scholarly journals Chromatin accessibility dynamics of Chlamydia-infected epithelial cells

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regan J. Hayward ◽  
James W. Marsh ◽  
Michael S. Humphrys ◽  
Wilhelmina M. Huston ◽  
Garry S.A. Myers

AbstractChlamydia are Gram-negative, obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens responsible for a broad spectrum of human and animal diseases. In humans, Chlamydia trachomatis is the most prevalent bacterial sexually transmitted infection worldwide and is the causative agent of trachoma (infectious blindness) in disadvantaged populations. Over the course of its developmental cycle, Chlamydia extensively remodels its intracellular niche and parasitises the host cell for nutrients, with substantial resulting changes to the host cell transcriptome and proteome. However, little information is available on the impact of chlamydial infection on the host cell epigenome and global gene regulation. Regions of open eukaryotic chromatin correspond to nucleosome-depleted regions, which in turn are associated with regulatory functions and transcription factor binding. We applied Formaldehyde-Assisted Isolation of Regulatory Elements enrichment followed by sequencing (FAIRE-Seq) to generate temporal chromatin maps of C. trachomatis-infected human epithelial cells in vitro over the chlamydial developmental cycle. We detected both conserved and distinct temporal changes to genome-wide chromatin accessibility associated with C. trachomatis infection. The observed differentially accessible chromatin regions, including several Clusters of Open Regulatory Elements (COREs) and temporally-enriched sets of transcription factors, may help shape the host cell response to infection. These regions and motifs were linked to genomic features and genes associated with immune responses, re-direction of host cell nutrients, intracellular signaling, cell-cell adhesion, extracellular matrix, metabolism and apoptosis. This work provides another perspective to the complex response to chlamydial infection, and will inform further studies of transcriptional regulation and the epigenome in Chlamydia-infected human cells and tissues

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Regan J. Hayward ◽  
James W. Marsh ◽  
Michael S. Humphrys ◽  
Wilhelmina M. Huston ◽  
Garry S. A. Myers

Abstract Chlamydia are Gram-negative, obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens responsible for a broad spectrum of human and animal diseases. In humans, Chlamydia trachomatis is the most prevalent bacterial sexually transmitted infection worldwide and is the causative agent of trachoma (infectious blindness) in disadvantaged populations. Over the course of its developmental cycle, Chlamydia extensively remodels its intracellular niche and parasitises the host cell for nutrients, with substantial resulting changes to the host cell transcriptome and proteome. However, little information is available on the impact of chlamydial infection on the host cell epigenome and global gene regulation. Regions of open eukaryotic chromatin correspond to nucleosome-depleted regions, which in turn are associated with regulatory functions and transcription factor binding. We applied formaldehyde-assisted isolation of regulatory elements enrichment followed by sequencing (FAIRE-Seq) to generate temporal chromatin maps of C. trachomatis-infected human epithelial cells in vitro over the chlamydial developmental cycle. We detected both conserved and distinct temporal changes to genome-wide chromatin accessibility associated with C. trachomatis infection. The observed differentially accessible chromatin regions include temporally-enriched sets of transcription factors, which may help shape the host cell response to infection. These regions and motifs were linked to genomic features and genes associated with immune responses, re-direction of host cell nutrients, intracellular signalling, cell–cell adhesion, extracellular matrix, metabolism and apoptosis. This work provides another perspective to the complex response to chlamydial infection, and will inform further studies of transcriptional regulation and the epigenome in Chlamydia-infected human cells and tissues.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regan J. Hayward ◽  
James W. Marsh ◽  
Michael S. Humphrys ◽  
Wilhelmina M. Huston ◽  
Garry S.A. Myers

