Project description:Plants and rhizosphere microbes rely closely on each other, with plants supplying carbon to bacteria in root exudates, and bacteria mobilizing soil-bound phosphate for plant nutrition. When the phosphate supply becomes limiting for plant growth, the composition of root exudation changes, affecting rhizosphere microbial communities and microbially-mediated nutrient fluxes. To evaluate how plant phosphate deprivation affects rhizosphere bacteria, Lolium perenne seedlings were root-inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa 7NR, and grown in axenic microcosms under different phosphate regimes (330 uM vs 3-6 uM phosphate). The effect of biological nutrient limitation was examined by DNA microarray studies of rhizobacterial gene expression.
Project description:Antibiotics have dose-dependent effects on exposed bacteria. The medicinal use of antibiotics relies on their growth-inhibitory activities at sufficient concentrations. At subinhibitory concentrations, exposure effects vary widely among different antibiotics and bacteria. Bacillus subtilis responds to bacteriostatic translation inhibitors by mobilizing a population of cells (MOB-Mobilized Bacillus) to spread across a surface. How B. subtilis regulates the antibiotic-induced mobilization is not known. In this study, we used chloramphenicol to identify regulatory functions that B. subtilis requires to coordinate cell mobilization following subinhibitory exposure. We measured changes in gene expression and metabolism and mapped the results to a network of regulatory proteins that direct the mobile response. Our data reveal that several transcriptional regulators coordinately control the reprogramming of metabolism to support mobilization. The network regulates changes in glycolysis, nucleotide metabolism, and amino acid metabolism that are signature features of the mobilized population. Among the hundreds of genes with changing expression, we identified two, pdhA and pucA, where the magnitudes of their changes in expression, and in the abundance of associated metabolites, reveal hallmark metabolic features of the mobilized population. Using reporters of pdhA and pucA expression, we visualized the separation of major branches of metabolism in different regions of the mobilized population. Our results reveal a regulated response to chloramphenicol exposure that enables a population of bacteria in different metabolic states to mount a coordinated mobile response.
Project description:Background: Probiotic-like bacteria treatment has been described to be associated with gut microbiota modifications. Goal: To decipher if the effects of the tested probiotic-like bacteria are due to the bacteria itself or due to the effects of the bacteria on the gut microbiota. Methodology: In this study, gut microbiota has been analyzed from feces samples of subjects with metabolic syndrome and treated with one of the 2 tested probiotic-like bacteria or with the placebo during 3months.
Project description:The research was conducted by in-vitro experiments on microglial cells, performed by Wildman lab and Uddin research group in the College of Public Health at the University of the South Florida. The experiments mimic the trauma-related immune environments by utilizing stress hormones. Stress hormones can modify individual internal environment during times of stress, mobilizing energy sources, increasing heart rate, and downregulating metabolic processes
Project description:Precise nucleosome-positioning patterns at promoters are thought to be crucial for faithful transcriptional regulation. However, the mechanisms by which these patterns are established and dynamically maintained and subsequently contribute to transcriptional control are poorly understood. The Swi/Snf (Baf) chromatin remodeling complex is a master developmental regulator and tumor suppressor that is capable of mobilizing nucleosomes in biochemical assays. Yet, its role in establishing the nucleosome landscape in vivo is unclear. Here we have inactivated Snf5 and Brg1, core subunits of the mammalian Swi/Snf complex, to evaluate their effects on chromatin structure and transcription levels genome-wide. We find that inactivation of either subunit leads to disruptions of specific nucleosome patterning combined with a loss of overall nucleosome occupancy at a large number of promoters, regardless of their association with CpG islands. These rearrangements are accompanied by gene expression changes that promote cell proliferation. Collectively, these findings define a direct relationship between chromatin-remodeling complexes, chromatin structure, and transcriptional regulation. Nucleosome profiling in three cell types