Project description:<p>The study of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in infectious diarrhea has generally been limited to cultivation, antimicrobial susceptibility testing and targeted PCR assays. When individual strains of significance are identified, whole genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing of important clones and clades is performed. Genes that encode resistance to antibiotics have been detected in environmental, insect, human and animal metagenomes and are known as "resistomes". While metagenomic datasets have been mined to characterize the healthy human gut resistome in the Human Microbiome Project and MetaHIT and in a Yanomani Amerindian cohort, directed metagenomic sequencing has not been used to examine the epidemiology of AMR. Especially in developing countries where sanitation is poor, diarrhea and enteric pathogens likely serve to disseminate antibiotic resistance elements of clinical significance. Unregulated use of antibiotics further exacerbates the problem by selection for acquisition of resistance. This is exemplified by recent reports of multiple antibiotic resistance in Shigella strains in India, in Escherichia coli in India and Pakistan, and in nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) in South-East Asia. We propose to use deep metagenomic sequencing and genome level assembly to study the epidemiology of AMR in stools of children suffering from diarrhea. Here the epidemiology component will be surveillance and analysis of the microbial composition (to the bacterial species/strain level where possible) and its constituent antimicrobial resistance genetic elements (such as plasmids, integrons, transposons and other mobile genetic elements, or MGEs) in samples from a cohort where diarrhea is prevalent and antibiotic exposure is endemic. The goal will be to assess whether consortia of specific mobile antimicrobial resistance elements associate with species/strains and whether their presence is enhanced or amplified in diarrheal microbiomes and in the presence of antibiotic exposure. This work could potentially identify clonal complexes of organisms and MGEs with enhanced resistance and the potential to transfer this resistance to other enteric pathogens.</p> <p>We have performed WGS, metagenomic assembly and gene/protein mapping to examine and characterize the types of AMR genes and transfer elements (transposons, integrons, bacteriophage, plasmids) and their distribution in bacterial species and strains assembled from DNA isolated from diarrheal and non-diarrheal stools. The samples were acquired from a cohort of pediatric patients and controls from Colombia, South America where antibiotic use is prevalent. As a control, the distribution and abundance of AMR genes can be compared to published studies where resistome gene lists from healthy cohort sequences were compiled. Our approach is more epidemiologic in nature, as we plan to identify and catalogue antimicrobial elements on MGEs capable of spread through a local population and further we will, where possible, link mobile antimicrobial resistance elements with specific strains within the population.</p>
Project description:Biocides are chemical compounds widely used in hospital settings for a variety of purposes, but mainly for disinfection. The chemical properties of a biocide, as well as the biocide concentration, influence which cellular targets are affected. Exposure of bacteria to residual concentrations of biocides could lead to development of increased resistance towards the biocide in use, as well as cross-resistance towards other antimicrobials, including antibiotics. The aim of this study was to examine whether biocides could induce any potentially relevant genes that could affect pathogen's drug resistance or fitness. By examining global gene expression of the uropathogenic Escherichia coli CFT073 after exposure to subinhibitory concentrations of four biocides (benzalkonium chloride - BAC, chlorhexidine - CHX, hydrogen peroxide - H2O2, triclosan - TSN), we found that each biocide changed expression of different groups of genes and that exposure to benzalkonum chloride caused changes in expression of the largest number of genes among all biocides. In general, the four biocides tested in this study at subinhibitory concentrations did not increase the resistance potential of the pathogen to other antimicrobials. We could, however, identify clusters of genes that could possibly help the strain to grow in the presence of a biocide in the medium.
Project description:Triclosan is a biocidal active agent commonly found in domestic cleaning products, hand sanitizers, cosmetics and personal care products. It is used to control microbial contamination and has a broad-spectrum of activity against many Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The development of triclosan tolerance with potential cross resistance to clinically relevant antibiotics in zoonotic pathogens is of concern given the widespread use of this active agent in clinical, food processing and domestic environments. Some studies have proposed that an over-dependence on triclosan-containing products could lead to the emergence of clinically important pathogens that are highly tolerant to both biocides and antibiotics. Currently, there is limited understanding of the mechanisms contributing to the emergence of triclosan tolerance in foodborne pathogens at a genetic level. We used microarray analysis to compare gene expression between a wildtype E. coli O157:H19 isolate (WT) with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) to triclosan of 6.25 ug/ml and its laboratory generated triclosan tolerant mutant (M) with a MIC of >8000 ug/ml.