AbstractChlamydia are Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens responsible for a variety of disease in humans and animals worldwide. C. trachomatis causes trachoma (infectious blindness) in disadvantaged populations, and is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in humans, causing reproductive tract disease. Antibiotic therapy successfully treats diagnosed chlamydial infections, however asymptomatic infections are common. High-throughput transcriptomic approaches have explored chlamydial gene expression and infected host cell gene expression. However, these were performed on large cell populations, averaging gene expression profiles across all cells sampled and potentially obscuring biologically relevant subsets of cells. We generated a pilot dataset, applying single cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) to C. trachomatis infected and mock-infected epithelial cells to assess the utility of single cell approaches to identify early host cell biomarkers of chlamydial infection. 264 time-matched C. trachomatis-infected and mock-infected HEp-2 cells were collected and subjected to scRNA-Seq. After quality control, 200 cells were retained for analysis. Two distinct clusters distinguished 3-hour cells from 6- and 12-hours. Pseudotime analysis identified a possible infection-specific cellular trajectory for Chlamydia-infected cells, while differential expression analyses found temporal expression of metallothioneins and genes involved with cell cycle regulation, innate immune responses, cytoskeletal components, lipid biosynthesis and cellular stress. Changes to the host cell transcriptome at early times of C. trachomatis infection are readily discernible by scRNA-Seq, supporting the utility of single cell approaches to identify host cell biomarkers of chlamydial infection, and to further deconvolute the complex host response to infection.


2015 ◽  
Vol 308 (3) ◽  
pp. L270-L286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behzad Yeganeh ◽  
Saeid Ghavami ◽  
Andrea L. Kroeker ◽  
Thomas H. Mahood ◽  
Gerald L. Stelmack ◽  
...  

Subcellular trafficking within host cells plays a critical role in viral life cycles, including influenza A virus (IAV). Thus targeting relevant subcellular compartments holds promise for effective intervention to control the impact of influenza infection. Bafilomycin A1(Baf-A1), when used at relative high concentrations (≥10 nM), inhibits vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase) and reduces endosome acidification and lysosome number, thus inhibiting IAV replication but promoting host cell cytotoxicity. We tested the hypothesis that much lower doses of Baf-A1also have anti-IAV activity, but without toxic effects. Thus we assessed the antiviral activity of Baf-A1at different concentrations (0.1–100 nM) in human alveolar epithelial cells (A549) infected with IAV strain A/PR/8/34 virus (H1N1). Infected and mock-infected cells pre- and cotreated with Baf-A1were harvested 0–24 h postinfection and analyzed by immunoblotting, immunofluorescence, and confocal and electron microscopy. We found that Baf-A1had disparate concentration-dependent effects on subcellular organelles and suppressed affected IAV replication. At concentrations ≥10 nM Baf-A1inhibited acid lysosome formation, which resulted in greatly reduced IAV replication and release. Notably, at a very low concentration of 0.1 nM that is insufficient to reduce lysosome number, Baf-A1retained the capacity to significantly impair IAV nuclear accumulation as well as IAV replication and release. In contrast to the effects of high concentrations of Baf-A1, very low concentrations did not exhibit cytotoxic effects or induce apoptotic cell death, based on morphological and FACS analyses. In conclusion, our results reveal that low-concentration Baf-A1is an effective inhibitor of IAV replication, without impacting host cell viability.


2016 ◽  
Vol 213 (5) ◽  
pp. 809-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yancheng Liu ◽  
Shumin Tan ◽  
Lu Huang ◽  
Robert B. Abramovitch ◽  
Kyle H. Rohde ◽  
...  

Successful chemotherapy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) must eradicate the bacterium within the context of its host cell. However, our understanding of the impact of this environment on antimycobacterial drug action remains incomplete. Intriguingly, we find that Mtb in myeloid cells isolated from the lungs of experimentally infected mice exhibit tolerance to both isoniazid and rifampin to a degree proportional to the activation status of the host cells. These data are confirmed by in vitro infections of resting versus activated macrophages where cytokine-mediated activation renders Mtb tolerant to four frontline drugs. Transcriptional analysis of intracellular Mtb exposed to drugs identified a set of genes common to all four drugs. The data imply a causal linkage between a loss of fitness caused by drug action and Mtb’s sensitivity to host-derived stresses. Interestingly, the environmental context exerts a more dominant impact on Mtb gene expression than the pressure on the drugs’ primary targets. Mtb’s stress responses to drugs resemble those mobilized after cytokine activation of the host cell. Although host-derived stresses are antimicrobial in nature, they negatively affect drug efficacy. Together, our findings demonstrate that the macrophage environment dominates Mtb’s response to drug pressure and suggest novel routes for future drug discovery programs.


