Rational design of small molecules that modulate the transcriptional function of the response regulator PhoP

Acid tolerance response of Salmonella during the squid storage and its amine production capacity analysis

Salmonella exhibits a strong inducible acid tolerance response (ATR) under weak acid conditions, and can also induce high-risk strains that are highly toxic, acid resistant, and osmotic pressure resistant to aquatic products. However, the induction mechanism is not yet clear. Therefore, this study aims to simulate the slightly acidic, low-temperature, and high-protein environment during squid processing and storage. Through λRed gene knockout, exploring the effects of low-acid induction, long-term low-temperature storage, and two-component regulation on Salmonella ATR. In this study, we found the two-component system, PhoP/PhoQ and PmrA/PmrB in Salmonella regulates the amino acid metabolism system and improves bacterial acid tolerance by controlling arginine and lysine. Compared with the two indicators of total biogenic amine and diamine content, biogenic amine index and quality index were more suitable for evaluating the quality of aquatic products. The result showed that low-temperature treatment could inhibit Salmonella-induced ATR, which further explained the ATR mechanism from the amino acid metabolism.

Synergistic effect of tryptamine-urea derivatives to overcome the chromosomally-mediated colistin resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae

Colistin is considered as the last-resort antibiotics to treat multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections in humans. However, the clinical use of colistin was limited because of the apparition of chromosomal mutations and mobile colistin resistance genes in bacterial isolates. One promising strategy is to combine existing antibiotics with promising non-antibiotics to overcome the widespread emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Moreover, colistin resistance would be regulated by two component systems PhoP/PhoQ which leads to permanent synthesis of cationic groups compensating for Mg2+ deficiency. In this study, the synthesis of a small library of tryptamine urea derivatives was carried out. In addition, antibiotic susceptibility, antibiotic adjuvant screening and checkerboard assays were used to investigate the antibacterial activity of these synthesized compounds and the potential synergistic activity of their combination with colistin. Conformational analysis of the docked binding modes of the active compound in the predicted binding pocket of bacterial response regulator PhoP were carried out, to see if the active compound inhibits PhoP which is involved in colistin resistance. Finally, hemolytic activity studies have been conducted on the most active compound.

Machine learning and molecular simulation ascertain antimicrobial peptide against Klebsiella pneumoniae from public database

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are short peptides with a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. They play a key role in the host innate immunity of many organisms. The growing threat of microorganisms resistant to antimicrobial agents and the lack of new commercially available antibiotics have made in silico discovery of AMPs increasingly important. Machine learning (ML) has improved the speed and efficiency of AMP discovery while reducing the cost of experimental approaches. Despite various ML platforms developed, there is still a lack of integrative use of ML platforms for AMP discovery from publicly available protein databases. Therefore, our study aims to screen potential AMPs with antibiofilm properties from databases using ML platforms, followed by protein-peptide molecular docking analysis and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. A total of 5850 peptides classified as non-AMP were screened from UniProtKB and analyzed using various online ML platforms (e.g., CAMPr3, DBAASP, dPABBs, Hemopred, and ToxinPred). Eight potential AMP peptides against Klebsiella pneumoniae with antibiofilm, non-toxic and non-hemolytic properties were then docked to MrkH, a transcriptional regulator of type 3 fimbriae involved in biofilm formation. Five of eight peptides bound more strongly than the native MrkH ligand when analyzed using HADDOCK and HPEPDOCK. Following the docking studies, our MD simulated that a Neuropeptide B (Peptide 3) bind strongly to the MrkH active sites. The discovery of putative AMPs that exceed the binding energies of the native ligand underscores the utility of the combined ML and molecular simulation strategies for discovering novel AMPs with antibiofilm properties.

The role of two-component regulatory systems in environmental sensing and virulence in Salmonella

Adaptation to environments with constant fluctuations imposes challenges that are only overcome with sophisticated strategies that allow bacteria to perceive environmental conditions and develop an appropriate response. The gastrointestinal environment is a complex ecosystem that is home to trillions of microorganisms. Termed microbiota, this microbial ensemble plays important roles in host health and provides colonization resistance against pathogens, although pathogens have evolved strategies to circumvent this barrier. Among the strategies used by bacteria to monitor their environment, one of the most important are the sensing and signalling machineries of two-component systems (TCSs), which play relevant roles in the behaviour of all bacteria. Salmonella enterica is no exception, and here we present our current understanding of how this important human pathogen uses TCSs as an integral part of its lifestyle. We describe important aspects of these systems, such as the stimuli and responses involved, the processes regulated, and their roles in virulence. We also dissect the genomic organization of histidine kinases and response regulators, as well as the input and output domains for each TCS. Lastly, we explore how these systems may be promising targets for the development of antivirulence therapeutics to combat antibiotic-resistant infections.

Revealing the key point of the temperature stress response of Arthrospira platensis C1 at the interconnection of C- and N- metabolism by proteome analyses and PPI networking

BACKGROUND

Growth-temperature stress causes biochemical changes in the cells and reduction of biomass yield. Quantitative proteome of Arthrospira platensis C1 in response to low- and high temperature stresses was previously analysed to elucidate the stress response mechanism. The data highlighted the linkage of signaling proteins and proteins involved in nitrogen and ammonia assimilation, photosynthesis and oxidative stress.

RESULTS

After phosphoproteome analysis was carried out in this study, the tentative temperature response cascade of A. platensis C1 was drawn based on data integration of quantitative proteome and phosphoproteome analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. The integration revealed 31 proteins regulated at the protein-expression and post-translational levels; thus, this group of proteins was designated bi-level regulated proteins. PPI networks were then constructed based on A. platensis C1 gene inference from publicly available interaction data. The key two-component system (TCS) proteins, SPLC1_S082010 and SPLC1_S230960, were identified as bi-level regulated proteins and were linked to SPLC1_S270380 or glutamate synthase, an important enzyme in nitrogen assimilation that synthesizes glutamate from 2-oxoglutarate, which is known as the signal compound that regulates the carbon/nitrogen (C/N) balance of cells. Moreover, the role of the p-site in the PPIs of some phosphoproteins of interest was determined using site-directed mutagenesis and a yeast two-hybrid system. Evidence showing the critical role of the p-site in the PPI was observed for the multi-sensor histidine kinase SPLC1_S041070 (Hik28) and glutamate synthase. PPI subnetwork also showed that the Hik28 involved with the enzymes in fatty acid desaturation and nitrogen metabolism. The effect of Hik28-deletion was validated by fatty acid analysis and measurement of photosynthetic activity under nitrogen depletion.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, the data clearly represents (i) the multi-level regulation of proteins involved in the stress response mechanism and (ii) the key point of the temperature stress response at the interconnection of C- and N- metabolism.