been characterized, such as urease, autolysins, adhesins, hemagglutinins and cell wall proteins, large-scale proteomic studies have not been performed within this species. In our research, we performed the characterization of the exoproteome from three clinical S. saprophyticus strains (ATCC 15305-capsular strain, 7108 non-capsular strain and 9325, a strain containing a thick capsule) which were cultured until the stationary phase of bacterial growth by using mass spectrometry approach. In these strains we observed a core of 72 secreted proteins. In addition, we identified proteins that were not secreted by all the strains. It was possible to detect diversity in the protein profiles of the exoproteomes, and consequently proteins that were differentially expressed were identified. Interestingly, strain 7108 presented no secretion of three antigenic proteins, including the classical SsaA antigen. In addition, the level of antigenic proteins secreted by strain 9325 was higher than in ATCC 15305. This result was confirmed by Western blot analysis using anti-SsaA polyclonal antibodies, and no production or secretion of SsaA was detected in strain 7108. Moreover, when compared with the other strains that were analyzed, it was possible to detect higher levels of proteases secreted by strain 7108. The results reveal diversity in protein secretion among strains. This research is an important first step towards understanding the variability in S. saprophyticus and could be significant in explaining differences in virulence.
Project description:Cryptococcus neoformans (Cn) is an opportunistic fungal microorganism that causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis. Calorie restriction is an intervention that extends the lifespan of Cn. The mating types of Cn have striking differences in prevalence in both environmental and clinical settings. This is hypothesized to be due to differences in stress responses between mating types. Using RNAseq, we investigated how the two mating types respond to the stress of starvation during calorie restriction.