Project description:Picocyanobacteria from the genus Synechococcus are ubiquitous in ocean waters. Their phylogenetic and genomic diversity suggests ecological niche differentiation, but the selective forces influencing this are not well defined. Marine picocyanobacteria are sensitive to Cu toxicity, so adaptations to this stress could represent a selective force within, and between, “species” also known as clades. We compared Cu stress responses in cultures and natural populations of marine Synechococcus from two co-occurring major mesotrophic clades (I and IV). Using custom microarrays and proteomics to characterize expression responses to Cu in the lab and field, we found evidence for a general stress regulon in marine Synechococcus. However, the two clades also exhibited distinct responses to copper. The Clade I representative induced expression of genomic island genes in cultures and Southern California Bight populations, while the Clade IV representative downregulated Fe-limitation proteins. Copper incubation experiments suggest that Clade IV populations may harbor stress-tolerant subgroups, and thus fitness tradeoffs may govern Cu-tolerant strain distributions. This work demonstrates that Synechococcus has distinct adaptive strategies to deal with Cu toxicity at both the clade and subclade level, implying that metal toxicity and stress response adaptations represent an important selective force for influencing diversity within marine Synechococcus populations.
Project description:Marine cyanobacteria are thought to be the most sensitive of the phytoplankton groups to copper toxicity, yet little is known of the transcriptional response of marine Synechococcus to copper shock. Global transcriptional response to two levels of copper shock was assayed in both a coastal and an open ocean strain of marine Synechococcus using whole genome expression microarrays. Both strains showed an osmoregulatory-like response, perhaps as a result of increasing membrane permeability. This could have implications for marine carbon cycling if copper shock leads to dissolved organic carbon leakage in Synechococcus. The two strains additionally showed a reduction in photosynthetic gene transcripts. Contrastingly, the open ocean strain showed a typical stress response whereas the coastal strain exhibited a more specific oxidative or heavy metal type response. In addition, the coastal strain activated more regulatory elements and transporters, many of which are not conserved in other marine Synechococcus strains and may have been acquired by horizontal gene transfer. Thus, tolerance to copper shock in some marine Synechococcus may in part be a result of an increased ability to sense and respond in a more specialized manner.
Project description:Marine cyanobacteria are thought to be the most sensitive of the phytoplankton groups to copper toxicity, yet little is known of the transcriptional response of marine Synechococcus to copper shock. Global transcriptional response to two levels of copper shock was assayed in both a coastal and an open ocean strain of marine Synechococcus using whole genome expression microarrays. Both strains showed an osmoregulatory-like response, perhaps as a result of increasing membrane permeability. This could have implications for marine carbon cycling if copper shock leads to dissolved organic carbon leakage in Synechococcus. The two strains additionally showed a reduction in photosynthetic gene transcripts. Contrastingly, the open ocean strain showed a typical stress response whereas the coastal strain exhibited a more specific oxidative or heavy metal type response. In addition, the coastal strain activated more regulatory elements and transporters, many of which are not conserved in other marine Synechococcus strains and may have been acquired by horizontal gene transfer. Thus, tolerance to copper shock in some marine Synechococcus may in part be a result of an increased ability to sense and respond in a more specialized manner. In this series four conditions have been analyzed. These are moderate copper shock for Synechococcus sp. WH8102 and CC9311 (pCu 11.1 and pCu 10.1, respectively), and high copper shock for WH8102 and CC9311 (pCu 10.1 and pCu 9.1, respectively). For each slide, an experimental RNA sample was labeled with Cy3 or Cy5 and was hybridized with a reference RNA from a non-copper-shocked sample labeled with the other Cy dye. There are six or eight slides per condition, each with two biological replicates. There are three or four technical replicates for each biological replicate including at least one flip-dye comparison. Each slide contains six replicate spots per gene.
Project description:Marine Synechococcus, together with Prochlorococcus, contribute to a significant proportion of the primary production on Earth. The spatial distribution of these two groups of marine picocyanobacteria depends on different factors such as nutrients availability or temperature. Some Synechococcus ecotypes thrive in mesotrophic and moderately oligotrophic waters, where they exploit both oxidized and reduced forms of nitrogen. Here, we present a comprehensive study, which includes transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of the response of Synechococcus sp. strain WH7803 to nanomolar concentrations of nitrate, compared to ammonium or nitrogen starvation. We found that Synechococcus has a specific response to nanomolar nitrate concentration that differs to the response showed under nitrogen starvation or the presence of standard concentrations of either ammonium or nitrate. This fact suggests that the particular response to the uptake of nanomolar concentration of nitrate could be an evolutionary advantage for marine Synechococcus against Prochlorococcus in the natural field.
