Project description:Listeria monocytogenes strain F2365 was the first strain representative of serotype 4b (lineage I) to be sequenced in 2004, suggesting it could become the model organism for this serotype, which is associated with most human outbreaks of listeriosis worldwide to date. F2365 itself is an outbreak strain involved in the Mexican-style soft cheese outbreak in California in 1985. In this study we show through phenotypic and transcriptomic analysis that L. monocytogenes strain F2365 has reduced ability to respond to stress due to the absence of a functional σB-dependent stress response system. F2365 shows no B-dependent ability to survive acid or oxidative stress nor B-dependent ability to infect Caco-2 epithelial cell in vitro or guinea pigs in vivo. Therefore, there is substantial evidence that F2365 is an atypical strain and is not a suitable representative of outbreak-associated serotype 4b strains.
Project description:Listeria monocytogenes strain F2365 was the first strain representative of serotype 4b (lineage I) to be sequenced in 2004, suggesting it could become the model organism for this serotype, which is associated with most human outbreaks of listeriosis worldwide to date. F2365 itself is an outbreak strain involved in the Mexican-style soft cheese outbreak in California in 1985. In this study we show through phenotypic and transcriptomic analysis that L. monocytogenes strain F2365 has reduced ability to respond to stress due to the absence of a functional M-OM-^CB-dependent stress response system. F2365 shows no M-oM-^AM-3B-dependent ability to survive acid or oxidative stress nor M-oM-^AM-3B-dependent ability to infect Caco-2 epithelial cell in vitro or guinea pigs in vivo. Therefore, there is substantial evidence that F2365 is an atypical strain and is not a suitable representative of outbreak-associated serotype 4b strains. Independent RNA isolations were performed for F2365 and M-NM-^TsigB strains from cells grown to early stationary phase. Three biological replicates were used in competitive whole-genome microarray experiments. For each set of hybridizations, RNA from a L. monocytogenes wildtype strain was hybridized with RNA from its isogenic M-NM-^TsigB null mutant.
Project description:Listeria monocytogenes is the ubiquitous food-borne pathogen which causes listeriosis, a disease with a high mortality rate, mostly transmitted through contaminated ready-to-eat foods (EFSA, 2018). To better understand the systemic response of such microorganism exposed at three environmental factors (T, pH and NaCl), the proteome of a L. monocytogenes strain, which was isolated from a meat product (Coppa di testa) linked to a listeriosis outbreak occurred in Marche region (Italy) in 2016, was investigated in order to identify differences in its protein patterns.
Project description:The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) can cause invasive infection in susceptible animals and humans. To survive and proliferate within hosts, this facultative intracellular pathogen needs to tightly coordinate the expression of a complex regulatory network, including virulence factors. Here, we identify and characterize MouR a novel virulence regulator of Lm. Through RNA-seq transcriptomic analysis, we characterized the MouR regulatory network and demonstrated how MouR positively controls the expression of the Agr system (agrBDCA) of Lm. Resolving MouR 3D structure revealed a dimeric DNA-binding transcription factor belonging to the VanR class of the GntR superfamily of regulatory proteins. We showed that by direct binding to the agr promoter region, MouR ultimately modulates chitinase activity and biofilm formation. Importantly, we demonstrated by in vitro cell invasion assays and in vivo mice infections the crucial role of MouR for Lm full virulence.
Project description:The stationary phase stress response transcriptome of the human bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes was defined using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) with the Illumina Genome Analyzer. Specifically, bacterial transcriptomes were compared between stationary phase cells of L. monocytogenes 10403S and an otherwise isogenic DsigB mutant, which does not express the alternative sigma factor M-OM-^CB, a major regulator of genes contributing to stress response. Keywords: Transcriptome and differential expression analyses a laboratory strain, 10403S and its otherwise isogenic mutant lacking sigB were analyzed. Two replicates of each strain were analyzed for a total of 4 runs