Research – Page 9 – Microbial Cell

Research Articles

Molecular signature of the imprintosome complex at the mating-type locus in fission yeast

Célia Raimondi¹, Bernd Jagla², Caroline Proux³, Hervé Waxin⁴, Serge Gangloff¹, Benoit Arcangioli¹

Genetic and molecular studies have indicated that an epigenetic imprint at mat1, the sexual locus of fission yeast, initiates mating type switching. Here, Raimondi et al. characterized the recruitment of early players of mating type switching at the mat1 region and suggest a nucleoprotein protective structure defined as imprintosome.

Leishmania guyanensis parasites block the activation of the inflammasome by inhibiting maturation of IL-1β

Mary-Anne Hartley^1,¶, Remzi O. Eren^1,¶, Matteo Rossi¹, Florence Prevel¹, Patrik Castiglioni¹, Nathalie Isorce¹, Chantal Desponds¹, Lon-Fye Lye², Stephen M. Beverley², Stefan K. Drexler^1,&, Nicolas Fasel^1,&

The various symptomatic outcomes of cutaneous leishmaniasis relates to the type and potency of its underlying inflammatory responses mediated by Toll-Like-Receptor-3 (TLR3). Here, Hartely et al. investigated other innate pattern recognition receptors capable of reacting to dsRNA and potentially contributing to LRV1-mediated inflammatory pathology. They postulate that avoidance of the inflammasome pathways is likely an important mechanism of virulence in Leishmania infection irrespective of the LRV1-status.

A novel system to monitor mitochondrial translation in yeast

Tamara Suhm¹, Lukas Habernig², Magdalena Rzepka¹, Jayasankar Mohanakrishnan Kaimal³, Claes Andréasson³, Sabrina Büttner^2,3 and Martin Ott¹

In this study Suhm et al. present a novel system to monitor mitochondrial translation by detection of mitochondrial GFP-translation through fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry in functional mitochondria. This novel tool allows the investigation of the function and regulation of mitochondrial translation during stress signaling, aging and mitochondrial biogenesis.

Fat storage-inducing transmembrane (FIT or FITM) proteins are related to lipid phosphatase/phosphotransferase enzymes

Matthew J Hayes¹, Vineet Choudhary², Namrata Ojha², John JH Shin³, Gil-Soo Han⁴, George M. Carman⁴, Christopher JR Loewen³, William A Prinz² and Timothy P Levine¹

Fat storage-inducing transmembrane (FIT or FITM) proteins have been implicated in the partitioning of triacylglycerol to lipid droplets and the budding of lipid droplets from the ER. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has two FITM homologues and the presented results suggest that Scs3p and Yft2p as well as FITMs in general are lipid phosphatase/phosphotransferase (LPT) enzymes involved in an as yet unknown critical step in phospholipid metabolism.

A versatile plasmid system for reconstitution and analysis of mammalian ubiquitination cascades in yeast

Rossella Avagliano Trezza^1,#, Janny van den Burg¹, Nico van den Oever¹ and Ben Distel^1,2

In this article Avagliano Trezza et al. describe a versatile vector system that allows the reconstitution of specific ubiquitination cascades in the model eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisae (baker’s yeast) that provides a versatile tool to study complex post-translational modifications in a cellular setting.

Alcohols enhance the rate of acetic acid diffusion in S. cerevisiae : biophysical mechanisms and implications for acetic acid tolerance

Lina Lindahl¹, Samuel Genheden², Fábio Faria-Oliveira¹, Stefan Allard³, Leif A. Eriksson², Lisbeth Olsson¹, Maurizio Bettiga^1,4

Microbial cell factories with the ability to maintain high productivity in the presence of weak organic acids, such as acetic acid, are required in many industrial processes. This study demonstrates that the rate of acetic acid diffusion can be strongly affected by compounds that partition into the cell membrane, and highlights the need for considering interaction effects between compounds in the design of microbial processes.

