Project description:We report the application of single-molecule-based sequencing technology for high-throughput profiling of DNA methylations in Burkholderia pseudomallei.
Project description:Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis which is endemic to Southeast Asia and Northern Australia. It is a Gram-negative soil and water bacterium that represents a potential bioterrorism threat. Colony morphology variation is a remarkable feature in primary clinical cultures of B. pseudomallei. Differences in expression of several potential virulence and survival genes were believed to be associated with B. pseudomallei colony morphology variants. Microarrray approach was used to investigate alterations of the global B. pseudomallei transcriptome profile at the mid-logarithmic phase of growth, among the wild type (WT) and small colony variant (SCV) of B. pseudomallei pre- and post-exposed to human lung epithelial cells, A549. Generally, SCV pre- and post-exposed have lower metabolic requirements and consume lesser energy than WT pre- and post-exposed to A549; however, both WT and SCV may limit their metabolic activity during the infection of A549 cells and this is indicated by the down-regulation of genes implicated in metabolism of amino acids, carbohydrate, lipid, and other amino acids, and biodegradation of xenobiotics. On the other hand, many well-known virulence and survival factors including T3SS, T6SS, fimbriae, capsular polysaccharides, drug resistance and stress response were up-regulated in both WT and SCV pre- and post-exposed to A549 cells. Several virulence factors expressed at the mid-logarithmic phase of growth. Microarray analysis on the different morphotypes demonstrated the essential difference in bacterial response associated with virulence and survival pre- and post-exposed to A549 cells.
Project description:We report the methylome sequencing and annotation of Burkholderia pseudomallei D286 based on high-throughput profiling using PacBio SMRT technology
Project description:Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis a disease endemic in South-East Asia and Northern Australia. The mortality rates in these areas are unacceptably high even with antibiotic treatment, attributed to intrinsic and acquired resistance of B. pseudomallei to antibiotics. With very few options for therapeutics there is an urgent requirement to identify anti-bacterial targets for the development of novel, effective treatments. In this study we examine the role and effect of ppiB on the proteome. Using LFQ analysis we show loss of ppiB has dramatic effect on the Burkholderia pseudomallei proteome.
Project description:B. pseudomallei strain K96243 is sensitive to the drug ceftazidime (CAZ), but has been shown to exhibit transient CAZ tolerance when in a biofilm form. To investigate an observed shift in gene expression profile during ceftazidime (CAZ) tolerance and to better understand the mechanistic aspects of this transient tolerance, RNA-sequencing was performed on B. pseudomallei K96243 from the following three growth states: planktonic-free, biofilm, and planktonic shedding cells. Results indicated that the expression of 651 genes (10.97%) were significantly changed in both biofilm (resistant) and planktonic shedding (sensitive) cells in comparison to the planktonic state. Burkholderia biofilm shifts its transcriptome in response to ceftazidime exposure by regulating iron-sulfur stabilizing and metabolic-related genes.
Project description:Many microbial pathogens express specific virulence traits at distinct growth phases. To investigate the molecular pathways linking bacterial growth to pathogenicity, we characterized the genome-wide growth transcriptome of the tropical pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bp), the causative agent of melioidosis. Using fine-scale sampling, approximately 17% of all Bp genes were found to display regulated expression during growth, manifested primarily as discrete waves of gene expression tightly associated with distinct growth phases and transition points. A functional curation of these clusters provided evidence of a global ‘just-in-time’ production strategy to ensure the synthesis of molecular constituents only when needed. We observed regulation of multiple virulence factors at all growth phases, and by analyzing the early-phase transcriptome data, we identified and experimentally validated serC as a novel virulence factor in mice. Immunization of mice with serC-disrupted Bp also conferred protection against subsequent challenges with different wild-type Bp strains, demonstrating the potential utility of the serC mutant as an attenuated vaccine. We found a significant bias in early phase genes on Chromosome 1, supporting its proposed role as the ancestral Burkholderia chromosome, and utilized a chromosomally ordered co-expression metric to define ~100 putative operons throughout the Bp genome. These results extend our knowledge of virulence pathways in Bp, and suggest that molecular events at all growth phases, including early phase, are likely to play important roles in microbial pathogenicity." Keywords: Time Series Comparison Bp (K96243)