Project description:Biocides are chemical compounds widely used in hospital settings for a variety of purposes, but mainly for disinfection. The chemical properties of a biocide, as well as the biocide concentration, influence which cellular targets are affected. Exposure of bacteria to residual concentrations of biocides could lead to development of increased resistance towards the biocide in use, as well as cross-resistance towards other antimicrobials, including antibiotics. The aim of this study was to examine whether biocides could induce any potentially relevant genes that could affect pathogen's drug resistance or fitness. By examining global gene expression of the uropathogenic Escherichia coli CFT073 after exposure to subinhibitory concentrations of five biocides (benzalkonium chloride - BAC, chlorhexidine - CHX, ethanol - EtOH, hydrogen peroxide - H2O2, triclosan - TSN), we found that each biocide changed expression of different groups of genes and that exposure to ethanol caused changes in expression of the largest number of genes among all biocides. In general, the five biocides tested in this study at subinhibitory concentrations did not increase the resistance potential of the pathogen to other antimicrobials. We could, however, identify clusters of genes that could possibly help the strain to grow in the presence of a biocide in the medium. A culture of E. coli CFT073 without any biocide treatment served as the control sample. That culture was grown under the exact same conditions as the five biocide-treated samples. Each sample was collected in three biological replicates at the mid-exponential phase of growth.
Project description:Rice is a staple food crop worldwide, and its production is severely threatened by phloem-feeding insect herbivores, particularly the brown planthopper (BPH, Nilaparvata lugens), and destructive pathogens. Despite the identification of many BPH resistance genes, the molecular basis of rice resistance to BPH remains largely unclear. Here, we report that the plant elicitor peptide (Pep) signalling confers rice resistance to BPH. Both rice PEP RECEPTORs (PEPRs) and PRECURSORs of PEP (PROPEPs), particularly OsPROPEP3, were transcriptionally induced in leaf sheaths upon BPH infestation. Knockout of OsPEPRs impaired rice resistance to BPH, whereas exogenous application of OsPep3 improved the resistance. Hormone measurement and co-profiling of transcriptomics and metabolomics in OsPep3-treated rice leaf sheaths suggested potential contributions of jasmonic acid biosynthesis, lipid metabolism and phenylpropanoid metabolism to OsPep3-induced rice immunity. Moreover, OsPep3 elicitation also strengthened rice resistance to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae and bacterial pathogen Xanthamonas oryzae pv. oryzae and provoked immune responses in wheat. Collectively, this work demonstrates a previously unappreciated importance of the Pep signalling in plants for combating piercing-sucking insect herbivores and promises exogenous application of OsPep3 as an eco-friendly immune stimulator in agriculture for crop protection against a broad spectrum of insect pests and pathogens.
