Project description:Rationale: Tuberculosis has a devastating impact on global health by claiming nearly 1.4 million lives each year. During infection Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis, produces heterogenous populations some of which don’t produce colonies on agar but grow in liquid media and often require supplementation with culture supernatants or recombinant Resuscitation-promoting factor, thus defined as differentially culturable bacilli. Objectives: to evaluate whether exposure to nitric oxide (NO), a well-known host defence molecule, alters mycobacterial growth phenotypes and drives generation of Rpf-dependent differentially culturable bacilli. Methods: a novel NO donor was synthesised and tested against Mtb and Mycobacterium bovis BCG in vitro, followed by growth assays, flow cytometry analysis and assessment of transcriptomic responses. Resuscitation-promoting factor (Rpf) inhibitors were used to characterise the role of Rpf proteins in the reactivation of NO-treated mycobacteria. Mycobacterial phenotypes were also investigated during infection of THP-1 macrophages activated with retinoic acid and vitamin D3. Measurements and Main Results: differentially culturable mycobacteria were generated after exposure to the novel NO donor or during infection of activated THP-1 cells. Resuscitation of these differentially culturable bacilli was largely abolished by specific Rpf inhibitors. Transcriptomic analysis revealed redox-associated stress signatures mediated by SigH and SigF, with significant down-regulation of ribosome and cell wall architecture genes, including rpfA, rpfB and rpfE, and induction of genes involved in response to thiol stress, sulphur metabolism and iron acquisition. Conclusion: Our study provides mechanistic insights into the generation of Rpf-dependent Mtb during tuberculosis and outlines a critical role of NO in this process.
Project description:Natural epigenetic variation provides a source for the generation of phenotypic diversity, but to understand its contribution to phenotypic diversity, its interaction with genetic variation requires further investigation. MethylC-seq from naturally-occurring Arabidopsis accessions
Project description:Yeasts, broadly defined as unicellular fungi, fulfill essential roles in soil ecosystems as decomposers and nutrition sources for fellow soil-dwellers. Broad-scale investigations of soil yeasts pose a methodological challenge as metagenomics are of limited use for identifying this group of fungi. Here we characterize global soil yeast diversity using fungal DNA barcoding on 1473 yeasts cultured from 3826 soil samples obtained from nine countries in six continents. We identify mean annual precipitation and international air travel as two significant correlates with soil yeast community structure and composition worldwide. Evidence for anthropogenic influences on soil yeast communities, directly via travel and indirectly via altered rainfall patterns resulting from climate change, is concerning as we found common infectious yeasts frequently distributed in soil in several countries. Our discovery of 41 putative novel species highlights the continued need for culture-based studies to advance our knowledge of environmental yeast diversity.
