Project description:During infection, phages manipulate bacteria to redirect metabolism towards viral proliferation. To counteract phages, some bacteria employ CRISPR-Cas systems that provide adaptive immunity. While CRISPR-Cas mechanisms have been studied extensively, their effects on both the phage and the host during phage infection remains poorly understood. Here, we analysed the infection of Serratia by a siphovirus (JS26) and the transcriptomic response with, or without type I-E or I-F CRISPR-Cas immunity. In non-immune Serratia, phage infection altered bacterial metabolism by upregulating anaerobic respiration and amino acid biosynthesis genes, while flagella production was suppressed. Furthermore, phage proliferation required a late-expressed viral Cas4, which did not influence CRISPR adaptation. While type I-E and I-F immunity provided robust defence against phage infection, phage development still impacted the bacterial host. Moreover, DNA repair and SOS response pathways were upregulated during type I immunity. We also discovered that the type I-F system is controlled by a positive autoregulatory feedback loop that is activated upon phage targeting during type I-F immunity, leading to a controlled anti-phage response. Overall, our results provide new insight into phage-host dynamics and the impact of CRISPR immunity within the infected cell.
Project description:Bacteria protect themselves from infection by bacteriophages (phages) using different defence systems, such as CRISPR-Cas. Although CRISPR-Cas provides phage resistance, fitness costs are incurred, such as through autoimmunity. CRISPR-Cas regulation can optimise defence and minimise these costs. We recently developed a genome-wide functional genomics approach (SorTn-seq) for high-throughput discovery of regulators of bacterial gene expression. Here, we applied SorTn-seq to identify loci influencing expression of the two type III-A Serratia CRISPR arrays. Multiple genes affected CRISPR expression, including those involved in outer membrane and lipopolysaccharide synthesis. By comparing loci affecting type III CRISPR arrays and cas operon expression, we identified PigU (LrhA) as a repressor that co-ordinately controls both arrays and cas genes. By repressing type III-A CRISPR-Cas expression, PigU shuts off CRISPR-Cas interference against plasmids and phages. PigU also represses interference and CRISPR adaptation by the type I-F system, which is also present in Serratia. RNA sequencing demonstrated that PigU is a global regulator that controls secondary metabolite production and motility, in addition to CRISPR-Cas immunity. Increased PigU also resulted in elevated expression of three Serratia prophages, indicating their likely induction upon sensing PigU-induced cellular changes. In summary, PigU is a major regulator of CRISPR-Cas immunity in Serratia.
Project description:We report the application of transcriptome sequencing technology for high-throughput profiling of Serratia marcescens for producing prodigiosin. By obtaining over 163 million bases of sequence from Serratia marcescens genome DNA, we generated transcriptome -state maps of Serratia marcescens 12h cells, 24h cells, and 36h cells at 30C and 37C,respectively. We explored the mechanism of S. marcescens response temperature regulation at the transcription level through transcriptome sequencing technology. We found that the pig gene cluster at low temperature would favor at the transcriptional level, however, higher temperature resulting in instability and loss of enzyme activity. Numerous amino acid metabolic pathways involved in prodigiosin biosynthesis in S. marcescens responded to temperature changes, and metabolic fluxes were directed towards prodigiosin biosynthesis. At the same time, quorum sensing, two-component regulatory system and sRNA were stimulated by temperature to regulate PG biosynthesis and involve strain virulence and exclusive genes. Moreover, inhibition factors was the one reason for S. marcescens incapable synthesis of prodigiosin at 37C. This study laid a good foundation for understanding the biological functions of prodigiosin, improving the temperature tolerance of industrial strains, and excavating temperature-sensitive regulatory elements.
Project description:Retrons are bacterial genetic elements that encode a reverse transcriptase and, in combination with toxic effector proteins, can serve as antiphage defense systems. However, the mechanisms of action of most retron effectors, and how phages evade retrons, are not well understood. Here, we show that some phages can evade retrons and other defense systems by producing specific tRNAs. We find that expression of retron-Eco7 effector proteins (PtuA and PtuB) leads to degradation of tRNA-Tyr and abortive infection. The genomes of T5 phages that evade retron-Eco7 include a tRNA-rich region, including a highly expressed tRNA-Tyr gene, which confers protection against retron-Eco7. Furthermore, we show that other phages (T1, T7) can use a similar strategy, expressing a tRNA-Lys, to counteract a tRNA anticodon defense system (PrrC170).
Project description:The global transcriptional profile of novel T7-like Pseudomonas aeruginosa phage LUZ100 was obtained using the long read RNA sequencing technique ONT-cappable-seq. Using this approach we obtained a comprehensive genome-wide map of viral transcription start sites, terminators and transcription units and gained new insights in the molecular mechanisms of transcriptional regulation of T7-like temperate phages.