Project description:Vascular plant diseases, such as rice bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) and crucifer black rot caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc), cause huge yield loss of crops worldwide. However, how plants operate vascular defense against these obligate pathogens remains elusive. In this study, we used both Arabidopsis and rice pathosystems to address the long-standing question. We found that the loss of function mutation of Arabidopsis mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphatase 1 (MKP1) lost the non-host resistance to Xoo and supported Xoo to grow in the leaf veins, which also enhanced susceptibility to Xcc. MKP1 regulates the MPK3-mediated phosphorylation of the transcription factor MYB4 that functions in vascular lignification. Importantly, the MKP-MAPK cascade-mediated lignin biosynthesis is also conserved in rice through regulating OsMYB102 and OsMYB108, which control rice vascular resistance to adapted Xoo. Interestingly, the Arabidopsis and rice mutants enhanced resistance to the mesophyll cell pathogens most likely through upregulating salicylic acid biosynthesis, Pseudomonas syringae (P. syringae) and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicole (Xoc), respectively; strongly suggesting that this immune mechanism is likely specific to the obligate vascular pathogens. Therefore, our study uncovers a previously unrecognized vascular-specific and lignin-based immune mechanism, shedingshedding new sight on tissue-specific immunity in plants, as well as providing a practical approach for improvement of disease resistance against vascular pathogens in crops
Project description:Among both healthy and immunocompromised patient populations, pneumonia is a leading cause of death worldwide. Yet, despite structural vulnerability resulting in recurrent exposure to pathogens, the lungs’ mucosal immunity successfully suppresses most infections. We recently reported that these innate defenses can be substantially augmented by inhalational exposure to a crude bacterial lysate, protecting broadly against respiratory pathogens, including lethal pneumonia caused by bacteria, fungi or viruses. The phenomenon of inducible resistance is associated with rapid pathogen killing in the lungs and persists in the absence of the typical leukocytes of innate immunity. Rather, the respiratory epithelium appears to be the predominant effector. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are highly conserved pattern recognition receptors crucial to host defense through the sensing of pathogen associated molecular patterns. Given the importance of TLRs to mucosal immunity, the presence of numerous pathogen associated molecular patterns in the bacterial lysate, and the induction of many TLR-dependent genes following lysate treatment, we hypothesized that induced resistance follows simultaneous stimulation of multiple TLRs. To test this, we challenged mice deficient in TLR/IL1R adaptor proteins and found that resistance could not be induced in mice lacking MyD88. Having identified this phenomenon to be MyD88-dependent, we sought to determine whether the protective phenomenon could be recapitulated by treatment with synthetic TLR agonists. Mice were treated with aerosolized TLR ligands, alone and in combination, prior to infection with virulent pathogens. While limited protection against pneumonia was afforded by the individual TLR ligands, we discovered that the synergistic combination of diacylated lipopetide TLR2/6 agonist Pam2CSK4 and CpG oligodeoxynucleotide TLR9 agonist ODN2395 induced profound resistance against all tested pathogens. This combination also induced greater than additive pathogen killing in the lungs of challenged mice, and we found that the combination could effectively induce pathogen killing by respiratory epithelial cells in vitro. In order to better understand the mechanisms underlying the inducible pathogen killing by this unique combination of TLR agonists, we performed microarray analysis of murine MLE-15 respiratory epithelial cells following 4 h treatment with PBS (sham treatment), Pam2CSK4 alone, ODN2395 alone, or the combination of both agonists, using Illumina Sentrix MouseRef-8 v2 BeadChips. This allows for assessment of differential gene expression, not only between treated and untreated, but between single and combination treated. The intent of the experiment is to gain insight into the transcriptionally-regulated means by which TLR2/6 and TLR9 signaling pathways synergistically interact. Keywords: Differential expression, epithelium, in vitro
Project description:Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient disease caused by the intracellular bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens to bring Mtb to the forefront of bacterial pathogens as the current treatments are increasingly becoming ineffective. Understanding the development of AMR and the virulence processes of Mtb is crucial for the identification of new drug targets and the rational design of anti-TB treatments. One of the established mechanisms of resistance is through the function of efflux proteins, which are transmembrane transporters that bind and remove antibiotic molecules out from the cell. Here, we determine the role of Rv3728, a major facilitator superfamily (MFS) efflux pump protein, which also predicted to bind 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). Using bioinformatic tools and cAMP binding assay, we confirm that Rv3728 binds to cAMP and identified E597 and R606 as important residues involved in binding. Although Rv3728 deletion has no impact on bacterial resistance and tolerance to different antibiotics, it affects membrane permeability and alters the acylation profile of phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannosides lipids.
Project description:The present project investigates transcriptomics changes in laboratory mutants of Salmonella typhimurium SL1344 obtained by pre-exposure to biocides, including triclosan (TRI), benzalkonium chloride (BZC), and chlorexidine (CHX), and antibiotics including Ampicillin (AP) and ciprofloxacin (Cip), as well as in natural isolates selected for their resistance to these same biocides. Changes in gene expression were investigated using a 12k combimatrix customarray, design-based on the genome of SL1344 as well as a variety of genes of plasmid origins.