Project description:Sinorhizobium meliloti can live as a soil saprophyte, and can engage in a nitrogen fixing symbiosis with plant roots. To succeed in such diverse environments, the bacteria must continually adjust gene expression. Transcriptional plasticity in eubacteria is often mediated by alternative sigma factors interacting with core RNA polymerase. The S. meliloti genome encodes 14 of these alternative sigmas, including two putative RpoH (heat shock) sigmas. We used custom Affymetrix Symbiosis Chips to characterize the global transcriptional response of S. meliloti rpoH1, rpoH2 and rpoH1 rpoH2 mutants during heat shock and stationary phase growth. Under these conditions, expression of over 300 genes is dependent on rpoH1 and rpoH2.
Project description:Sinorhizobium meliloti lives as a soil saprophyte, and engages in a nitrogen fixing symbiosis with plant roots. To succeed in such diverse environments, the bacteria must continually adjust gene expression. Transcriptional plasticity in eubacteria is often mediated by alternative sigma factors interacting with core RNA polymerase. The S. meliloti genome encodes 14 of these alternative sigmas, including 11 extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigmas. We used custom Affymetrix Symbiosis Chips to characterize the global transcriptional response of S. meliloti overexpressing the ECF sigma factor, RpoE2. Our work identifies over 200 genes whose expression is dependent on RpoE2.
Project description:Sinorhizobium meliloti, a facultative microsymbiont of alfalfa, should fine-tune its cellular processes to live saprophytically in soils characterized with limited nutrients and diverse stresses. In this study, TiO2 enrichment and LC-MS/MS were used to uncover the site-specific Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphoproteome of S. meliloti in minimum medium at stationary phase. There are a total of 96 unique phosphorylated sites, with a Ser/Thr/Tyr distribution of 65:32:5, in 78 proteins. Phosphoproteins identified in S. meliloti showed a wide distribution pattern regarding to functional categories, such as replication, transcription, translation, posttranslational modification, transport and metabolism of amino acids, carbohydrate, inorganic ion, succinoglycan etc. Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphosites identified within the conserved motif in proteins of key cellular function indicate a crucial role of phosphorylation in modulating cellular physiology. Moreover, phosphorylation events potentially involved in rhizobial adaptation to diverse stresses were also discussed, such as those identified in SMa0114 and PhaP2 (polyhydroxybutyrate synthesis), ActR (pH stress and microaerobic adaption), SupA (potassium stress), chaperonin GroEL2 (viability and potentially symbiosis), and ExoP (succinoglycan synthesis and secretion). These Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphosites identified herein would be helpful for our further investigation and understanding of the role of phosphorylation in rhizobial physiology.