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Molecular Mechanisms of Transcriptional Regulation in Bacteria

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A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2023) | Viewed by 4742

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Abdelali Daddaoua

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18011 Granada, Spain
2. Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria (IBS), 18014 Granada, Spain
3. Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology “José Mataix”, Center of Biomedical Research, University of Granada, Avda. del Conocimiento s/n. Armilla, 18016 Granada, Spain
Interests: nutrition and dietetics nutritional; biochemistry; pharmacy; cell biology; molecular biology; immunology; regulation of the gene expression in prokaryotes and eukaryotes; pathogens; enzymology and biotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Olga Martínez Augustin

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18011 Granada, Spain
2. Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria (IBS), 18014 Granada, Spain
3. Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology "José Mataix", Center of Biomedical Research, University of Granada, Avda. del Conocimiento s/n., Armilla, 18016 Granada, Spain
4. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: nutrition and dietetics nutritional; biochemistry; pharmacy; cell biology; molecular biology; immunology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bacteria are the most versatile living organisms, and can quickly and efficiently adapt to constant environment changes. They have adapted their metabolism and gene expression to perfect strategies to ensure survival, and have developed many adaptive mechanisms to translate changes in environmental conditions into responses. Nevertheless, the recent appearance of bacterial strains with multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotypes has become a serious health problem worldwide, constituting one of the main causes of human mortality. The bacterial communities in a wide range of environmental niches sense and respond to numerous external stimuli for their survival. To this end, bacteria have developed a number of features (e.g., signal transduction systems) that are modulated by a transcriptional regulators as one-component systems (OCSs) and two-component systems (TCSs), which allow for intracellular regulation and crosstalk between intracellular and extracellular environments. Moreover, there are several indications that OCSs and TCS transcriptional regulators have become compelling targets for antibacterial drug design due to their role in regulating the molecular mechanisms related to virulence and antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria.

The goal of this Special Issue is to further expand our knowledge of the molecular mechanism of OCSs and TCSs transcriptional regulators present in pathogenic bacteria and their implications in the virulence regulatory system pathways, and offer a complete and broad overview of the current situation in the area and its future projection, pointing to indications of bacterial virulence that will enrich this field, as well as addressing their possible therapeutic use as drug targets.

In this Topic, we welcome innovative and original research articles, as well as high-quality review articles with pioneering opinions with a focus on transcriptional regulators and bacterial virulence related to their possible therapeutic use as drug targets.

Prof. Dr. Abdelali Daddaoua
Prof. Dr. Olga Martínez Augustin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

antibacterial compounds
prebiotic
bacterial signal transduction
one-component system
two-component system
immune response
virulence

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 12445 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transcriptional Profiling and Transposon Mutagenesis Study of the Endophyte Pantoea eucalypti FBS135 Adapting to Nitrogen Starvation

by Shengquan Huang, Xiuyu Zhang, Zongwen Song, Mati Ur Rahman and Ben Fan

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(18), 14282; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241814282 - 19 Sep 2023

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Abstract

The research on plant endophytes has been drawing a lot of attention in recent years. Pantoea belongs to a group of endophytes with plant growth-promoting activity and has been widely used in agricultural fields. In our earlier studies, Pantoea eucalypti FBS135 was isolated from healthy-growing Pinus massoniana and was able to promote pine growth. P. eucalypti FBS135 can grow under extremely low nitrogen conditions. To understand the mechanism of the low-nitrogen tolerance of this bacterium, the transcriptome of FBS135 in the absence of nitrogen was examined in this study. We found that FBS135 actively regulates its gene expression in response to nitrogen deficiency. Nearly half of the number (4475) of genes in FBS135 were differentially expressed under this condition, mostly downregulated, while it significantly upregulated many transportation-associated genes and some nitrogen metabolism-related genes. In the downregulated genes, the ribosome pathway-related ones were significantly enriched. Meanwhile, we constructed a Tn5 transposon library of FBS135, from which four genes involved in low-nitrogen tolerance were screened out, including the gene for the host-specific protein J, RNA polymerase σ factor RpoS, phosphoribosamine-glycine ligase, and serine acetyltransferase. Functional analysis of the genes revealed their potential roles in the adaptation to nitrogen limitation. The results obtained in this work shed light on the mechanism of endophytes represented by P. eucalypti FBS135, at the overall transcriptional level, to an environmentally limited nitrogen supply and provided a basis for further investigation on this topic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanisms of Transcriptional Regulation in Bacteria)

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18 pages, 6029 KiB

Open AccessArticle

In Silico Identification and Validation of Pyroptosis-Related Genes in Chlamydia Respiratory Infection

by Ruoyuan Sun, Wenjing Zheng, Shuaini Yang, Jiajia Zeng, Yuqing Tuo, Lu Tan, Hong Zhang and Hong Bai

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(17), 13570; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241713570 - 1 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1154

Abstract

The incidence of Chlamydia trachomatis respiratory infection is increasing, and its pathogenesis is still unclear. Pyroptosis, as a mode of inflammatory cell death, plays a vital role in the occurrence and development of Chlamydia trachomatis respiratory infection. In this study, the potential pyroptosis-related genes involved in Chlamydia trachomatis respiratory infection were identified by constructing a mouse model of C. muridarum infection combined with bioinformatics analysis. Through in-depth analysis of the RNA sequencing data, 13 differentially expressed pyroptosis-related genes were screened, including 1 downregulated gene and 12 upregulated genes. Gene ontology (GO) analysis showed that these genes mainly regulate inflammatory responses and produce IL-1β. Protein–protein interaction network analysis identified eight hub genes of interest: Tnf, Tlr2, Il1b, Nlrp3, Tlr9, Mefv, Zbp1 and Tnfaip3. Through quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) analysis, we found that the expression of these genes in the lungs of C. muridarum-infected mice was significantly reduced, consistent with the bioinformatics results. At the same time, we detected elevated levels of caspase-3, gasdermin D and gasdermin E proteins in the lungs of C. muridarum-infected mice, demonstrating that Chlamydia trachomatis infection does induce pyroptosis. We then predicted nine miRNAs targeting these hub genes and constructed a key competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network. In summary, we identified six key pyroptosis-related genes involved in Chlamydia trachomatis respiratory infection and constructed a ceRNA network associated with these genes. These findings will improve understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying pyroptosis in Chlamydia trachomatis respiratory infections. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanisms of Transcriptional Regulation in Bacteria)

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Review

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31 pages, 2550 KiB

Open AccessReview

Transcriptional Regulators Controlling Virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

by Ana Sánchez-Jiménez, María A. Llamas and Francisco Javier Marcos-Torres

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(15), 11895; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241511895 - 25 Jul 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2126

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a pathogen capable of colonizing virtually every human tissue. The host colonization competence and versatility of this pathogen are powered by a wide array of virulence factors necessary in different steps of the infection process. This includes factors involved in bacterial motility and attachment, biofilm formation, the production and secretion of extracellular invasive enzymes and exotoxins, the production of toxic secondary metabolites, and the acquisition of iron. Expression of these virulence factors during infection is tightly regulated, which allows their production only when they are needed. This process optimizes host colonization and virulence. In this work, we review the intricate network of transcriptional regulators that control the expression of virulence factors in P. aeruginosa, including one- and two-component systems and σ factors. Because inhibition of virulence holds promise as a target for new antimicrobials, blocking the regulators that trigger the production of virulence determinants in P. aeruginosa is a promising strategy to fight this clinically relevant pathogen. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanisms of Transcriptional Regulation in Bacteria)

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