2010 ◽  
Vol 207 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nabanita S Datta ◽  
Tareq A Samra ◽  
Chandrika D Mahalingam ◽  
Tanuka Datta ◽  
Abdul B Abou-Samra

Phosphorylation, internalization, and desensitization of G protein-coupled receptors, such as the parathyroid hormone (PTH) and PTH-related peptide (PTHrP) receptor (PTH1R), are well characterized and known to regulate the cellular responsiveness in vitro. However, the role of PTH1R receptor phosphorylation in bone formation and osteoblast functions has not yet been elucidated. In previous studies, we demonstrated impaired internalization and sustained cAMP stimulation of a phosphorylation-deficient (pd) PTH1R in vitro, and exaggerated cAMP and calcemic responses to s.c. PTH infusion in pdPTH1R knock-in mouse model. In this study, we examined the impact of impaired PTH1R phosphorylation on the skeletal phenotype of mice maintained on normal, low, and high calcium diets. The low calcium diet moderately reduced (P<0.05) bone volume and trabecular number, and increased trabecular spacing in both wild-type (WT) and pd mice. The effects, however, seem to be less pronounced in the female pd compared to WT mice. In primary calvarial osteoblasts isolated from 2-week-old pd or WT mice, PTH and PTHrP decreased phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (pERK1/2), a member of mitogen-activated protein kinase, and cyclin D1, a G1/S phase cyclin, in vitro. In contrast to WT osteoblasts, down-regulation of cyclin D1 was sustained for longer periods of time in osteoblasts isolated from the pd mice. Our results suggest that adaptive responses of intracellular signaling pathways in the pd mice may be important for maintaining bone homeostasis.


2006 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 2767-2776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Du ◽  
Cindy Grove Arvidson

ABSTRACT Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonococcus [GC]), is highly adapted to the human host, the only known reservoir for gonococcal infection. However, since it is sexually transmitted, infection of a new host likely requires a regulatory response on the part of the gonococcus to respond to this significant change in environment. We previously showed that adherence of gonococci to epithelial cells results in changes of gene expression in the bacteria that presumably prepare them for subsequent steps in the infection process. Expression of the heat shock sigma factor gene, rpoH, was shown to be important for the invasion step, as gonococci depleted for rpoH were reduced in their ability to invade epithelial cells. Here, we show that of the genes induced in adherent gonococci, two are part of the gonococcal RpoH regulon. When RpoH is depleted, expression of these genes is no longer induced by host cell contact, indicating that RpoH is mediating the host cell induction response of these genes. One RpoH-dependent gene, NGO0376, is shown to be important for invasion of epithelial cells, consistent with earlier observations that RpoH is necessary for this step of infection. Two genes, NGO1684 and NGO0340, while greatly induced by host cell contact, were found to be RpoH independent, indicating that more than one regulator is involved in the response to host cell contact. Furthermore, NGO0340, but not NGO1684, was shown to be important for both adherence and invasion of epithelial cells, suggesting a complex regulatory network in the response of gonococci to contact with host cells.


2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 1852-1856 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Siewert ◽  
Jan Rupp ◽  
Matthias Klinger ◽  
Werner Solbach ◽  
Jens Gieffers

ABSTRACT Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular pathogens that exhibit an extensive intracellular developmental cycle in vivo. Clinical treatment of chlamydial infection is typically initiated upon occurrence of symptomatology and is directed against an asynchronous population of different chlamydial developmental forms. Pharmacodynamics of antichlamydial drugs are predominantly characterized by MICs; however, in vitro determinations of MIC may not reflect differential susceptibilities of the developmental cycle. In this study, we correlated the antichlamydial effect of erythromycin, rifampin, doxycycline, and ciprofloxacin with the developmental stage of a fast-replicating and a slow-replicating chlamydial species. In addition, we describe the influence of concentration on killing. Extracellular elementary bodies and very-early-phase and late-phase chlamydiae were refractory to all tested antibiotics except rifampin, which was very effective against early-cycle chlamydiae. Rifampin was the most effective antibiotic overall, killed in a dose dependent matter, and exhibited moderate synergism with erythromycin. These considerations provide important information on chlamydial biology and antimicrobial susceptibility. A combinational therapy of rifampin and a macrolide should be considered in therapy-refractory infections.


