| 1. |
- Dobrindt, Ulrich, et al.
(författare)
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Preface
- 2013
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Ingår i: Between Pathogenecity and Commensalism. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 0070-217X. - 9783642365607 ; 358
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 2. |
- Demuth, Andreas, et al.
(författare)
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Pathogenomics: An updated European Research Agenda
- 2008
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Ingår i: Infection, Genetics and Evolution. - : Elsevier BV. - 1567-7257 .- 1567-1348. ; 8:3, s. 386-393
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The emerging genomic technologies and bioinformatics provide novel opportunities for studying life-threatening human pathogens and to develop new applications for the improvement of human and animal health and the prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of infections. Based on the ecology and population biology of pathogens and related organisms and their connection to epidemiology, more accurate typing technologies and approaches will lead to better means of disease control. The analysis of the genome plasticity and gene pools of pathogenic bacteria including antigenic diversity and antigenic variation results in more effective vaccines and vaccine implementation programs. The study of newly identified and uncultivated microorganisms enables the identification of new threats. The scrutiny of the metabolism of the pathogen in the host allows the identification of new targets for anti-infectives and therapeutic approaches. The development of modulators of host responses and mediators of host damage will be facilitated by the research on interactions of microbes and hosts, including mechanisms of host damage, acute and chronic relationships as well as commensalisms. The study of multiple pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes interacting in the host will improve the management of multiple infections and will allow probiotic and prebiotic interventions. Needless to iterate, the application of the results of improved prevention and treatment of infections into clinical tests will have a positive impact on the management of human and animal disease. The Pathogenomics Research Agenda draws on discussions with experts of the Network of Excellence "EuroPathoGenomics" at the management board meeting of the project held during 18-21 April 2007, in the Villa Vigoni, Menaggio, Italy. Based on a proposed European Research Agenda in the field of pathogenomics by the ERA-NET PathoGenoMics the meeting's participants updated the established list of topics as the research agenda for the future.
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| 3. |
- Dobrindt, Ulrich, et al.
(författare)
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Analysis of genome plasticity in pathogenic and commensal Escherichia coli isolates by use of DNA arrays
- 2003
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Ingår i: Journal of Bacteriology. - 0021-9193. ; 185:6, s. 1831-1840
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genomes of prokaryotes differ significantly in size and DNA composition. Escherichia coli is considered a model organism to analyze the processes involved in bacterial genome evolution, as the species comprises numerous pathogenic and commensal variants. Pathogenic and nonpathogenic E. coli strains differ in the presence and absence of additional DNA elements contributing to specific virulence traits and also in the presence and absence of additional genetic information. To analyze the genetic diversity of pathogenic and commensal E. coli isolates, a whole-genome approach was applied. Using DNA arrays, the presence of all translatable open reading frames (ORFs) of nonpathogenic E. coli K-12 strain MG1655 was investigated in 26 E. coli isolates, including various extraintestinal and intestinal pathogenic E. coli isolates, 3 pathogenicity island deletion mutants, and commensal and laboratory strains. Additionally, the presence of virulence-associated genes of E. coli was determined using a DNA "pathoarray" developed in our laboratory. The frequency and distributional pattern of genomic variations vary widely in different E. coli strains. Up to 10% of the E. coli K-12-specific ORFs were not detectable in the genomes of the different strains. DNA sequences described for extraintestinal or intestinal pathogenic E. coli are more frequently detectable in isolates of the same origin than in other pathotypes. Several genes coding for virulence or fitness factors are also present in commensal E. coli isolates. Based on these results, the conserved E. coli core genome is estimated to consist of at least 3,100 translatable ORFs. The absence of K-12-specific ORFs was detectable in all chromosomal regions. These data demonstrate the great genome heterogeneity and genetic diversity among E. coli strains and underline the fact that both the acquisition and deletion of DNA elements are important processes involved in the evolution of prokaryotes.
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| 4. |
- Kouokam, J Clavin, et al.
(författare)
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Active cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 associated with outer membrane vesicles from uropathogenic Escherichia coli.
- 2006
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Ingår i: Infection and Immunity. - 0019-9567 .- 1098-5522. ; 74:4, s. 2022-2030
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cytotoxic necrotizing factor type 1 (CNF1) is one of the virulence factors produced by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). How this toxin is translocated from the bacterial cytoplasm to the surrounding environment is not well understood. Our data suggest that CNF1 may be regarded as a secreted protein, since it could be detected in culture supernatants. Furthermore, we found that CNF1 was tightly associated to outer membrane vesicles, suggesting that such vesicles play a role in the secretion of this protein. Interestingly, vesicle samples containing CNF1 could exert the effects known for this protein on HeLa cell cultures, showing that CNF1 is transported by vesicles in its active form. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that outer membrane vesicles could be a means for the bacteria to deliver CNF1 to the environment and to the infected tissue. In addition, our results indicate that the histone-like nucleoid structuring protein H-NS has a role in the downregulation of CNF1 production and that it affects the outer membrane vesicle release in UPEC strain J96.
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| 5. |
- Lindberg, Stina, et al.
