Project description:Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the etiological agent of porcine pleuropneumonia, a respiratory disease which causes great economic losses worldwide. Many virulence factors are involved in the pathogenesis, namely capsular polysaccharides, RTX toxins, LPS and many iron acquisition systems. In order to identify genes that are expressed in vivo during a natural infection, we undertook transcript profiling experiments with an A. pleuropneumoniae DNA microarray, after recovery of bacterial mRNAs from serotype 5b-infected porcine lungs.
Project description:Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the etiological agent of porcine pleuropneumonia, a respiratory disease which causes great economic losses worldwide. Many virulence factors are involved in the pathogenesis, namely capsular polysaccharides, RTX toxins, LPS and many iron acquisition systems. In order to identify genes that are expressed in vivo during a natural infection, we undertook transcript profiling experiments with an A. pleuropneumoniae DNA microarray, after recovery of bacterial mRNAs from serotype 5b-infected porcine lungs. Comparative Genomic Hybridizations between Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 5b strain L20 (ref) and serotype 5b fresh field isolate 896-07, recovered from infected pig lung tissues following natural acute infection. Two condition transcript profiling experiments : infectious 5b field strain isolated directly from lungs of naturally deceased pigs after acute infection vs infectious 5b field strain grown in BHI broth to an OD600 of 0.300.
Project description:LuxS is an enzyme involved in the activated methyl cycle and the by-product autoinducer 2 (AI-2) was a quorum sensing signal in some species. In our previous study, the functional LuxS in AI-2 production was verified in the porcine respiratory pathogen Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. Enhanced biofilm formation and reduced virulence were observed in the luxS mutant. To comprehensively understand the luxS function, in this study, the transcriptional profiles were compared between the A. pleuropneumoniae luxS mutant and its parental strain in four different growth phases using microarray. Many genes associated with infection were differentially expressed. The biofilm formation genes pgaABC in the luxS mutant were up-regulated in early exponential phase, while 8 genes associated with adhesion were down-regulated in late exponential phase. A group of genes involved in iron acquisition and metabolism were regulated in four growth phases. Further investigations on these virulence traits demonstrated that the luxS mutant showed enhanced biofilm formation and reduced adhesion ability and these effects were not due to lack of AI-2. But AI-2 could increase biofilm formation and adhesion of A. pleuropneumoniae independent of LuxS. Growth under iron restricted condition could be controlled by LuxS through AI-2 production. These results revealed pleiotropic roles of LuxS and AI-2 on A. pleuropneumoniae virulence traits.
Project description:To better understand effects of iron starvation on A. pleuropneumoniae and to identify new potential vaccine targets, we conducted transcript profiling using a DNA microarray containing all 2025 ORFs of the genome of A. pleuropneumoniae serotype 5b strain L20. Upon comparing growth of this pathogen in iron-sufficient versus iron-depleted medium, 210 genes were identified as being differentially expressed. Some genes (92) were identified as being up-regulated; many have confirmed or putative roles in iron acquisition, such as the genes coding for two TonB energy-transducing proteins and the hemoglobin receptor HgbA. Transcript profiling also led to identification of some new iron acquisition systems of A. pleuropneumoniae. Keywords: stress respsonse
Project description:LuxS is an enzyme involved in the activated methyl cycle and the by-product autoinducer 2 (AI-2) was a quorum sensing signal in some species. In our previous study, the functional LuxS in AI-2 production was verified in the porcine respiratory pathogen Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. Enhanced biofilm formation and reduced virulence were observed in the luxS mutant. To comprehensively understand the luxS function, in this study, the transcriptional profiles were compared between the A. pleuropneumoniae luxS mutant and its parental strain in four different growth phases using microarray. Many genes associated with infection were differentially expressed. The biofilm formation genes pgaABC in the luxS mutant were up-regulated in early exponential phase, while 8 genes associated with adhesion were down-regulated in late exponential phase. A group of genes involved in iron acquisition and metabolism were regulated in four growth phases. Further investigations on these virulence traits demonstrated that the luxS mutant showed enhanced biofilm formation and reduced adhesion ability and these effects were not due to lack of AI-2. But AI-2 could increase biofilm formation and adhesion of A. pleuropneumoniae independent of LuxS. Growth under iron restricted condition could be controlled by LuxS through AI-2 production. These results revealed pleiotropic roles of LuxS and AI-2 on A. pleuropneumoniae virulence traits. A. pleuropneumoniae strains were cultured in TSB medium supplemented with 10 M-NM-<g/ml of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and 10% (v/v)filtered cattle serum at 37M-BM-0C. The samples were collected from early exponential phase, middle exponential phase, late exponential phase and stationary phase respectively and the total RNA were extracted using RNA-Solv Reagent (Omega) according to the manufacturerM-bM-^@M-^Ys instructions. For each time point, four biological replicates were combined into two samples. The intensities were normalized and transformed into log2 value.The fold changes >=1.5 or <=-1.5 were selected as differentially expressed genes.
Project description:Bacteria can actively respond to host stress hormones (catecholamines), thereby regulate their growth, metabolism, virulence and other behaviors. This phenomenon provides new explanations of the fact that stress can influence the occurrence and development of infectious disease. Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is an important swine respiratory pathogen which has caused great economic losses worldwide. In our previous study, it has been discovered that catecholamines can regulate the expression of a great number of genes of A. pleuropneumoniae. In this study, the effect of catecholamines on A. pleuropneumoniae growth was detected using chemically defined medium (CDM). The results showed that in CDM, serum inhibited A. pleuropneumoniae growth, while epinephrine (Epi), norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA) promoted A. pleuropneumoniae growth in the CDM containing serum. The known bacterial adrenergic receptor QseC didn’t play role in this process. According to growth features after supplementation of ions and genes expression changes caused by serum, Epi, NE and DA, it was discovered that serum established iron-restricted conditions for A. pleuropneumoniae and catecholamines removed the restrictions of iron. Apo-transferrin but not holo-transferrin also inhibited the growth of A. pleuropneumoniae in CDM. Catecholamines induced growth of A. pleuropneumoniae in the CDM containing apo-transferrin. Hence transferrin was one of the components in the serum that caused growth inhibition and was used by catecholamines to facilitate growth. In addition, TonB2 of A. pleuropneumoniae played essential roles in this process. The investigations in this study indicated that catecholamines promoted A. pleuropneumoniae growth by regulating iron acquisition and metabolism, which could be important during pathogenic processes.
Project description:Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the etiologic agent of contagious pleuropneumonia, an economically important disease of commercially reared swine throughout the world. To cause this disease, A. pleuropneumoniae must rapidly overcome porcine pulmonary innate immune defenses. Effects of koromycin, an antimicrobial agent that acts as an noncompetitive inhibitor of the interaction of NQR with its quinone substrate, on the transcriptome of A. pleuropneumoniae was investigated.
Project description:Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the etiologic agent of contagious pleuropneumonia, an economically important disease of commercially reared swine throughout the world. To cause this disease, A. pleuropneumoniae must rapidly overcome porcine pulmonary innate immune defenses. Since bronchoalveolar fluid (BALF) contains many of the innate immune components found in the lung, we examined the gene expression of a virulent serovar 1 strain of A. pleuropneumoniae after exposure to concentrated BALF. This experiment was also carried out with a malT mutant of the same strain.