Project description:Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, the causative agent of swine enzootic pneumonia, colonizes the cilia of swine lungs, causing ciliostasis and cell death. Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae is a component of the porcine respiratory disease complex (PRDC) and is especially problematic for the finishing swine industry, causing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in farm revenues worldwide. For successful infection, M. hyopneumoniae must effectively resist oxidative stresses due to the release of oxidative compounds from neutrophils and macrophages during the host’s immune response. However, the mechanism M. hyopneumoniae uses to avert the host response is still unclear. To gain a better understanding of the transcriptional responses of M. hyopneumoniae under oxidative stress, cultures were grown to early exponential phase and exposed to 0.5% percent hydrogen peroxide for 15 minutes. RNA samples from these cultures were collected and compared to RNA samples from control cultures using two-color PCR-based M. hyopneumoniae microarrays. This study revealed significant down-regulation of important glycolytic pathway genes and gene transcription proteins, as well as a protein known to activate oxidative stressor cascades in neutrophils. This study has also contained significantly differentially expressed genes common to other environmental stress responses, and merits further study of universal stress response genes of M. hyopneumoniae. Keywords: Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, RNA microarray
Project description:Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae causes swine pneumonia and contributes significantly to porcine respiratory disease complex. The mechanisms of pathogenesis are difficult to address since there is a lack of genetic tools, but microarrays can be used to study transcriptional changes that occur during colonization and disease in pigs. This approach has the potential to identify genes important to virulence. This study sought to identify genes that change transcript levels during infection. To accomplish this, organisms collected from bronchial alveolar lavages were compared to that of broth grown organisms. Bronchial alveolar lavage was performed on pigs 28 days post infection with M. hyopneumoniae, and organisms were isolated by differential centrifugation. Mycoplasma RNA enriched preparations were then obtained from total RNA by subtracting eucaryotic ribosomal and messenger RNAs. cDNA was generated with mycoplasma ORF-specific primers, fluorescently labeled with Cy3 and Cy5, and used to interrogate microarrays. Arrays were scanned and analyzed using a mixed linear statistical model. Nine biological replicates were analyzed in this fashion. Our analysis indicated that 33 Mhyo genes were up-regulated and 46 genes were down-regulated (p<0.01) during disease in the pig lung at a false discovery rate < 2.7%. Of the down-regulated genes, 27 of 46 (59%) lacked assigned function, and 20 of 33 (61%) of the up-regulated genes were hypothetical genes. Four down-regulated and two up-regulated genes were putative lipoproteins. secA (mhp295; p = 0.003), and two glycerol transport permeases (potA (mhp380); p = 0.006 and ugpA (mhp381); p = 0.003) were up-regulated in vivo. Elongation factor EF-G (fusA (mhp083); p = 0.002), rpoC (mhp635; p = 0.003), adenylate kinase (adk (mhp208); p = 0.001), prolyl aminoacyl tRNA synthetase (proS (mhp397); p = 0.009) and cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase (cysS (mhp661); p < 0.001) were down-regulated in vivo. Keywords: RNA, spotted DNA/cDNA