Project description:Heat-evolved Symbiodiniaceae can improve the physiological performances of their coral host under heat stress, but their gene expression responses to heat remained unknown. We explore here the transcriptomic basis of differential thermal stress responses between in hospite wild-type and heat-evolved Cladocopium proliferum strains and their coral host Platygyra daedealea.
Project description:Samples are from bacterial cultures of axenic Labrenzia sp. 21p or Marinobacter adhaerens that were incubated in either Symbiodiniaceae (algae) exudate or blank IMK medium.
Project description:We have designed and experimentally validated the BactoChip, a 60-mer oligonucleotide microarray for simultaneous detection and quantification of multiple bacterial species of clinical interest. The Bactochip microarray targets a novel set of high-resolution marker genes, those genes that most unequivocally characterized each bacterial species. The accuracy of the BactoChip microarray was evaluated using the labeled total DNA of single bacterial species at different concentrations (from 65ng to more than 250ng). The specificity of the developed array was further validated using mixed cultures containing up to 15 different bacterial species in even or staggered amount. We employed the Agilent 'Custom HD-CGH 8x15k Array" (catalogue number: G4427A) and the Agilent'Genomic DNA ULS labeling Kit" (catalogue number: 5190-0419). The microarray successfully distinguished among bacterial species from 21 different genera. The BactoChip additionally proved accurate in determining species-level relative abundances over a 10-fold dynamic range in complex bacterial communities. In combination with the continually increasing number of sequenced bacterial genomes, future iterations of the technology could enable to highly accurate clinically-oriented tools for rapid assessment of bacterial community composition and relative abundances.
Project description:Background: While the luminal microbiome composition in the human cervicovaginal tract has been defined, the presence and impact of tissue-adherent ectocervical microbiota remain incompletely understood. Studies of luminal and tissue-associated bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract suggest that they may have distinct roles in health and disease. Here, we performed a multi-omics characterization of paired luminal and tissue samples collected from a clinically well-characterized cohort of Kenyan women. Results: We identified a tissue-adherent bacterial microbiome, with a higher alpha diversity than the luminal microbiome, in which dominant genera overall included Gardnerella and Lactobacillus, followed by Prevotella, Atopobium, and Sneathia. About half of the L. iners dominated luminal samples had a corresponding Gardnerella dominated tissue microbiome. Broadly, the tissue-adherent microbiome was associated with fewer differentially expressed host genes than the luminal microbiome. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that L. crispatus-dominated tissue-adherent communities were associated with protein translation and antimicrobial activity, whereas a highly diverse microbiome was associated with epithelial remodeling and pro-inflammatory pathways. Communities dominated by L. iners and Gardnerella were associated with low host transcriptional activity. Tissue-adherent microbiomes dominated by Lactobacillus and Gardnerella correlated with host protein profiles associated with epithelial barrier stability, and with a more pro-inflammatory profile for the Gardnerella-dominated microbiome group. Tissue samples with a highly diverse composition had a protein profile representing cell proliferation and pro-inflammatory activity. Conclusion: We identified ectocervical tissue-adherent bacterial communities in all study participants. These communities were distinct from cervicovaginal luminal microbiota in a significant proportion of individuals. This difference could possibly explain that L. iners dominant luminal communities have a high probability of transitioning to high diverse bacterial communities including high abundance of Gardnerella. By performing integrative multi-omics analyses we further revealed that bacterial communities at both sites correlated with distinct host gene expression and protein levels. The tissue-adherent bacterial community is similar to vaginal biofilms that significantly impact women’s reproductive and sexual health.