Project description:Lipo-chitooligosaccharides (LCOs) are historically known for their role as microbial-derived signaling molecules that shape plant symbiosis with beneficial rhizobia or mycorrhizal fungi. Recent studies showing that LCOs are widespread across the fungal kingdom have raised questions about the ecological function of these compounds in organisms that do not form symbiotic relationships with plants. To elucidate the ecological function of these compounds, we investigate the metabolomic response of the ubiquitous human pathogen, Aspergillus fumigatus, to LCOs. Our metabolomics data revealed that exogenous application of various types of LCOs to A. fumigatus resulted in significant shifts in fungal metabolic profile, with marked changes in the production of specialized metabolites known to mediate ecological interactions. Using network analyses, we identify specific types of LCOs with the most significant effect on the abundance of known metabolites. Extracts of several LCO-induced metabolic profiles significantly impact the growth rates of diverse bacterial species. These findings suggest that LCOs may play an important role in the competitive dynamics of non-plant-symbiotic fungi and bacteria. This study identifies specific metabolomic profiles induced by these ubiquitously produced chemicals and creates a foundation for future studies into the potential roles of LCOs as modulators of interkingdom competition.
Project description:miRNAs are small non-coding regulatory RNAs that play important functions in the regulation of gene expression at the post-transcriptional level by targeting mRNAs for degradation or by inhibiting protein translation. Eugenia uniflora is a plant native to tropical America with pharmacological and ecological importance without previous studies about its gene expression and regulation. To date, there is not miRNAs reported in species of Myrtaceae. A small RNA library was constructed to identify miRNAs in Eugenia uniflora. Solexa technology was used to perform high throughput sequencing of the library and the data obtained was analysed using bioinformatics tools. From 14,489,131 clean reads, we obtained 1,852,722 small RNAs representing 45 known miRNA families that have been identified in other plant species. Further analysis using contigs assembled from Illumina mRNA sequencing of leaves from the same individual allowed the prediction of secondary structures of 25 known and 17 novel miRNAs. Potential targets were predicted for the most abundant mature miRNAs in the identified pre-miRNAs based on sequence homology. This study provide the first large scale identification of miRNAs and their potential targets of a species from Myrtaceae without previous genomic sequence resources. Our study provides more information about the evolutionary conservation of the regulatory network of miRNAs in plants and highlights the miRNAs species-specific. microRNA profiles in 1 leaf library of Eugenia uniflora by deep sequencing (Illumina HiSeq2000)
Project description:miRNAs are small non-coding regulatory RNAs that play important functions in the regulation of gene expression at the post-transcriptional level by targeting mRNAs for degradation or by inhibiting protein translation. Eugenia uniflora is a plant native to tropical America with pharmacological and ecological importance without previous studies about its gene expression and regulation. To date, there is not miRNAs reported in species of Myrtaceae. A small RNA library was constructed to identify miRNAs in Eugenia uniflora. Solexa technology was used to perform high throughput sequencing of the library and the data obtained was analysed using bioinformatics tools. From 14,489,131 clean reads, we obtained 1,852,722 small RNAs representing 45 known miRNA families that have been identified in other plant species. Further analysis using contigs assembled from Illumina mRNA sequencing of leaves from the same individual allowed the prediction of secondary structures of 25 known and 17 novel miRNAs. Potential targets were predicted for the most abundant mature miRNAs in the identified pre-miRNAs based on sequence homology. This study provide the first large scale identification of miRNAs and their potential targets of a species from Myrtaceae without previous genomic sequence resources. Our study provides more information about the evolutionary conservation of the regulatory network of miRNAs in plants and highlights the miRNAs species-specific. mRNA profiles in 1 leaf library of Eugenia uniflora by deep sequencing (Illumina HiSeq2000)