Project description:Symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the distal human gut have evolved under intense pressure to utilize complex carbohydrates, predominantly plant cell wall glycans abundant in our diets. These substrates are recalcitrant to depolymerization by digestive enzymes encoded in the human genome, but are efficiently targeted by some of the ~103-104 bacterial species that inhabit this niche. These species augment our comparatively narrow carbohydrate digestive capacity by unlocking otherwise unusable sugars and fermenting them into host-absorbable forms, such as short-chain fatty acids. We used phenotype profiling, whole-genome transcriptional analysis and molecular genetic approaches to investigate complex glycan utilization by two fully sequenced and closely related human gut symbionts: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Bacteroides ovatus. Together these species target all of the common glycosidic linkages found in the plant cell wall, as well as host polysaccharides, but each species exhibits a unique ‘glycan niche’: in vitro B. thetaiotaomicron targets plant cell wall pectins in addition to linkages contained in host N- and O-glycans; B. ovatus uniquely targets hemicellulosic polysaccharides along with several pectins, but is deficient in host glycan utilization. Bacteroides ovatus bacteria were grown either in vitro on defined complex glycan sources, or in vivo in the intestinal tract of gnotobiotic mice fed variable diets. Increased in vitro gene expression was used to indicate the genes required for metabolism of complex glycans and compared to in vivo transcriptional activity to determine expression in the mouse gut.
Project description:The SRY-related HMG-box (Sox) is a transcription factor related to the testis-determining gene SRY (Sex determination Region of Y chromosome), which plays an important role in the sexual development of Osteichthyes. In order to understand the characteristics of Sox gene family members in Trachinotus ovatus(ToSox), this study used bioinformatics methods to systematically analyze the physicochemical properties, phylogenetic tree, chromosomal localization, and prediction of interacting proteins of the ToSsxs. The expressions of the ToSoxs were analyzed using transcriptomics data from ovary and testis of T. ovatus. The results showed that 18 members of Sox gene family were identified, and the members of the family were hydrophilic proteins with large differences in amino acid number, molecular weight and isoelectric point. The evolutionary tree analysis showed that the Sox family genes were divided into seven branches (B1, B2, C, D, E, F, H) The chromosomal localization analysis showed that these genes of the family were scattered on 15 chromosomes. The structure of Sox genes was simple and relatively conserved. Intraspecific covariance analysis revealed that one pair of ToSox gene covariance, and interspecific covariance analysis revealed 14 pairs of collinearities between T. ovatus and zebrafish and 20 pairs of collinearities between T. ovatus and tilapia. The members of ToSox proteins had close interactions with one another, and with other proteins as well. The results of transcriptome analysis showed that the genes ToSox30, ToSox1a, ToSox17, ToSox11, ToSox9b, and ToSox9b are likely to regulate the testicular development of oviparous jacks, which is related to male sex determination. This study preliminarily investigated the characterization of Sox genes in the T. ovatus genome and provided theoretical references for the study of the effects of Sox transcription factors on sex determination in T. ovatus.
Project description:Symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the distal human gut have evolved under intense pressure to utilize complex carbohydrates, predominantly plant cell wall glycans abundant in our diets. These substrates are recalcitrant to depolymerization by digestive enzymes encoded in the human genome, but are efficiently targeted by some of the ~103-104 bacterial species that inhabit this niche. These species augment our comparatively narrow carbohydrate digestive capacity by unlocking otherwise unusable sugars and fermenting them into host-absorbable forms, such as short-chain fatty acids. We used phenotype profiling, whole-genome transcriptional analysis and molecular genetic approaches to investigate complex glycan utilization by two fully sequenced and closely related human gut symbionts: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Bacteroides ovatus. Together these species target all of the common glycosidic linkages found in the plant cell wall, as well as host polysaccharides, but each species exhibits a unique ‘glycan niche’: in vitro B. thetaiotaomicron targets plant cell wall pectins in addition to linkages contained in host N- and O-glycans; B. ovatus uniquely targets hemicellulosic polysaccharides along with several pectins, but is deficient in host glycan utilization.