(författare)
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Regulatory Interactions among adhesin gene systems of uropathogenic Escherichia coli
- 2008
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Ingår i: Infection and Immunity. - 0019-9567 .- 1098-5522. ; 76:2, s. 771-780
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Uropathogenic Escherichia coli strain J96 carries multiple determinants for fimbrial adhesins. The regulatory protein PapB of P fimbriae has previously been implicated in potential coregulatory events. The focB gene of the F1C fimbria determinant is highly homologous to papB; the translated sequences share 81% identity. In this study we investigated the role of PapB and FocB in regulation of the F1C fimbriae. By using gel mobility shift assays, we showed that FocB binds to sequences in both the pap and foc operons in a somewhat different manner than PapB. The results of both in vitro cross-linking and in vivo oligomerization tests indicated that FocB could function in an oligomeric fashion. Furthermore, our results suggest that PapB and FocB can form heterodimers and that these complexes can repress expression of the foc operon. The effect of FocB on expression of type 1 fimbriae was also tested. Taken together, the results that we present expand our knowledge about a regulatory network for different adhesin gene systems in uropathogenic E. coli and suggest a hierarchy for expression of the fimbrial adhesins.
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| 6. |
- Müller, Claudia M, et al.
(författare)
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Differential effects and interactions of endogenous and horizontally acquired H-NS-like proteins in pathogenic Escherichia coli.
- 2010
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Ingår i: Molecular Microbiology. - : Wiley. - 0950-382X .- 1365-2958. ; 75:2, s. 280-293
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The nucleoid-associated protein H-NS is important for gene regulation in Escherichia coli. We have studied H-NS interaction with StpA and an uncharacterized H-NS-like protein, Hfp, in the uropathogenic E. coli isolate 536 that expresses all three nucleoid-associated proteins. We found distinct interactions of the three proteins at the protein level, resulting in the formation of heteromers, as well as differences in their gene expression at the transcriptional level. Mutants lacking either StpA or Hfp alone did not exhibit a phenotype at 37 degrees C, which is consistent with a low level of expression at that temperature. Expression of the hfp and stpA genes was found to be induced by apparently diametrical conditions, and StpA and Hfp levels could be correlated to modulatory effects on the expression of different H-NS targets, the bgl operon and operons for virulence factors such as fimbriae and capsular polysaccharide. The hns/hfp and hns/stpA double mutants displayed severe growth defects at low and high temperatures respectively. Our findings demonstrated different requirements for the alternative H-NS/Hfp/StpA combinations under these growth conditions. We propose that Hfp and StpA have distinct functions and roles in a dynamic pool of nucleoid-associated proteins that is adapting to requirements in a particular environment.
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| 7. |
- Müller, Claudia M, et al.
(författare)
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Role of histone-like proteins H-NS and StpA in expression of virulence determinants of uropathogenic Escherichia coli.
- 2006
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Ingår i: J Bacteriol. - 0021-9193. ; 188:15, s. 5428-38
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The histone-like protein H-NS is a global regulator in Escherichia coli that has been intensively studied in nonpathogenic strains. However, no comprehensive study on the role of H-NS and its paralogue, StpA, in gene expression in pathogenic E. coli has been carried out so far. Here, we monitored the global effects of H-NS and StpA in a uropathogenic E. coli isolate by using DNA arrays. Expression profiling revealed that more than 500 genes were affected by an hns mutation, whereas no effect of StpA alone was observed. An hns stpA double mutant showed a distinct gene expression pattern that differed in large part from that of the hns single mutant. This suggests a direct interaction between the two paralogues and the existence of distinct regulons of H-NS and an H-NS/StpA heteromeric complex. hns mutation resulted in increased expression of alpha-hemolysin, fimbriae, and iron uptake systems as well as genes involved in stress adaptation. Furthermore, several other putative virulence genes were found to be part of the H-NS regulon. Although the lack of H-NS, either alone or in combination with StpA, has a huge impact on gene expression in pathogenic E. coli strains, its effect on virulence is ambiguous. At a high infection dose, hns mutants trigger more sudden lethality due to their increased acute toxicity in murine urinary tract infection and sepsis models. At a lower infectious dose, however, mutants lacking H-NS are attenuated through their impaired growth rate, which can only partially be compensated for by the higher expression of numerous virulence factors.
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| 8. |
- Sjöström, Annika E., 1963-, et al.
(författare)
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The SfaXII protein from newborn meningitis E. coli is involved in regulation of motility and type 1 fimbriae expression
- 2009
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Ingår i: Microbial Pathogenesis. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 0882-4010 .- 1096-1208. ; 46:5, s. 243-252
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The genomes of pathogenic E. coli may contain several different fimbrial operons. How bacteria regulate and coordinate the choice of fimbrial expression under different circumstances remains largely unanswered. In this report we have investigated the role of the sfaXII gene associated to the SfaII fimbrial determinant in the E. coli isolate IHE3034. sfaXII belongs to a subfamily of genes, the 17kDa genes, located near different fimbrial operons in uropathogenic and newborn meningitis E. coli (NMEC) strains. Using the NMEC isolate IHE3034 and non-pathogenic E. coli strains we found that the sfaXII gene had an inhibitory effect on type 1 fimbriae expression. Down regulation of type 1 fimbriae was exerted at transcriptional level both by inhibiting expression from the fimA promoter and by reducing the frequency of OFF-to-ON switching. The effect of sfaXII on expression of the recombinase FimB that catalyzes OFF to ON switching might explain the described reduction in percentage of ON cells. Moreover, expression of the sfaXII gene strongly influenced motility and flagella production of the NMEC isolate IHE3034. We propose that the sfaXII gene, and presumably other members in the 17kDa gene family, may play a role in the control of virulence related gene expression in pathogenic E. coli.
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