Project description:Tigecycline, a protein translation inhibitor, is a treatment of last resort for infections caused by the opportunistic multidrug resistant human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. However, strains resistant to tigecycline were reported not long after its clinical introduction. Translation inhibitor antibiotics perturb ribosome function and induce the reduction of (p)ppGpp, an alarmone involved in the stringent response that negatively modulates ribosome production. Through RNA sequencing, this study revealed a significant reduction in the transcription of genes in citric acid cycle and cell respiration, suggesting tigecycline inhibits or slows down bacterial growth. Our results indicated that the drug-induced reduction of (p)ppGpp level promoted the production but diminished the degradation of ribosomes, which mitigates the translational inhibition effect by tigecycline. The reduction of (p)ppGpp also led to a decrease of transcription coupled nucleotide excision repair which likely increases the chances of development of tigecycline resistant mutants. Increased expression of genes linked to horizontal gene transfer were also observed. The most upregulated gene, rtcB, involving in RNA repair, is either a direct tigecycline stress response or is in response to the transcription de-repression of a toxin-antitoxin system. The most down-regulated genes encode two b-lactamases, which is a possible by-product of tigecycline-induced reduction in transcription of genes associated with peptidoglycan biogenesis. This transcriptomics study provides a global genetic view of why A. baumannii is able to rapidly develop tigecycline resistance.
Project description:Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic nosocomial pathogen that is the causative agent of several serious infections in humans. Here, we investigate the response of A. baumannii toward sodium sulfide (Na2S), known to be associated with some biofilms at oxic/anoxic interfaces, as a model for how this major human pathogen manages sulfide homeostasis. These results reveal that A. baumannii encodes two persulfide‑sensing transcriptional regulators, a primary sigma54‑dependent transcriptional activator (FisR), and a secondary system controlled by the persulfide‑sensing repressor biofilm growth‑associated repressor (BigR) both of which regulate operons encoding for sulfide detoxification or transportation. In addition, sulfide induces an alternative cytochrome bd oxidase which is refractory to inhibition by H2S and represses importers of alternate sulfur sources. Lastly, our results suggest additional genes regulated by BigR beyond sulfide detoxification including genes associated with assembly of type 1 chaperone-usher pilus.
Project description:A major reservoir for spread of the emerging pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is hopsital surfaces, where bacteria persist in a desiccated state. To identify gene products influencing desiccation survival, a transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) screen was performed. Using this approach, we identified genes both positively and negatively impacting the desiccation tolerance of A. baumannii.
Project description:Acinetobacter baumannii is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen that causes multiple infections, including pneumonia, bacteremia, and wound infections. Due to multiple intrinsic and acquired drug-resistance mechanisms, A. baumannii isolates are commonly multi-drug resistant and infections are notoriously difficult to treat. Therefore, it is important to identify mechanisms used by A. baumannii to survive stresses encountered during infection as a means of identifying new drug targets. In this study, we determined the transcriptional response of A. baumannii to hydrogen peroxide stress using RNASequencing. Upon exposure to hydrogen peroxide, A. baumannii differentially transcribes several hundred genes. In this study, we also determined the transcriptional profile of A. baumannii strains with the transcriptional regulators mumR or oxyR genetically inactivated and identified transcriptional differences between these strains and wild-type A. baumannii in response to hydrogen peroxide stress. In doing this, the function of A. baumannii OxyR in hydrogen peroxide stress resistance and regulation of genes required for hydrogen peroxide detoxification was defined. Moreover, the contribution of the uncharacterized regulator MumR to hydrogen peroxide stress resistance was also explored. This work reveals the transcriptome of an important human pathogen in the presence of hydrogen peroxide stress.
Project description:Calprotectin (CP) inhibits bacterial viability through extracellular chelation of transition metals. However, how CP influences general metabolism remains largely unexplored. We show here that CP restricts bioavailable Zn and Fe to the pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii, inducing an extensive multi-metal perturbation of cellular physiology. Detailed here are the RNA sequencing files of WT A. baumannii ATCC 17978 grown plus or minus recombinant human calprotectin.
Project description:Desiccation tolerance has been implicated as an important characteristic that potentiates the spread of the bacterial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii through hospitals on dry surfaces. Despite the potential importance of this stress response, scarce information is available describing the underlying mechanisms of A. baumannii desiccation tolerance. Here we characterize the factors influencing desiccation survival of A. baumannii. At the macroscale level, we find that desiccation tolerance is influenced by cell density, growth phase, and desiccation medium. Our transcriptome analysis indicates that desiccation represents a unique state for A. baumannii compared to commonly studied growth conditions and strongly influences pathways responsible for proteostasis. Remarkably, we find that an increase in total cellular protein aggregates, which is often considered deleterious, correlates positively with the ability of A. baumannii to survive desiccation. We show that artificially inducing protein aggregate formation increases desiccation survival, and more importantly, that proteins incorporated into cellular aggregates can retain activity. Our results suggest that protein aggregates may promote desiccation tolerance in A. baumannii through preserving and protecting proteins from damage during desiccation until rehydration occurs.
Project description:Hospital environments serve as excellent reservoirs for the opportunistic pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii in part because it is exceptionally tolerant to desiccation. To understand the functional basis this trait, we used transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) to identify genes contributing to desiccation tolerance in A. baumannii strain AB5075. We identified 142 candidate desiccation tolerance genes, one of which encoded the global post-transcriptional regulator CsrA. We characterized CsrA in more detail by using proteomics to identify proteins that were differentially present in wild type and csrA mutant cells. Among these were a predicted universal stress protein A, an iron-containing redox protein, a KGG-domain containing protein, and catalase. Subsequent mutant analysis showed that each of these proteins was required for A. baumannii desiccation tolerance. The amino acid sequence of the KGG-domain containing protein predicts that it is an intrinsically disordered protein. Such proteins are critical for desiccation tolerance of the small animals called tardigrades. This protein also has a repeat nucleic acid binding amino acid motif, suggesting that it may protect A. baumannii DNA from desiccation-induced damage.