Project description:Plasmid carriage requires appropriate expression of the genes on the plasmid or host chromosome through cooperative transcriptional regulation. To clarify the impact of plasmid carriage on the host chromosome, we compared the chromosomal RNA maps of plasmid-free and plasmid-containing host strains using the incompatibility group P-7 archetype plasmid pCAR1, which is involved in carbazole degradation, and three distinct Pseudomonas strains. The possession of pCAR1 altered gene expression related to the iron acquisition systems in each host. Expression of the major siderophore pyoverdine was greater in plasmid-containing P. putida KT2440 and P. aeruginosa PAO1 than in the plasmid-free host strains, in part due to the expression of carbazole-degradative genes on pCAR1. The mexEFoprN operon encoding an efflux pump of the resistance-nodulation-cell division (RND) family was specifically upregulated by the carriage of pCAR1 in P. putida KT2440, whereas the expression of orthologous genes in the other species remained unaltered. Induction of the mexEFoprN genes increased the resistance of pCAR1-containing KT2440 to chloramphenicol compared to pCAR1-free KT2440. Our findings indicate that the possession of pCAR1 altered the growth rate of the host via the expression of genes on pCAR1 and the host chromosomes.
Project description:Performed RNASeq analysis comparing A. tumefaciens C58 (fabrum) harboring a plasmid driving ectopic expression of mirA regulator gene (ATU_RS08050) from Plac promoter with the isogenic strain haboring the same plasmid with no mirA (Vector control)
Project description:High-resolution mapping of the pCAR1 plasmid transcriptomes in the original host Pseudomonas resinovorans CA10 and the transconjugant Pseudomonas putida KT2440(pCAR1) While plasmids are replicated autonomously in their hosts, the transcription of plasmid genes can be switched through horizontal transfer by the change in the transcriptional networks. To examine whether and how the plasmid genome is differentially expressed, we analyzed the transcriptomes of the 199,035-bp IncP-7 carbazole catabolic and conjugative plasmid pCAR1 in the original host Pseudomonas resinovorans CA10 and the transconjugant Pseudomonas putida KT2440(pCAR1) during growth on carbazole or succinate using the high-resolution tiling array. The tiling array successfully detected the relatively large catabolic operons, for which transcription was induced during growth on carbazole regardless of the host. Compared between the hosts, nearly identical regions of pCAR1 were transcribed, but two hypothetical operons, i.e., ORF100-108 and ORF145-146, were transcribed at higher levels in KT2440(pCAR1) than in CA10. We verified the differential expression in heterologous hosts using quantitative RT-PCR. The tiling array analysis clearly revealed the transcription start sites, for which the positions and extents agreed with the primer extension experiments. Our data demonstrate that the transcriptome of the transmissible plasmid is altered through horizontal transfer, and we identified probable genes that are involved in plasmid functions in various hosts. This approach can be used to visualize flexible prokaryotic transcriptomes comprehensively. Keywords: high-resolution RNA mapping