Project description:RNA-seq was used to assess mRNA transcript abundance in wild type and fra2Δ S. cerevisiae (BY4741) cells treated with 2-(6-benzyl-2-pyridyl)quinazoline (BPQ) and CuSO4. BPQ potentiates copper toxicity and in yeast, in common with other organisms, a major cause of copper toxicity is damage of iron-sulphur clusters. Iron sensing within yeast relies on mitochondrial iron-sulphur cluster biosynthesis and therefore treatment with BPQ and copper can be used to mimic iron deficiency. Fra2 is known to be a key component of the iron sensing mechanism; however, this mechanism can operate, to an extent, independently of Fra2. BPQ (+CuSO4) treatment was used with the aim of probing the regulation of the iron regulon of S. cerevisiae and the role of Fra2 in the suppression of the low iron response. This study has uncovered nine new Cth2 target-transcripts, plus a new Aft1 target-gene and paralogous non-target. Fra2 dominates basal repression of the iron regulon in iron-replete cultures, however, Fra2-independent control of the iron regulon is also observed with CTH2 appearing to be atypically Fra2-dependent. Transcripts from untreated and CuSO4 treated cells were included as controls.
Project description:RNA-seq was used to assess mRNA transcript abundance in wild type and fra2M-NM-^T S. cerevisiae (BY4741) cells treated with 2-(6-benzyl-2-pyridyl)quinazoline (BPQ) and CuSO4. BPQ potentiates copper toxicity and in yeast, in common with other organisms, a major cause of copper toxicity is damage of iron-sulphur clusters. Iron sensing within yeast relies on mitochondrial iron-sulphur cluster biosynthesis and therefore treatment with BPQ and copper can be used to mimic iron deficiency. Fra2 is known to be a key component of the iron sensing mechanism; however, this mechanism can operate, to an extent, independently of Fra2. BPQ (+CuSO4) treatment was used with the aim of probing the regulation of the iron regulon of S. cerevisiae and the role of Fra2 in the suppression of the low iron response. This study has uncovered nine new Cth2 target-transcripts, plus a new Aft1 target-gene and paralogous non-target. Fra2 dominates basal repression of the iron regulon in iron-replete cultures, however, Fra2-independent control of the iron regulon is also observed with CTH2 appearing to be atypically Fra2-dependent. Transcripts from untreated and CuSO4 treated cells were included as controls. Three independent biological replicates were analysed for each condition (BPQ and CuSO4 treated wild type and fra2M-NM-^T cells, CuSO4 treated wild type and fra2M-NM-^T cells and untreated wild type and fra2M-NM-^T cells)
Project description:Our hypothesis is that copper modulates the activity of multiple intracellular signal transduction pathways to affect transcription. We have previously shown that copper activates transcription through both metal- and oxidative stress-responsive signal transduction pathways. Since the global molecular mechanisms underlying copper toxicity have not been well elucidated in humans, we have profiled transcriptome changes in HepG2 cells exposed to 100, 200, 400 and 600 uM copper for 4, 8, 12 and 24 hours using a human oligonucleotide microarray. Differentially expressed genes were identified, and integrated into biological and functional pathways through Gene Ontology analysis. Global gene expression profile was overlaid onto biomolecular interaction networks and signal transduction cascades using pathway mapping and interactome identification. Keywords: copper toxicity, HepG2 cells, copper concentrations: 100, 200, 400 and 600 uM, exposure times: 4, 8, 12, and 24 h, expression profiles of copper-responsive genes
Project description:This study investigated the pulmonary toxicity of Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) surface modified with polyethylenimine (PEI) or ascorbate (ASC), was investigated. Rats were exposed nose-only to a fixed exposure concentration of ASC or PEI coated CuO NPs for 5 consecutive days. On day 6 and day 27 post-exposure, pulmonary toxicity markers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were analyzed and histopathological evaluation of the lungs was performed, along with microarray analyses on whole lung tissue samples.
Project description:The in vitro and in vivo toxicity of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) is attributed to both particle and dissolved copper ion species. However, a clear understanding of 1) the specific cellular responses that are modulated by the two species and 2) the temporal dynamics in toxicity, as the proportional amount of particulate and ionic forms change over time, is lacking. In the current study, in vitro responses to microparticulate CuO (CuO MPs), CuO NPs, and dissolved Cu2+ were characterized in order to elucidate particle and ion induced kinetic effects. Particle dissolution experiments were carried out in relevant cell culture medium, using CuO NPs and MPs. Mouse lung epithelial cells were exposed for 2 - 48 h with 1 - 25 µg/mL CuO MPs, CuO NPs, or 7 & 54 µg/mL CuCl2. Cellular viability and genome-wide transcriptional responses were assessed. Dose and time dependent cytotoxicity was observed in CuO NP exposed cells, which was delayed and subtle in CuCl2 and not observed in CuO MPs treated cells. Analyses of differentially expressed genes and associated pathway perturbations showed that dissolved ions released by CuO NPs in extracellular medium are insufficient to account for the observed potency and cytotoxicity. Further organization of gene expression results in an Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework revealed a series of key events potentially involved in CuO NPs toxicity. The AOP is applicable to soluble metal oxide nanoparticle induced toxicity in general, and thus, can facilitate the development of in vitro alternative strategies to screen their toxicity.