2002 ◽  
Vol 70 (8) ◽  
pp. 4697-4700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley D. Jett ◽  
Michael S. Gilmore

ABSTRACT Wild-type Staphylococcus aureus was observed to be capable of invading human corneal epithelial cells (HCEC) in vitro. Internalization of S. aureus required expression of fibronectin-binding proteins (FnBPs); the capacity of an FnBP-deficient isogenic strain to invade HCEC was reduced by more than 99%. The binding of S. aureus to HCEC did not require viable bacteria, since UV-killed cells were observed to adhere efficiently. Invasion of HCEC by S. aureus involved active host cell mechanisms; uptake was nearly completely eliminated by cytochalasin D and genistein. These data suggest that FnBPs play a key role in host-parasite interactions and may serve as an important adhesin or invasin in ulcerative keratitis caused by S. aureus.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan M. Mulqueen ◽  
Brooke A. DeRosa ◽  
Casey A. Thornton ◽  
Zeynep Sayar ◽  
Kristof A. Torkenczy ◽  
...  

AbstractDevelopment is a complex process that requires the precise modulation of regulatory gene networks controlled through dynamic changes in the epigenome. Single-cell-omic technologies provide an avenue for understanding the mechanisms of these processes by capturing the progression of epigenetic cell states during the course of cellular differentiation using in vitro or in vivo models1. However, current single-cell epigenomic methods are limited in the information garnered per individual cell, which in turn limits their ability to measure chromatin dynamics and state shifts. Single-cell combinatorial indexing (sci-) has been applied as a strategy for identifying single-cell-omic originating libraries and removes the necessity of single-cell, single-compartment chemistry2. Here, we report an improved sci-assay for transposase accessible chromatin by sequencing (ATAC-seq), which utilizes the small molecule inhibitor Pitstop 2™ (scip-ATAC-seq)3. We demonstrate that these improvements, which theoretically could be applied to any in situ transposition method for single-cell library preparation, significantly increase the ability of transposase to enter the nucleus and generate highly complex single-cell libraries, without altering biological signal. We applied sci-ATAC-seq and scip-ATAC-seq to characterize the chromatin dynamics of developing forebrain-like organoids, an in vitro model of human corticogenesis4. Using these data, we characterized novel putative regulatory elements, compared the epigenome of the organoid model to human cortex data, generated a high-resolution pseudotemporal map of chromatin accessibility through differentiation, and measured epigenomic changes coinciding with a neurogenic fate decision point. Finally, we combined transcription factor motif accessibility with gene activity (GA) scores to directly observe the dynamics of complex regulatory programs that regulate neurogenesis through developmental pseudotime. Overall, scip-ATAC-seq increases information content per cell and bolsters the potential for future single-cell studies into complex developmental processes.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Borges-Rivera

Life continues to shock and amaze us, reminding us that truth is far stranger than fiction. http://Euplotid.io is a quantized, geometric model of the eukaryotic cell, an attempt at quantifying the incredible complexity that gives rise to a living cell by beginning from the smallest unit, a quanta. Starting from the very bottom we are able to build the pieces which when hierarchically and combinatorially combined produce the emergent complex behavior that even a single celled organism can show. Euplotid is composed of a set of quantized geometric 3D building blocks and constantly evolving dockerized bioinformatic pipelines enabling a user to build and interact with the local regulatory architecture of every gene starting from DNA-interactions, chromatin accessibility, and RNA-sequencing. Reads are quantified using the latest computational tools and the results are normalized, quality-checked, and stored. The local regulatory architecture of each gene is built using a Louvain based graph partitioning algorithm parameterized by the chromatin extrusion model and CTCF-CTCF interactions. Cis-Regulatory Elements are defined using chromatin accessibility peaks which are mapped to Transcriptional Start Sites based on inclusion within the same neighborhood. Deep Neural Networks are trained in order to provide a statistical model mimicking transcription factor binding, giving the ability to identify all Transcription Factors within a given chromatin accessibility peak. By in-silico mutating and re-applying the neural network we are able to gauge the impact of a transition mutation on the binding of any transcription factor. The annotated output can be visualized in a variety of 1D, 2D, 3D and 4D ways overlaid with existing bodies of knowledge such as GWAS results or PDB structures. Once a particular CRE of interest has been identified a Base Editor mediated transition mutation can then be performed in a relevant model for further study.


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