Project description:CroRS is a cell envelope stress response two-component system in the bacterial pathogen Enterococcus faecalis. Antimicrobial tolerance is the ability of an organism to survive, but not proliferate, upon antimicrobial challenge, and is a known precursor to the development of antimicrobial resistance. We have previously shown that CroRS is essential for antimicrobial tolerance in E. faecalis. Therefore, the aim of this experiment was to determine the teixobactin-induced CroRS regulon to identify key pathways of antimicrobial tolerance. To do this, E. faecalis wild-type and a croRS deletion mutant were grown to mid-exponential phase and challenged with and without teixobactin (0.5 ug/ml) for 1 hour. RNA was subsequently extracted, purified and RNA sequenced. RNA libraries were prepped using the Zymo-Seq RiboFree Total RNA-Seq Library Kit. Sequencing was completed using an Illumina MiSeq (v3) system generating 150 bp paired-end reads.
Project description:Enterococcus faecalis is a Gram-positive bacterium that is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections due to its intrinsic resistance to cell wall-active antimicrobials. One critical determinant of this resistance is the transmembrane kinase IreK, which belongs to the PASTA kinase family of bacterial signaling proteins involved with the regulation of cell wall homeostasis. IreK has enhanced activity in response to cell wall stress, but direct substrates of IreK phosphorylation leading to antimicrobial resistance are largely unknown. To better understand stress-modulated phosphorylation events contributing to virulence, wild type E. faecalis treated with cell wall-active chlorhexidine and ceftriaxone were examined via phosphoproteomics. Among the most prominent changes were increased phosphorylation of divisome components after both treatments, implicating cell division proteins in antimicrobial defense signaling. Phosphorylation mediated by IreK was then determined via similar analysis with a E. faecalis ΔireK mutant strain, revealing potential IreK substrates involved with the formation/maintenance of biofilms and within the E. faecalis two-component system, another common signal transduction pathway for antimicrobial resistance. These results reveal critical insights into the biological functions of IreK and the mechanisms of E. faecalis antimicrobial resistance.
Project description:Analysis of changes in gene expression in Enterococcus faecalis OG1 delta-EF2638 mutant compared to wild-type OG1 strain. The deletion mutant has a growth defect when grown with aeration The mutant presented in this study is described and characterized in Vesic, D. and Kristich, C.J. 2012. A Rex-family transcriptional repressor influnces H2O2 accumulation by Enterococcus faecalis. (submitted for publication)
Project description:Emerging antibiotic resistance among clinically relevant bacteria, paired with their ability to form biofilms on medical and technical devices, represents a serious problem in terms of effective and long-term decontamination in health care environments and gives rise to an urgent need for new antimicrobial materials. Here we present the first study of the impact of AGXX®, a novel broad-spectrum antimicrobial surface coating consisting of micro galvanic elements formed by silver and ruthenium, on the transcriptome of the nosocomial pathogen Enterococcus faecalis. E. faecalis was subjected to metal stress by growing it for different periods of time in the presence of AGXX® or silver-coated steel meshes. Subsequently, total RNA was isolated and next-generation RNA sequencing was performed to analyze variations in gene expression levels in the presence of the antimicrobial materials with focus on known stress genes. Exposure to AGXX® had a large impact on the transcriptome of E. faecalis. After 24 minutes almost 1/5 of the E. faecalis genome displayed differential expression. At each time-point the cop operon was strongly up-regulated, providing indirect evidence for the presence of free Ag+-ions. Moreover, exposure to AGXX® induced a broad general stress response in E. faecalis. Genes coding for the chaperones GroEL and GroES as well as the Clp proteases ClpE and ClpB were among the top up-regulated heat shock genes. Furthermore, differential expression of genes coding for thioredoxin, superoxide dismutase and glutathione synthetase indicates a high level of oxidative stress. We postulate a mechanism of action where the combination of Ag+-ions and reactive oxygen species generated by AGXX® results in a synergistic antimicrobial effect, which is superior to that of conventional silver coatings. Gene expression analysis of Enterococcus faecalis 12030 either subjected to metal stress by exposure to an antimicrobial AGXX®- or Ag-coated V2A steel mesh or exposed to an uncoated V2A steel mesh or left untreated performing RNA Sequencing with an Ion ProtonTM Sequencer and subsequent data analysis with a T-REx RNA-Sequencing expression analysis pipeline.
Project description:To further investigate the homeostatic response of E. faecalis to Fe exposure, we examine the whole-genome transcriptional response of wild-type (WT) exposed to non toxic Fe excess. This experiment correspond the work titled Transcriptomic response of Enterococcus faecalis to iron excess (work in preparation) A four chip study using total RNA recovered from four separate wild-type cultures of Enterococcus faecalis OG1RF, two controls samples (N medium growth) and two iron samples (N medium gowth with 0.5 mM Fe-NTA). Each chip measures the expression level of 3,114 genome genes from Enterococcus faecalis strain V583 (A7980-00-01).
Project description:To investigate the transcriptional changes that Enterococcus faecalis undergoes during agar surface-penetration, which promote cell envelope remodeling and tolerance to stress.
Project description:To further investigate the homeostatic response of E. faecalis to Fe exposure, we examine the whole-genome transcriptional response of wild-type (WT) exposed to non toxic Fe excess. This experiment correspond the work titled Transcriptomic response of Enterococcus faecalis to iron excess (work in preparation)