Project description:Brucella dynamically engage macrophages while trafficking to an intracellular replicative niche as macrophages, the first line of innate host defense, attempt to eliminate organisms. Brucella melitensis, B. neotomae, and B. ovis are highly homologous, yet exhibit a range of host pathogenicity and specificity. RAW 264.7 macrophages infected with B. melitensis, and B. ovis exhibit divergent patterns of bacterial persistence and clearance; conversely, B. melitensis and B. neotomae exhibit similar patterns of infection. Evaluating early macrophage interaction with Brucella spp. allows discovery of host entry and intracellular translocation mechanisms, rather than bacterial replication. Microarray analysis of macrophage transcript levels following a 4 hr Brucella spp. infection revealed 130 probe sets altered compared to uninfected macrophages; specifically, 72 probe sets were increased and 58 probe sets were decreased with any Brucella spp. Interestingly, much of the inflammatory response was not regulated by the number of Brucella gaining intracellular entry, as macrophage transcript levels were often equivalent among B. melitensis, B. ovis, and B. neotomae infections. An additional 33 probe sets were identified with altered macrophage transcript levels among Brucella spp. infections that may correlate with species specific host defenses and intracellular survival. Gene ontological categorization unveiled genes altered among species are involved in cell growth and maintenance, response to external stimuli, transcription regulation, transporter activity, endopeptidase inhibitor activity and G-protein mediated signaling. Host transcript profiles provide a foundation to understand variations in Brucella spp. infections, while structure of the macrophage response and intracellular niche of Brucella spp. will be revealed through piecewise consideration of host signaling pathways. Keywords: Macrophage, intracellular pathogen, Brucella melitensis, Brucella neotomae, Brucella ovis, inflammatory immune response, species specificity
Project description:In a time course study, we characterized global gene expression profile of B. melitensis-infected bovine Peyer patches in the first 4 h p.i. Microarray analysis revealed that 2,916 bovine genes were detected as differentially expressed (z-score p < 0.025) in loops inoculated with virulent B. melitensis 16M compared with controls between 15 min and 4 h post-infection. From these genes, 2,286 (78%) were up- and 630 (22%) were down-regulated. Specific genes and biological processes identified in this study will further help elucidate how both host and Brucella interact during the early infectious process to the eventual benefit of the pathogen and to the detriment of the naM-CM-/ve host. Microarrays were used to examine the transcriptional profiles of bovine intestinal Peyer patches infected with wild type Brucella melitensis 16M across five time points (15 min, 30 min, 1, 2 and 4 hours). Intestinal loops inoculated with cell culture medium were used as a control. Experiments were performed in quadruplicate (bovine ligated ileal loops surgeries were performed with four calves), generating a total of 40 arrays.
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:The aim of this work is to unveil the gene regulatory networks - crucial for the different stages of intracellular survival - in the bovine and zoonotic pathogen Brucella abortus.These data are part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/
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.
Project description:In a time course study, we characterized global gene expression profile of B. melitensis-infected bovine Peyer patches in the first 4 h p.i. Microarray analysis revealed that 2,916 bovine genes were detected as differentially expressed (z-score p < 0.025) in loops inoculated with virulent B. melitensis 16M compared with controls between 15 min and 4 h post-infection. From these genes, 2,286 (78%) were up- and 630 (22%) were down-regulated. Specific genes and biological processes identified in this study will further help elucidate how both host and Brucella interact during the early infectious process to the eventual benefit of the pathogen and to the detriment of the naïve host.
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.