Project description:Collimonas is a genus of soil bacteria which comprises three recognized species: C. fungivorans, C. pratensis and C. arenae. The bacteria belonging to this genus share the ability to lyse chitin (chitinolysis) and feed on living fungal hyphae (mycophagy), but they differ in colony morphology, physiological properties and antifungal activity. In order to gain a better insight into the genetic background underlying this phenotypic variability of collimonads, we investigated the variability in the genomic content of five strains representing the three formally recognized Collimonas species. The genomic content of four test strains was hybridized on an array representing the reference strain C. fungivorans Ter331.
Project description:Dictyostelium discoideum amoebae feed by ingesting bacteria, then killing them in phagosomes. Ingestion and killing of different bacteria have been shown to rely on largely different molecular mechanisms. One would thus expect that D. discoideum adapts its ingestion and killing machinery when encountering different bacteria. In this study, we investigated by RNA sequencing if and how D. discoideum amoebae respond to the presence of different bacteria by modifying their gene expression patterns. Each bacterial species analyzed induced a specific modification of the transcriptome. Bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, or Mycobacterium marinum induced a specific and different transcriptional response, while Micrococcus luteus did not trigger a significant gene regulation. Although folate has been proposed to be one of the key molecules secreted by bacteria and recognized by hunting amoebae, it elicited a very specific and restricted transcriptional signature, distinct from that triggered by any bacteria analyzed here. Our results indicate that D. discoideum amoebae respond in a highly specific, almost non-overlapping manner to different species of bacteria. We additionally identify specific sets of genes that can be used as reporters of the response of D. discoideum to different bacteria.
Project description:A prototype oligonucleotide microarray was designed to detect and identify viable bacterial species with the potential to grow of common beer spoilage microorganisms from the genera Lactobacillus, Megasphaera, Pediococcus and Pectinatus. Probes targeted the intergenic spacer regions (ISR) between 16S and 23S rRNA, which were amplified in a combination of reverse transcriptase (RT) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) prior to hybridization. This method allows the detection and discrimination of single bacterial species in a complex sample. Furthermore, microarrays using oligonucleotide probes targeting the ISR allow the distinction between viable bacteria with the potential to grow and non-growing bacteria. The results demonstrate the feasibility of oligonucleotide microarrays as a contamination control in food industry for the detection and identification of spoilage microorganisms within mixed population. Keywords: microarray, oligonucleotide, species-specific, detection, beer spoilage bacteria
Project description:The association between colorectal cancer (CRC) clinical variables and Fusobacterium, but not other intra-tumoral bacteria, has been extensively studied. Here we leveraged whole-transcriptome sequencing from 807 CRC tumor samples from the AVANT phase III trial to dually characterize tumor gene expression and intra-tumoral bacteria. After stringent filtering, 74 high-confidence taxa were identified. 17 of these species, including 4 Fusobacterium spp., were classified as orally-derived and had a robust signal within right-sided, MSI-H, and BRAF mutant tumors. Across consensus molecular subtypes (CMS), integration of Fusobacterium animalis presence and tumor gene expression revealed that F. animalis had the greatest number of associations in mesenchymal CMS4 tumors, despite an overall lower prevalence than in immune CMS1 tumors. Pathway analysis within CMS4 revealed that F. animalis, but not other highly prevalent species, was uniquely associated with pathways for collagen degradation and formation as well as IL-6 and IL-1 cytokine signaling. These associations could explain in part why Fusobacterium has been previously associated with reduced survival in mesenchymal populations. Overall, this study identified oral-derived bacteria, including Fusobacterium, as broadly more prevalent in inflamed CRC tumors compared to the other subtypes, and the association of intra-tumoral bacteria on tumor gene expression is context- and species-specific.
Project description:Bacteria are major drivers of organic matter decomposition and play crucial roles in global nutrient cycling. Although the degradation of dead fungal biomass (necromass) is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling, the genes and metabolic pathways involved in necromass degradation are under characterized. In particular, how bacteria degrade necromass containing different quantities of melanin, which largely control rates of necromass decomposition in situ, is largely unknown. To address this gap, we conducted a multi-timepoint transcriptomic analysis using three Gram-negative, bacterial species grown on low or high melanin necromass of Hyaloscypha bicolor. The bacterial species, Cellvibrio japonicus, Chitinophaga pinensis, and Serratia marcescens, belong to genera known to degrade necromass in situ. We found that while bacterial growth was consistently higher on low than high melanin necromass, the CAZyme-encoding gene expression response of the three species was similar between the two necromass types. Interestingly, this trend was not shared for genes encoding nitrogen utilization, which varied in C. pinensis and S. marcescens during growth on high versus low melanin necromass. Additionally, this study tested the metabolic capabilities of these bacterial species to grow on a diversity of C and N sources and found that the three bacteria have substantially different abilities to utilize carbon and nitrogen compounds. Collectively, our data suggests that as necromass changes chemically over the course of degradation, certain bacterial species are favored based on their differential metabolic capacities.