Project description:Brucella type strains (B. abortus 544 and B. melitensis 16 M), field-isolates (B. abortus T and B. melitensis C) were independently cultivated six times on Tryptic Soy Broth at 37 °C in the presence of 5% CO2 until mid-logarithmic phase. The cells were harvested by brief centrifugation and the bacteria was inactivated using recommended ethanol precipitation procedure. Following which the cells were lysed, proteins quantified and the differentially expressed proteins among B. abortus and B. melitensis were identified using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) based label free quantitative proteomics analysis.
Project description:To explore the role of Brucella BI-1 in Brucella suis S2, we constructed the Brucella BI-1 deletion mutant strain and its complementary strain. We then determined the effect of Brucella BI-1 deletion on the physiological characteristics of Brucella suis S2 and revealed them via integrated transcriptomic and proteomic analyses. Brucella BI-1 deletion altered the membrane properties of Brucella suis S2 and decreased its resistance to acidic pH, H2O2, polymyxin B, and lincomycin. Additionally, deleting Brucella BI-1 led to defective growth, cell division, and viability in Brucella suis S2. In conclusion, our results revealed that Brucella BI-1 is a bacterial cytoprotective protein involved in membrane homeostasis, cell division, and stress resistance in Brucella suis S2.
Project description:In order to uncover transcriptional changes occurring in Brucella- infected mouse brains that might lead to neurologic complications, we infected susceptible mice intranasally with Brucella and harvested their brains.
Project description:Brucella spp. is an intracellular pathogen in vivo. The intracellular B. melitensis transcriptome was determined by initially enriched and then amplified B. melitensis RNA from total RNA of B. melitensis-infected HeLa cells. Analysis of microarray results identified 161 and 115 genes differentially expressed at 4 and 12 h p.i., respectively. Most of the genes (78%) differentially expressed were down-regulated at the earliest time point, but up-regulated (75%) at 12 h p.i. The analysis of the results indicates that Brucella undergo an adaptation period during the first 4 h p.i. that is overcome by 12 h p.i., permitting Brucella to replicate intracellularly. Specific genes and biological processes identified in this study will further help elucidate how Brucella act during the early infectious process to their eventual benefit and to the detriment of the naïve host. Keywords: Time course study of intracellular B. melitensis gene expression
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:Gene expression analysis of wild-type and STING knock-out mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages (mBMDM) infected with Brucella abortus or transfected with Brucella abortus DNA. Genes whose expression are affected by Brucella abortus in a STING-dependent manner will be identified and signaling pathways regulated by STING will be elucidated.
Project description:In this study we report that B. melitensis at the late logarithmic phase of growth are more invasive for HeLa cells than at mid logarithmic or stationary growth phases. Microarray analysis of B. melitensis gene expression identified 414 up- and 40 down-regulated genes in late-log growth phase compared to the stationary growth phase. The vast majority of the up-regulated genes in late-log cultures were those associated with DNA replication, transcription and translation, intermediate metabolism, energy production and conversion, membrane transport and cell envelope, biogenesis and outer membrane, while the down-regulated genes were distributed among several functional categories. This first Brucella global gene expression study provides novel information on growth phase-specific gene regulation important not only for understanding Brucella physiology but also the initial molecular interactions between Brucella and its host. Keywords: Comparison bacterial growth phase normalized to genomic DNA There are two kind of samples consisting of RNA isolated from Brucella melitensis grown logarithmically or at stationary phase. There are four biological replicates of each sample. Every Brucella melitensis open reading frame was printed in triplicate on each microarray, thereby providing three technical replicates for each biological replicates. Each replicate was normalized against labeled Brucella melitensis genomic DNA.