Project description:Staphylococcus aureus is an important food poisoning bacterium. In food preservation, acidification is a well-known method. Permeant weak organic acids, like lactic and acetic acids, are known to be more effective against bacteria than inorganic strong acids (e.g., HCl). Growth experiments and metabolic and transcriptional analyses were used to determine the responses of a food pathogenic S. aureus strain exposed to lactic acid, acetic acid, and HCl at pH 4.5. Lactic and acetic acid stress induced a slower transcriptional response and large variations in growth patterns compared with the responses induced by HCl. In cultures acidified with lactic acid, the pH of the medium gradually increased to 7.5 during growth, while no such increase was observed for bacteria exposed to acetic acid or HCl. Staphylococcus aureus increased the pH in the medium mainly through accumulation of ammonium and the removal of acid groups, resulting in increased production of diacetyl (2,3-butanedione) and pyrazines. The results showed flexible and versatile responses of S. aureus to different types of acid stress. As measured by growth inhibition, permeant organic acid stress introduced severe stress compared with the stress caused by HCl. Cells exposed to lactic acid showed specific mechanisms of action in addition to sharing many of the mechanisms induced by HCl stress. Data is also available from http://bugs.sgul.ac.uk/E-BUGS-87
Project description:Inorganic phosphate is an essential nutrient required by organisms for growth. During phosphate starvation, Saccharomyces cerevisiae activates the phosphate signal transduction (PHO) pathway leading to the expression of the secreted acid phosphatase, PHO5. The fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, regulates expression of the ScPHO5 homolog (pho1+) via a non-orthologous PHO pathway. The genes induced by phosphate limitation and the molecular mechanism by which the genetically identified positive (pho7+) and negative (csk1+) regulators function are not known. Here we use a combination of molecular biology, expression microarrays, and chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-Seq) to characterize the role of pho7+ and csk1+ in the PHO response. We define the set of genes that comprise the initial response to phosphate starvation in S. pombe. We identify a conserved PHO response for the ScPHO5 (pho1+), ScPHO84 (spbc8e4.01c+), and ScGIT1 (spbc1271.09+) orthologs. We use ChIP-Seq to identify members of the Pho7 regulon and characterize Pho7 binding in response to phosphate-limitation and Csk1 activity. We demonstrate that activation of pho1+ requires Pho7 binding to a UAS in the pho1+ promoter and that Csk1 repression does not regulate Pho7 enrichment. Further, we find that Pho7-dependent activation is not limited to phosphate-starvation, as additional environmental stress response pathways require pho7+ for maximal induction. We provide a global analysis of the PHO pathway in S. pombe. Our results elucidate the conserved core regulon required for responding to phosphate starvation between distantly related ascomycetes and a better understanding of flexibility in environmental stress response networks. ChIP Sequencing of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe 972h- transcription factor Pho7-TAP in high-Pi, no-Pi, and csk1M-NM-^T conditions
Project description:Comparative phenotype and transcriptome analyses were performed with Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579 exposed to acid down-shock to pH 5.5 set with different acidulants. When acidified with hydrochloric acid (HCl), growth was diminished, whereas 2 mM undissociated lactic acid (HL) or acetic acid (HAc) stopped growth without inactivation (bacteriostatic condition), and 15 mM undissociated HAc caused growth arrest and, finally, cell death, as reflected by a 3 to 4 log inactivation (bactericidal condition). Within the first 60 min after pH down-shock, the intracellular ATP levels of cultures shocked with HCl were increased. The bacteriostatic pH shocks did not result in increased nor decreased intracellular ATP levels, indicating that the high energy status within the stressed aerobically grown B. cereus cells could be maintained. In contrast, exposure to 15 mM undissociated HAc resulted in significant lower ATP levels, which was in accordance with the observed inactivation. The transcriptomic responses pH down-shocked cultures were studied in the same time frame. The analyses revealed general and specific responses coupled to the different phenotypes and the acidulant used. The general acid stress response, shown in all different pH shocks, involves modulation of pyruvate metabolism and an oxidative stress response. The shifts in pyruvate metabolism include induction dehydrogenases of a butanediol fermentation pathway under non-lethal acid stress conditions and of lactate, formate, and ethanol fermentation pathways under 15 mM HAc stress. Other 15 mM HAc-specific responses were induction of the alternative electron-transport systems, including cydAB, and fatty acid biosynthesis genes. Differences in gene expression for the bacteriostatic organic acid stress conditions compared to the growth-retarded inorganic stress condition indicated a more stringent oxidative stress response, including induction of an additional catalase gene and a gene encoding a Dps-like protein. Moreover, modulations in amino acid and oligopeptide transport were also found for the 2 mM HAc and HL shocks. HL-specific and HAc-specific responses both involve amino acid metabolism. Our study on the genome-wide responses of aerobically grown B. cereus pH 5.5 shocks provides a unique overview of the different responses induced by three acidulants relevant for food preservation. Per acid down-shock three exposure times (i.e., 10, 30 and 60 min) were each compared with non-exposed cells (i.e., t0). In total 4 different pH 5.5 acid down-shocks were applied. pH 5.5 was reached by adding different acidulants i.e., hydrochloric acid (HCl), lactic acid (HL) resulting in 2 mM undissociated HL, acetic acid (HAc) resulting in 15 mM undissociated HAc, and a combination of acetic acid and hydrochloric acid (HAc/HCl) resulting in 2 mM undissociated HAc. The experiments were performed in duplicate and the duplicate samples were hybridised with a dye-swap.
Project description:We have found Gcn5 is specifically requried for KCl and CaCl2 mediated stress in Schizosaccharomyces Pombe. We have charaterised the genome wide gene expression responses to KCl stress and show the Gcn5 in involved in the regulation of sebset of stress response genes. Keywords: stress response
Project description:In this study we used stringent mapping methods and a high-quality genome sequence to study the transcriptional response to lactic acid stress in Zygosaccharomyces parabailii ATCC60483, a natural interspecies hybrid yeast
Project description:Raw expression values (CHP data) for transcriptional profiling of the response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to challenges with lactic acid at pH 3 and pH 5. Keywords: response to lactic acid
Project description:Sequencing of mononucleosomal DNA during asynchronous mitosis in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Schizosaccharomyces octosporus, Schizosaccharomyces japonicus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Project description:RNA interference (RNAi) pathways are prevalent throughout the eukaryotic kingdom and well known to regulate gene expression on a post-transcriptional level in the cytoplasm. Less is known about possible functions of RNAi in the nucleus. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, RNAi is crucial to establish and maintain centromeric heterochromatin and functions to repress genome activity by a chromatin silencing mechanism referred to as co-transcriptional gene silencing (CTGS). Mechanistic details and the physiological relevance of CTGS are unknown. Here we show that RNAi components interact with chromatin at nuclear pores to keep stress response genes in check. We demonstrate that RNAi-mediated CTGS represses stress inducible genes by degrading mRNAs under non-induced conditions. Under chronic heat stress conditions, a Dicer thermoswitch deports Dicer to the cytoplasm, thereby disrupting CTGS and enabling expression of genes implicated in the acquisition of thermotolerance. Taken together, our work highlights a role for nuclear pores and the stress response transcription factor Atf1 in coordinating the interplay between the RNAi machinery and the S. pombe genome and uncovers a novel mode of RNAi regulation in response to an environmental cue.