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Browning KR, Merrikh H. Pathogenic bacteria experience pervasive RNA polymerase backtracking during infection. mBio 2024; 15:e0273723. [PMID: 38095872 PMCID: PMC10790778 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.02737-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Eukaryotic hosts have defense mechanisms that may disrupt molecular transactions along the pathogen's chromosome through excessive DNA damage. Given that DNA damage stalls RNA polymerase (RNAP) thereby increasing mutagenesis, investigating how host defense mechanisms impact the movement of the transcription machinery on the pathogen chromosome is crucial. Using a new methodology we developed, we elucidated the dynamics of RNAP movement and association with the chromosome in the pathogenic bacterium Salmonella enterica during infection. We found that dynamics of RNAP movement on the chromosome change significantly during infection genome-wide, including at regions that encode for key virulence genes. In particular, we found that there is pervasive RNAP backtracking on the bacterial chromosome during infections and that anti-backtracking factors are critical for pathogenesis. Altogether, our results suggest that, interestingly, the host environment can promote the development of antimicrobial resistance and hypervirulence as stalled RNAPs can accelerate evolution through increased mutagenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaitlyn R. Browning
- Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Houra Merrikh
- Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
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Kim J, Rothová MM, Madan E, Rhee S, Weng G, Palma AM, Liao L, David E, Amit I, Hajkarim MC, Vudatha V, Gutiérrez-García A, Moreno E, Winn R, Trevino J, Fisher PB, Brickman JM, Gogna R, Won KJ. Neighbor-specific gene expression revealed from physically interacting cells during mouse embryonic development. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2205371120. [PMID: 36595695 PMCID: PMC9926237 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2205371120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Development of multicellular organisms is orchestrated by persistent cell-cell communication between neighboring partners. Direct interaction between different cell types can induce molecular signals that dictate lineage specification and cell fate decisions. Current single-cell RNA-seq technology cannot adequately analyze cell-cell contact-dependent gene expression, mainly due to the loss of spatial information. To overcome this obstacle and resolve cell-cell contact-specific gene expression during embryogenesis, we performed RNA sequencing of physically interacting cells (PIC-seq) and assessed them alongside similar single-cell transcriptomes derived from developing mouse embryos between embryonic day (E) 7.5 and E9.5. Analysis of the PIC-seq data identified gene expression signatures that were dependent on the presence of specific neighboring cell types. Our computational predictions, validated experimentally, demonstrated that neural progenitor (NP) cells upregulate Lhx5 and Nkx2-1 genes, when exclusively interacting with definitive endoderm (DE) cells. Moreover, there was a reciprocal impact on the transcriptome of DE cells, as they tend to upregulate Rax and Gsc when in contact with NP cells. Using individual cell transcriptome data, we formulated a means of computationally predicting the impact of one cell type on the transcriptome of its neighboring cell types. We have further developed a distinctive spatial-t-distributed stochastic neighboring embedding to display the pseudospatial distribution of cells in a 2-dimensional space. In summary, we describe an innovative approach to study contact-specific gene regulation during embryogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junil Kim
- Biotech Research and Innovation Centre, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N2200, Denmark
- School of Systems Biomedical Science, Soongsil University, Dongjak-Gu, Seoul06978, Republic of Korea
| | - Michaela Mrugala Rothová
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW), University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen2200, Denmark
| | - Esha Madan
- Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon1400-038, Portugal
| | - Siyeon Rhee
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Guangzheng Weng
- Biotech Research and Innovation Centre, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N2200, Denmark
| | | | - Linbu Liao
- Biotech Research and Innovation Centre, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N2200, Denmark
| | - Eyal David
- Department of Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot7610001, Israel
| | - Ido Amit
- Department of Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot7610001, Israel
| | | | - Vignesh Vudatha
- Department of Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA23298-0033
| | | | - Eduardo Moreno
- Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon1400-038, Portugal
| | - Robert Winn
- School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA23298-0033
| | - Jose Trevino
- Department of Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA23298-0033
| | - Paul B. Fisher
- School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA23298-0033
- Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA23298-0033
- School of Medicine, VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA23298-0033
| | - Joshua M. Brickman
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW), University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen2200, Denmark
| | - Rajan Gogna
- School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA23298-0033
- Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA23298-0033
- School of Medicine, VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA23298-0033
| | - Kyoung Jae Won
- Biotech Research and Innovation Centre, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N2200, Denmark
- Department of Computational Biomedicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA90069
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