A genome-wide screen for FTY720-sensitive mutants reveals genes required for ROS homeostasis

Kanako Hagihara¹, Kanako Kinoshita¹, Kouki Ishida¹, Shihomi Hojo¹, Yoshinori Kameoka¹, Ryosuke Satoh¹, Teruaki Takasaki¹ and Reiko Sugiura¹

Fingolimod hydrochloride (FTY720) is an immune modulator for multiple sclerosis that also induces cancer cell apoptosis through reactive oxygen species generation, with a new study using fission yeast uncovering a gene network related to ROS homeostasis as a possible mechanism of FTY720's toxicity.

Untargeted metabolomics confirms and extends the understanding of the impact of aminoimidazole carboxamide ribotide (AICAR) in the metabolic network of Salmonella enterica

Jannell V. Bazurto¹, Stephen P. Dearth², Eric D. Tague², Shawn R. Campagna² and Diana M. Downs¹

In Salmonella enterica, aminoimidazole carboxamide ribotide (AICAR) is a purine biosynthetic intermediate and a substrate of the AICAR transformylase/IMP cyclohydrolase (PurH) enzyme. Data herein describe the use of metabolomics to identify the metabolic state of mutant strains and probe the underlying mechanisms used by AICAR to inhibit thiamine synthesis. The results obtained provide a cautionary tale of using metabolite concentrations as the only data to define the physiological state of a bacterial cell.

The cytosolic glyoxalases of Plasmodium falciparum are dispensable during asexual blood-stage development

Cletus A. Wezena¹, Romy Alisch¹, Alexandra Golzmann², Linda Liedgens¹, Verena Staudacher^1,3, Gabriele Pradel² and Marcel Deponte^1,3

In this study the authors demonstrate that, PfGlo1 and PfcGlo2 are dispensable during asexual blood-stage development while the loss of PfcGlo2 may induce the formation of transmissible gametocytes. These combined data show that PfGlo1 and PfcGlo2 are most likely not suited as targets for selective drug development against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

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Chromosome-condensed G1 phase yeast cells are tolerant to desiccation stress

November 26, 2021

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is capable of surviving extreme water loss for a long time. However, less is known about the mechanism of its desiccation tolerance. In this study, we revealed that in an exponential culture, all desiccation tolerant yeast cells were in G1 phase and had condensed chromosomes. (...)

Detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its first variants in fourplex real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR assays

November 25, 2021

The early diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections is required to identify and isolate contagious patients to prevent further transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we present a multitarget real-time TaqMan reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR) assay for the quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 and some of its circulating variants harboring mutations that give the virus a selective advantage. Seven different primer-probe sets that included probes containing locked nucleic acid (LNA) nucleotides were designed to amplify specific wild-type and mutant sequences in Orf1ab, Envelope (E), Spike (S), and Nucleocapsid (N) genes (...)

Forced association of SARS-CoV-2 proteins with the yeast proteome perturb vesicle trafficking

October 27, 2021

This work demonstrates that the yeast Synthetic Physical Interactions method is a rapid way to identify potential functions of ectopic viral proteins.

Airborne bacteria in show caves from Southern Spain

July 26, 2021

This study analyzes the factors conditioning the diversity of airborne bacteria recorded in three Andalusian show caves, subjected to different managements.

Landscapes and bacterial signatures of mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota in Chilean and Spanish patients with inflammatory bowel disease

June 18, 2021

This study investigates the landscapes and alterations of mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, which cause chronic inflammation of the gut, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Genome, transcriptome and secretome analyses of the antagonistic, yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans to identify potential biocontrol genes

June 8, 2021

This study highlights the value of a sequential approach starting with genome mining and consecutive transcriptome and secretome analyses in order to identify a limited number of potential target genes for detailed, functional analyses in Aureobasidium pullulans.

Barcode sequencing and a high-throughput assay for chronological lifespan uncover ageing-associated genes in fission yeast

May 10, 2021

This work presents two approaches to study chronological lifespan (CLS) for medium- to high-throughput applications, a method for Bar-seq to identify mutants showing altered CLS and a novel medium-throughput colony-forming units assay that can be largely automated by robotics.