Project description:Pectobacterium atrosepticum (Pba) is a gram-negative bacterium which causes blackleg and tuber soft rot on potato. To investigate the molecular processes and responses involved in Pba-host (potato) and Pba-non-host (radish) interactions, under laboratory conditions, we used total RNA-sequencing to measure the gene expression patterns from all three species. Samples from infected and non-infected plant roots were collected after fourteen days of inoculation with Pba SCRI_1039 and subjected to total RNA-sequencing on an Illumina sequencing platform.
Project description:Pectobacterium are Gram-negative rods of the family Pectobacteriaceae. They are the causative agent of soft rot diseases of crops and ornamental plants. However, their virulence mechanisms are not yet fully elucidated. Membrane vesicles (MVs) are universally released by bacteria and are be-lieved to play an important role in pathogenicity, and survival of bacteria in the environment. Our study investigates the role of MVs in the virulence of Pectobacterium. The results indicate that the morphology and yields of MVs depend on medium composition. In polygalacturonic acid (PGA) supplemented media, Pectobacterium produce MVs of a larger size (100-300 nm) apart of vesicles below 100 nm. Proteomic analyses revealed the presence of pectate degrading enzymes in MVs. The pectate plate test and enzymatic assay proved that those enzymes are active and able to de-grade pectates. What is more, pathogenicity test indicated that MVs derived from Pectobacterium were able to induce maceration of Zantedeschia sp. leaves. We also show that MVs of β-lactamase producing strains were able to suppress ampicillin activity and permit the growth of susceptible bacteria. Those findings indicate that MVs of Pectobacterium play an important role in host-pathogen interactions and niche competition with other bacteria. Our research also sheds some light on the mechanism of MVs production. We demonstrate that Pectobacterium strains, which overexpress the green fluorescence protein (GFP), produce more MVs than wild type strains. Moreover, proteomic analysis revealed that GFP was present in MVs. Therefore, we demonstrate that protein sequestration into MVs is not limited strictly to periplasmic proteins and is a common occurrence. Our research highlights the importance of MVs production as a mechanism of cargo delivery in Pectobacterium and an alternative secretion system.
Project description:Morphotypes of Brassica oleracea are the result of a dynamic interaction between the genes that regulate the transition between vegetative and reproductive stages and those that regulate leaf morphology and plant architecture. In kales ornate leaf patterns, flowering delaying and nutrient quality are some of the characters were potentially selected by humans during domestication. Understanding candidate genes responsible for kale domestication is of importance to ultimately improve crop production. We aim to identify candidate genes that are responsible for kale leaf shape diversity and the evolution of domestic kale. Here we look at the global pattern of expressed genes during one single phase of development in kale, cabbage and TO1000 to gain an understanding of the genome-wide differences among some of the vegetative B. oleracea phenotypes. We identified gene expression patterns that are shared among the phenotypes and estimate the contribution of morphotype-specific gene expression patterns that set each of them apart. Differentially expressed developmental genes that regulate the vegetative to reproductive transition were abundant and present in all comparisons.
Project description:Importance: Pectobacterium species cause soft rot in potato and other host plants primarily by secreting a battery of plant cell wall degrading enzymes. In addition, several different secretion systems are mobilized during infection. Previous studies of gene expression and regulation thereof primarily focused on the onset of infection. This work investigated transcriptome changes in Pectobacterium during the infection of potato tubers up to 72 hours post inoculation to elucidate biological processes during a longer infection period. Methods: The transcriptomes of aggressive strains of the two species P. carotovorum subsp. carotovorum and P. polaris were investigated during infection of potato minitubers (cv. 'Asterix') at 24, 48 and 72 hours after inoculation by RNA sequencing. The transcriptomes were compared to that of bacteria grown on minimal M9 medium, and transcriptomes from later infection time points (48 and 72 hours after inoculation) were compared to early infection (24 hours after inoculation). Results: Plant cell wall degrading enzymes and secretion system associated genes were largely upregulated during infection compared to in vitro growth, but downregulated in the later phases of infection compared to the early infection phase. The downregulation was not sufficiently explained by the expression of known virulence regulators such as the RsmA/B or the ExpA/S systems.
Project description:The goals of this study are to compare NGS-derived transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) of Pectobacterium upon treatment of polyphenol compound.
Project description:Brassica oleracea and Brassica napus are comprised of diverse cultivars that collectively constitute an important global food source. Of those, the Brassica oleracea convar. acephala cultivar group containing var. sabellica and var. palmifolia and Brassica napus var. pabularia, collectively known as kale, are nutritious leafy greens consumed for their abundance of vitamins and micronutrients. Typified by their curly, serrated or wavy leaves, kale varieties have been primarily defined based on their leaf morphology and geographic origin, despite maintaining complex genetic backgrounds. With changes in the diel molecular environment directly tied to multiple agronomic traits across the food production landscape (e.g. time-of-day nutritional content) and kale representing a candidate crop for vertical farming, we selected nine diverse kale varieties encompassing a wide swath of consumer kale varieties for growth under LED lights using precise real-world dawn/dusk growth conditions followed by quantitative GC-MS metabolomic and LC-MS proteomic analyses. With plant growth and development driven by the day-to-day molecular activities of plants, we harvested kale leaf tissue at end-of-day (ED) and end-of-night (EN) time-points for all metabolomic and proteomic analyses. Our results reveal that kale forms 2 distinct groups, defined by their diel metabolome and proteome signatures primarily involving amino acids and sugars along, with proteome changes in carbon and nitrogen metabolism, mRNA splicing, protein translation and light harvesting. Together, our analysis have derived robust quantitative insights into the diel growth and development landscape of kale, significantly advancing our fundamental understanding of this nutritious leafy green for next-generation breeding and biotechnology.