Project description:Background: While the luminal microbiome composition in the human cervicovaginal tract has been defined, the presence and impact of tissue-adherent ectocervical microbiota remain incompletely understood. Studies of luminal and tissue-associated bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract suggest that they may have distinct roles in health and disease. Here, we performed a multi-omics characterization of paired luminal and tissue samples collected from a clinically well-characterized cohort of Kenyan women. Results: We identified a tissue-adherent bacterial microbiome, with a higher alpha diversity than the luminal microbiome, in which dominant genera overall included Gardnerella and Lactobacillus, followed by Prevotella, Atopobium, and Sneathia. About half of the L. iners dominated luminal samples had a corresponding Gardnerella dominated tissue microbiome. Broadly, the tissue-adherent microbiome was associated with fewer differentially expressed host genes than the luminal microbiome. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that L. crispatus-dominated tissue-adherent communities were associated with protein translation and antimicrobial activity, whereas a highly diverse microbiome was associated with epithelial remodeling and pro-inflammatory pathways. Communities dominated by L. iners and Gardnerella were associated with low host transcriptional activity. Tissue-adherent microbiomes dominated by Lactobacillus and Gardnerella correlated with host protein profiles associated with epithelial barrier stability, and with a more pro-inflammatory profile for the Gardnerella-dominated microbiome group. Tissue samples with a highly diverse composition had a protein profile representing cell proliferation and pro-inflammatory activity. Conclusion: We identified ectocervical tissue-adherent bacterial communities in all study participants. These communities were distinct from cervicovaginal luminal microbiota in a significant proportion of individuals. This difference could possibly explain that L. iners dominant luminal communities have a high probability of transitioning to high diverse bacterial communities including high abundance of Gardnerella. By performing integrative multi-omics analyses we further revealed that bacterial communities at both sites correlated with distinct host gene expression and protein levels. The tissue-adherent bacterial community is similar to vaginal biofilms that significantly impact women’s reproductive and sexual health.

Project description:The rate, timing, and mode of species dispersal is recognized as a key driver of the structure and function of communities of macroorganisms, and may be one ecological process that determines the diversity of microbiomes. Many previous studies have quantified the modes and mechanisms of bacterial motility using monocultures of a few model bacterial species. But most microbes live in multispecies microbial communities, where direct interactions between microbes may inhibit or facilitate dispersal through a number of physical (e.g., hydrodynamic) and biological (e.g., chemotaxis) mechanisms, which remain largely unexplored. Using cheese rinds as a model microbiome, we demonstrate that physical networks created by filamentous fungi can impact the extent of small-scale bacterial dispersal and can shape the composition of microbiomes. From the cheese rind of Saint Nectaire, we serendipitously observed the bacterium Serratia proteamaculans actively spreads on networks formed by the fungus Mucor. By experimentally recreating these pairwise interactions in the lab, we show that Serratia spreads on actively growing and previously established fungal networks. The extent of symbiotic dispersal is dependent on the fungal network: diffuse and fast-growing Mucor networks provide the greatest dispersal facilitation of the Serratia species, while dense and slow-growing Penicillium networks provide limited dispersal facilitation. Fungal-mediated dispersal occurs in closely related Serratia species isolated from other environments, suggesting that this bacterial-fungal interaction is widespread in nature. Both RNA-seq and transposon mutagenesis point to specific molecular mechanisms that play key roles in this bacterial-fungal interaction, including chitin utilization and flagellin biosynthesis. By manipulating the presence and type of fungal networks in multispecies communities, we provide the first evidence that fungal networks shape the composition of bacterial communities, with Mucor networks shifting experimental bacterial communities to complete dominance by motile Proteobacteria. Collectively, our work demonstrates that these strong biophysical interactions between bacterial and fungi can have community-level consequences and may be operating in many other microbiomes.

Project description:Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) cells can attach to both cantaloupe surface and food contact surfaces and promote biofilm growth. This study was to understand the impact of cantaloupe juice on the physiology and transcriptome of Lm planktonic cells and biofilm cells grown on stainless steel coupons using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), Cryo-Scanning Electron Microscopy (Cryo-SEM) and RNA Seq technology. Lm showed a strong autoaggregation phenotype when grown in cantaloupe juice at room temperature. It is interesting to note that Lm formed significantly more biofilms on stainless steel (SS) coupons when grown in cantaloupe juice than in TSB. SEM images revealed a different attachment profile of Lm on SS coupons. In TSB, Lm cells were mainly found in scratches/groves of the metal surface, whereas, in cantaloupe juice they attached to the smooth surface as well. Interestingly, Lm planktonic and biofilm cells in cantaloupe juice showed an elongated cell shape which might be a stress-induced phenotype in cantaloupe juice. Cantaloupe juice induced a distinct transcriptional profile of biofilm and planktonic cells of Lm from TSB. Functional annotation indicated that the significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs, Padj < 0.05, log2foldchange ≥ 1) from the comparison mainly participated in metabolism, signaling and stress response. Notably, certain pathways downregulated for planktonic cells were significantly upregulated for biofilm cells in cantaloupe juice compared to TSB, including ABC transporters, two-component system, quorum sensing, chemotaxis, and flagellar assembly. These data highlighted the interaction of Lm with food matrix (i.e., cantaloupe) and the role of food matrix on Lm survival and adaptation. These results provided the basis for future functional characterization of genes with potential roles in biofilm formation and persistence of Lm in cantaloupe juice, as well as for development of mitigation practices for Lm biofilms on produce and food contact surfaces.

Project description:To effectively monitor microbial populations in acidic environments and bioleaching systems, a comprehensive 50-mer-based oligonucleotide microarray was developed based on most of the known genes associated with the acidophiles. This array contained 1,072 probes in which there were 571 related to 16S rRNA and 501 related to functional genes. Acid mine drainage (AMD) presents numerous problems to the aquatic life and surrounding ecosystems. However, little is known about the geographic distribution, diversity, composition, structure and function of AMD microbial communities. In this study, we analyzed the geographic distribution of AMD microbial communities from twenty sites using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of 16S rRNA genes, and the results showed that AMD microbial communities were geographically distributed and had high variations among different sites. Then an AMD-specific microarray was used to further analyze nine AMD microbial communities, and showed that those nine AMD microbial communities had high variations measured by the number of detected genes, overlapping genes between samples, unique genes, and diversity indices. Statistical analyses indicated that the concentrations of Fe, S, Ca, Mg, Zn, Cu and pH had strong impacts on both phylogenetic and functional diversity, composition, and structure of AMD microbial communities. This study provides insights into our understanding of the geographic distribution, diversity, composition, structure and functional potential of AMD microbial communities and key environmental factors shaping them. This study investigated the geographic distribution of Acid Mine Drainages microbial communities using a 16S rRNA gene-based RFLP method and the diversity, composition and structure of AMD microbial communities phylogenetically and functionally using an AMD-specific microarray which contained 1,072 probes ( 571 related to 16S rRNA and 501 related to functional genes). The functional genes in the microarray were involved in carbon metabolism (158), nitrogen metabolism (72), sulfur metabolism (39), iron metabolism (68), DNA replication and repair (97), metal-resistance (27), membrane-relate gene (16), transposon (13) and IST sequence (11).

			Action	DRS
	SRR13484040_1.fastq.gz	Fastqsanger.gz
	SRR13484040_2.fastq.gz	Fastqsanger.gz
	SRR13484041_1.fastq.gz	Fastqsanger.gz
	SRR13484041_2.fastq.gz	Fastqsanger.gz
	SRR13484042_1.fastq.gz	Fastqsanger.gz

Dataset Information

Dataset's files

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets