Project description:Many pathogenic bacteria use a regulatory process termed Quorum Sensing (QS) to produce and detect small diffusible molecules to synchronize gene expression within a population. In Gram-negative bacteria, the detection and response to these molecules depend on transcriptional regulators belonging to the LuxR family. Such a system have been discovered in the intracellular pathogen Brucella melitensis, a Gram-negative bacteria responsible for brucellosis, a word-wide zoonosis remaining a serious public health concern in endemic countries. Two LuxR-type regulators, VjbR and BabR, have been identified in the genome of this pathogen. The vjbR mutant is highly attenuated in all tested models suggesting a crucial role of QS in the virulence of Brucella. This attenuation is at least due to the involvement of VjbR in the activation of the virB operon coding for a type four secretion system essential for Brucella to reach its intracellular replication compartment. At present, no function has been attributed to BabR. To assess the role of both Brucella QS-regulators, we performed in tandem comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of vjbR and babR mutants. These experiments revealed that 10% of Brucella genome is regulated through those regulators, revealing that QS is a global regulatory system in this intracellular pathogen. The overlapping between BabR and VjbR targets suggest an unexpected cross-talk between these two regulators. Moreover, our results demonstrate that VjbR and BabR regulate many gene and/or proteins involved in stress response, metabolism and virulence. These targets are potentially involved in the adaptation of Brucella to the oxidative, pH and nutritional stresses encountered within the host. These findings highlight the involvement of QS in the virulence of Brucella and led us to suggest that this regulatory system could be implied in the spatial and sequential adaptation of Brucella to the host environment. Keywords: Quorum Sensing, Comparative gene expression, Brucella melitensis
Project description:Investigation of whole genome gene expression level changes in a Brucella melitensis delta prlr mutant compared to the wild type strain. The mutants analyzed in this study are further described in A. Mirabella, R-M Yanez, R.M. Delrue, S. Uzureau, M.S. Zygmunt, A. Cloeckaert, X. De Bolle, J.J. Letesson (2012). The two component system PrlS/PrlR of Brucella melitensis is required for persistence in mice and appears to respond to ionic strength. Microbiology A six chip study using total RNA recovered from three separate wild-type cultures of Brucella melitensis 16M and three separate cultures of a prlR mutant strain. Each chip measures the expression level of 3,198 genes from Brucella melitensis 16M with nineteen 60 mer probe pairs (PM/MM) per gene, with three-fold technical redundancy.
Project description:We sequenced the mRNA of Brucella melitensis 16M and otpR mutant under acid stress to identify genes that were regulated by regulator OtpR.