Work

Antibiotics Disrupt Coordination between Transcriptional and Phenotypic Stress Responses in Pathogenic Bacteria

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: Bacterial genes that change in expression upon environmental disturbance have commonly been seen as those that must also phenotypically matter. However, several studies suggest that differentially expressed genes are rarely phenotypically important. We demonstrate, for Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, that these seemingly uncoordinated gene sets are involved in responses that can be linked through topological network analysis. However, the level of coordination is stress dependent. While a well-coordinated response is triggered in response to nutrient stress, antibiotics trigger an uncoordinated response in which transcriptionally and phenotypically important genes are neither linked spatially nor in their magnitude. Moreover, a gene expression meta-analysis reveals that genes with large fitness changes during stress have low transcriptional variation across hundreds of other conditions, and vice versa. Our work suggests that cellular responses can be understood through network models that incorporate regulatory and genetic relationships, which could aid drug target predictions and genetic network engineering.

Source: Cell Reports

DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.07.062

Authors: Paul A. Jensen, Zeyu Zhu, Tim van Opijnen

Institution: Boston College

Language: English

Topic: Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology

Subfield: Genetics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $5,620

Funders: Boston College, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases