scholarly journals Comparative study on growth and morphological characteristics of a wild type strain Rhizobium spp. (RCA-220) and a genetically engineered E. coli BL21

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 75-82
Author(s):  
MM Rahman ◽  
M Salah Uddin ◽  
S Zaman ◽  
MA Saleh ◽  
AE Ekram ◽  
...  

Context: Comparison between a wild type strain Rhizobium spp. (RCA-220) and a genetically modified strain E. coli BL21 in context of growth features. Objective: To observe the comparative growth characteristics of a genetically modified E. coli BL21 and an isolated wild type strain Rhizobium spp. (RCA-220). Materials and Methods: Different kinds of investigations were accomplished in both Luria-Bertani (LB) liquid and semi-solid media to observe the growth and maintenance of these strains. For the isolation of Rhizobium spp. selective Yeast Extract Manitol Agar (YEMA) was used. Colony morphology, pH, temperature, carbon source, salt concentration and light were taken under consideration and optimized for growth characteristics. Results: For the strain E. coli BL21, the maximum growth rate was 1.9 at incubation time 72 h, pH 7.2, temperature 37°C (optimized) while for Rhizobium spp. the growth rate was significantly higher (OD 2) at pH 6.8, temperature 28°C (optimized). Among all used carbon sources, strains grown in the medium supplemented with peptone showed rapid and good performance. So, peptone was proved as the best carbon source for both strains. The maximum growths of these strains were observed at 0g/100ml NaCl salt concentration. RCA-220 strain was comparatively more tolerable to salt than E. coli BL21 strain. In this work, E. coli BL21 showed rapid and good performance in presence of light while Rhizobium spp. showed better performance in absence of light. Statistical analysis showed that the growth rate of Rhizobium spp. was significantly higher than E. coli BL21. Conclusion: From the experimental results, it can be concluded that naturally obtained microbial strains were stable and could tolerate any stress condition where the modified strains lose their growth capability and the overall growth performances were reduced or slowed down than the wild type strain. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbs.v20i0.17718 J. bio-sci.  20:  75-82, 2012

1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (11) ◽  
pp. 2992-2994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Molina ◽  
Alfonso Jiménez-Sánchez ◽  
Elena C. Guzmán

ABSTRACT Changes of thymidine concentration in the growth medium affect the chromosome replication time of Thy− strains without at the same time causing a detectable difference in the growth rate (R. H. Pritchard and A. Zaritsky, Nature 226:126–131, 1970). Consequently, the optimal thymidine concentration cannot be determined by ascertaining which concentration produces the highest growth rate. Here we present a method for determining the optimal thymidine concentration of any Thy− Escherichia coli strain. Using this method, we found that the E. coli “wild-type” strain MG1655 has a partial Thy− phenotype.


2001 ◽  
Vol 67 (10) ◽  
pp. 4546-4553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Levander ◽  
Ulrika Andersson ◽  
Peter Rådström

ABSTRACT A β-phosphoglucomutase (β-PGM) mutant of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis ATCC 19435 was constructed using a minimal integration vector and double-crossover recombination. The mutant and the wild-type strain were grown under controlled conditions with different sugars to elucidate the role of β-PGM in carbohydrate catabolism and anabolism. The mutation did not significantly affect growth, product formation, or cell composition when glucose or lactose was used as the carbon source. With maltose or trehalose as the carbon source the wild-type strain had a maximum specific growth rate of 0.5 h−1, while the deletion of β-PGM resulted in a maximum specific growth rate of 0.05 h−1 on maltose and no growth at all on trehalose. Growth of the mutant strain on maltose resulted in smaller amounts of lactate but more formate, acetate, and ethanol, and approximately 1/10 of the maltose was found as β-glucose 1-phosphate in the medium. Furthermore, the β-PGM mutant cells grown on maltose were considerably larger and accumulated polysaccharides which consisted of α-1,4-bound glucose units. When the cells were grown at a low dilution rate in a glucose and maltose mixture, the wild-type strain exhibited a higher carbohydrate content than when grown at higher growth rates, but still this content was lower than that in the β-PGM mutant. In addition, significant differences in the initial metabolism of maltose and trehalose were found, and cell extracts did not digest free trehalose but only trehalose 6-phosphate, which yielded β-glucose 1-phosphate and glucose 6-phosphate. This demonstrates the presence of a novel enzymatic pathway for trehalose different from that of maltose metabolism in L. lactis.


1990 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 484-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. C. Papavizas ◽  
D. P. Roberts ◽  
K. K. Kim

Aqueous suspensions of conidia of Gliocladium virens strains Gl-3 and Gl-21 were exposed to both ultraviolet radiation and ethyl methanesulfonate. Two mutants of Gl-3 and three of Gl-21 were selected for tolerance to benomyl at 10 μg∙mL−1, as indicated by growth and conidial germination on benomyl-amended potato dextrose agar. The mutants differed considerably from their respective wild-type strains in appearance, growth habit, sporulation, carbon-source utilization, and enzyme activity profiles. Of 10 carbon sources tested, cellobiose, xylose, and xylan were the best for growth, galactose and glucose were intermediate, and arabinose, ribose, and rhamnose were poor sources of carbon. The wild-type strains and the mutants did not utilize cellulose as the sole carbon source for growth. Two benomyl-tolerant mutants of Gl-3 produced less cellulase (β-1,4-glucosidase, carboxymethylcellulase, filter-paper cellulase) than Gl-3. In contrast, mutants of Gl-21 produced more cellulase than the wild-type strain. Only Gl-3 provided control of blight on snapbean caused by Sclerotium rolfsii. Wild-type strain Gl-21 and all mutants from both strains were ineffective biocontrol agents. Key words: Gliocladium, benomyl tolerance, Sclerotium, rhizosphere competence.


2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (17) ◽  
pp. 5187-5197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Sperandio ◽  
Alfredo G. Torres ◽  
Jorge A. Girón ◽  
James B. Kaper

ABSTRACT Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 is responsible for outbreaks of bloody diarrhea and hemolytic-uremic syndrome in many countries. EHEC virulence mechanisms include the production of Shiga toxins (Stx) and formation of attaching and effacing (AE) lesions on intestinal epithelial cells. We recently reported that genes involved in the formation of the AE lesion were regulated by quorum sensing through autoinducer-2, which is synthesized by the product of the luxS gene. In this study we hybridized an E. coli gene array with cDNA synthesized from RNA that was extracted from EHEC strain 86-24 and its isogenicluxS mutant. We observed that 404 genes were regulated by luxS at least fivefold, which comprises approximately 10% of the array genes; 235 of these genes were up-regulated and 169 were down-regulated in the wild-type strain compared to in theluxS mutant. Down-regulated genes included several involved in cell division, as well as ribosomal and tRNA genes. Consistent with this pattern of gene expression, theluxS mutant grows faster than the wild-type strain (generation times of 37.5 and 60 min, respectively, in Dulbecco modified Eagle medium). Up-regulated genes included several involved in the expression and assembly of flagella, motility, and chemotaxis. Using operon::lacZ fusions to class I, II, and III flagellar genes, we were able to confirm this transcriptional regulation. We also observed fewer flagella by Western blotting and electron microscopy and decreased motility halos in semisolid agar in the luxS mutant. The average swimming speeds for the wild-type strain and the luxS mutant are 12.5 and 6.6 μm/s, respectively. We also observed an increase in the production of Stx due to quorum sensing. Genes encoding Stx, which are transcribed along with λ-like phage genes, are induced by an SOS response, and genes involved in the SOS response were also regulated by quorum sensing. These results indicate that quorum sensing is a global regulatory mechanism for basic physiological functions of E. coli as well as for virulence factors.


2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 445-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Criswell ◽  
Virginia L. Tobiason ◽  
J. Stephen Lodmell ◽  
D. Scott Samuels

ABSTRACT We have isolated and characterized in vitro mutants of the Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi that are resistant to spectinomycin, kanamycin, gentamicin, or streptomycin, antibiotics that target the small subunit of the ribosome. 16S rRNA mutations A1185G and C1186U, homologous to Escherichia coli nucleotides A1191 and C1192, conferred >2,200-fold and 1,300-fold resistance to spectinomycin, respectively. A 16S rRNA A1402G mutation, homologous to E. coli A1408, conferred >90-fold resistance to kanamycin and >240-fold resistance to gentamicin. Two mutations were identified in the gene for ribosomal protein S12, at a site homologous to E. coli residue Lys-87, in mutants selected in streptomycin. Substitutions at codon 88, K88R and K88E, conferred 7-fold resistance and 10-fold resistance, respectively, to streptomycin on B. burgdorferi. The 16S rRNA A1185G and C1186U mutations, associated with spectinomycin resistance, appeared in a population of B. burgdorferi parental strain B31 at a high frequency of 6 × 10−6. These spectinomycin-resistant mutants successfully competed with the wild-type strain during 100 generations of coculture in vitro. The aminoglycoside-resistant mutants appeared at a frequency of 3 × 10−9 to 1 ×10−7 in a population and were unable to compete with wild-type strain B31 after 100 generations. This is the first description of mutations in the B. burgdorferi ribosome that confer resistance to antibiotics. These results have implications for the evolution of antibiotic resistance, because the 16S rRNA mutations conferring spectinomycin resistance have no significant fitness cost in vitro, and for the development of new selectable markers.


2002 ◽  
Vol 184 (10) ◽  
pp. 2850-2853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Conter ◽  
Rachel Sturny ◽  
Claude Gutierrez ◽  
Kaymeuang Cam

ABSTRACT The RcsCB His-Asp phosphorelay system regulates the expression of several genes of Escherichia coli, but the molecular nature of the inducing signal is still unknown. We show here that treatment of an exponentially growing culture of E. coli with the cationic amphipathic compound chlorpromazine (CPZ) stimulates expression of a set of genes positively regulated by the RcsCB system. This induction is abolished in rcsB or rcsC mutant strains. In addition, treatment with CPZ inhibits growth. The wild-type strain is able to recover from this inhibition and resume growth after a period of adaptation. In contrast, strains deficient in the RcsCB His-Asp phosphorelay system are hypersensitive to CPZ. These results suggest that cells must express specific RcsCB-regulated genes in order to cope with the CPZ-induced stress. This is the first report of the essential role of the RcsCB system in a stress situation. These results also strengthen the notion that alterations of the cell envelope induce a signal recognized by the RcsC sensor.


2000 ◽  
Vol 182 (23) ◽  
pp. 6630-6637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin Li ◽  
Yi Ping Tao ◽  
Lee D. Simon

ABSTRACT Transcription of the clpP-clpX operon ofEscherichia coli leads to the production of two different sizes of transcripts. In log phase, the level of the longer transcript is higher than the level of the shorter transcript. Soon after the onset of carbon starvation, the level of the shorter transcript increases significantly, and the level of the longer transcript decreases. The longer transcript consists of the entireclpP-clpX operon, whereas the shorter transcript contains the entire clpP gene but none of the clpXcoding sequence. The RpoH protein is required for the increase in the level of the shorter transcript during carbon starvation. Primer extension experiments suggest that there is increased usage of the ς32-dependent promoter of the clpP-clpXoperon within 15 min after the start of carbon starvation. Expression of the clpP-clpX operon from the promoters upstream of theclpP gene decreases to a very low level by 20 min after the onset of carbon starvation. Various pieces of evidence suggest, though they do not conclusively prove, that production of the shorter transcript may involve premature termination of the longer transcript. The half-life of the shorter transcript is much less than that of the longer transcript during carbon starvation. E. coli rpoBmutations that affect transcription termination efficiency alter the ratio of the shorter clpP-clpX transcript to the longer transcript. The E. coli rpoB3595 mutant, with an RNA polymerase that terminates transcription with lower efficiency than the wild type, accumulates a lower percentage of the shorter transcript during carbon starvation than does the isogenic wild-type strain. In contrast, the rpoB8 mutant, with an RNA polymerase that terminates transcription with higher efficiency than the wild type, produces a higher percentage of the shorter clpP-clpXtranscript when E. coli is in log phase. These and other data are consistent with the hypothesis that the shorter transcript results from premature transcription termination during production of the longer transcript.


2005 ◽  
Vol 187 (19) ◽  
pp. 6678-6682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tokiko Yoshimura-Suzuki ◽  
Ikuko Sagami ◽  
Nao Yokota ◽  
Hirofumi Kurokawa ◽  
Toru Shimizu

ABSTRACT Heme-regulated phosphodiesterase from Escherichia coli (DOSEc) catalyzes the hydrolysis of cyclic AMP (cAMP) in vitro and is regulated by the redox state of the bound heme. Changes in the redox state result in alterations in the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme, which is then transmitted to the functional domain to switch catalysis on or off. Because DOSEc was originally cloned from E. coli genomic DNA, it has not been known whether it is actually expressed in wild-type E. coli. In addition, the turnover number of DOSEc using cAMP as a substrate is only 0.15 min−1, which is relatively low for a physiologically relevant enzyme. In the present study, we demonstrated for the first time that the DOSEc gene and protein are expressed in wild-type E. coli, especially under aerobic conditions. We also developed a DOSEc gene knockout strain (Δdos). Interestingly, the knockout of dos caused excess accumulation of intracellular cAMP (26-fold higher than in the wild-type strain) under aerobic conditions, whereas accumulation of cAMP was not observed under anaerobic conditions. We also found differences in cell morphology and growth rate between the mutant cells and the wild-type strain. The changes in the knockout strain were partially complemented by introducing an expression plasmid for dos. Thus, the present study revealed that expression of DOSEc is regulated according to environmental O2 availability at the transcriptional level and that the concentration of cAMP in cells is regulated by DOSEc expression.


2007 ◽  
Vol 73 (14) ◽  
pp. 4469-4476 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Jänsch ◽  
Maher Korakli ◽  
Rudi F. Vogel ◽  
Michael G. Gänzle

ABSTRACT The effect of the glutathione reductase (GshR) activity of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis DSM20451T on the thiol levels in fermented sourdoughs was determined, and the oxygen tolerance of the strain was also determined. The gshR gene coding for a putative GshR was sequenced and inactivated by single-crossover integration to yield strain L. sanfranciscensis DSM20451TΔgshR. The gene disruption was verified by sequencing the truncated gshR and surrounding regions on the chromosome. The gshR activity of L. sanfranciscensis DSM20451TΔgshR was strongly reduced compared to that of the wild-type strain, demonstrating that gshR indeed encodes an active GshR enzyme. The thiol levels in wheat doughs fermented with L. sanfranciscensis DSM20451 increased from 9 μM to 10.5 μM sulfhydryl/g of dough during a 24-h sourdough fermentation, but in sourdoughs fermented with L. sanfranciscensis DSM20451TΔgshR and in chemically acidified doughs, the thiol levels decreased to 6.5 to 6.8 μM sulfhydryl/g of dough. Remarkably, the GshR-negative strains Lactobacillus pontis LTH2587 and Lactobacillus reuteri BR11 exerted effects on thiol levels in dough comparable to those of L. sanfranciscensis. In addition to the effect on thiol levels in sourdough, the loss of GshR activity in L. sanfranciscensis DSM20451TΔgshR resulted in a loss of oxygen tolerance. The gshR mutant strain exhibited a strongly decreased aerobic growth rate on modified MRS medium compared to either the growth rate under anaerobic conditions or that of the wild-type strain, and aerobic growth was restored by the addition of cysteine. Moreover, the gshR mutant strain was more sensitive to the superoxide-generating agent paraquat.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Vogeleer ◽  
Antony T. Vincent ◽  
Samuel M. Chekabab ◽  
Steve J. Charette ◽  
Alexey Novikov ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTIn open environments such as water, enterohemorrhagicEscherichia coliO157:H7 responds to inorganic phosphate (Pi) starvation by inducing the Pho regulon controlled by PhoB. The phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system is the high-affinity Pi transporter. In the Δpstmutant, PhoB is constitutively activated and regulates the expression of genes from the Pho regulon. InE. coliO157:H7, the Δpstmutant, biofilm, and autoagglutination were increased. In the double-deletion mutant ΔpstΔphoB, biofilm and autoagglutination were similar to the wild-type strain, suggesting that PhoB is involved. We investigated the relationship between PhoB activation and enhanced biofilm formation by screening a transposon mutant library derived from Δpstmutant for decreased autoagglutination and biofilms mutants. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) genes involved in the synthesis of the LPS core were identified. Transcriptomic studies indicate the influence of Pi-starvation andpstmutation on LPS biosynthetic gene expression. LPS analysis indicated that the O-antigen was deficient in the Δpstmutant. Interestingly,waaH, encoding a glycosyltransferase associated with LPS modifications inE. coliK-12, was highly expressed in the Δpstmutant ofE. coliO157:H7. Deletion ofwaaHfrom the Δpstmutant and from the wild-type strain grown in Pi-starvation conditions decreased the biofilm formation but without affecting LPS. Our findings suggest that LPS core is involved in the autoagglutination and biofilm phenotypes of the Δpstmutant and that WaaH plays a role in biofilm in response to Pi-starvation. This study highlights the importance of Pi-starvation in biofilm formation of E. coli O157:H7, which may affect its transmission and persistence.IMPORTANCEEnterohemorrhagicEscherichia coliO157:H7 is a human pathogen responsible for bloody diarrhea and renal failures. In the environment, O157:H7 can survive for prolonged periods of time under nutrient-deprived conditions. Biofilms are thought to participate in this environmental lifestyle. Previous reports have shown that the availability of extracellular inorganic phosphate (Pi) affected bacterial biofilm formation; however, nothing was known about O157:H7 biofilm formation. Our results show that O157:H7 membrane undergoes modifications upon PhoB activation leading to increased biofilm formation. A mutation in the Pst system results in reduced amount of the smooth type LPS and that this could influence the biofilm composition. This demonstrates how theE. coliO157:H7 adapts to Pi starvation increasing its ability to occupy different ecological niches.


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