Construction and verification of the transcriptional regulatory response network of Streptococcus mutans upon treatment with the biofilm inhibitor carolacton

Guarding the walls: the multifaceted roles of Bce modules in cell envelope stress sensing and antimicrobial resistance

Bacteria have developed diverse strategies for defending their cell envelopes from external threats. In Firmicutes, one widespread strategy is to use Bce modules-membrane protein complexes that unite a peptide-detoxifying ABC transporter with a stress response coordinating two-component system. These modules provide specific, front-line defense for a wide variety of antimicrobial peptides and small molecule antibiotics as well as coordinate responses for heat, acid, and oxidative stress. Because of these abilities, Bce modules play important roles in virulence and the development of antibiotic resistance in a variety of pathogens, including Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Enterococcus species. Despite their importance, Bce modules are still poorly understood, with scattered functional data in only a small number of species. In this review, we will discuss Bce module structure in light of recent cryo-electron microscopy structures of the B. subtilis BceABRS module and explore the common threads and variations-on-a-theme in Bce module mechanisms across species. We also highlight the many remaining questions about Bce module function. Understanding these multifunctional membrane complexes will enhance our understanding of bacterial stress sensing and may point toward new therapeutic targets for highly resistant pathogens.

Identifying local associations in biological time series: algorithms, statistical significance, and applications

Local associations refer to spatial-temporal correlations that emerge from the biological realm, such as time-dependent gene co-expression or seasonal interactions between microbes. One can reveal the intricate dynamics and inherent interactions of biological systems by examining the biological time series data for these associations. To accomplish this goal, local similarity analysis algorithms and statistical methods that facilitate the local alignment of time series and assess the significance of the resulting alignments have been developed. Although these algorithms were initially devised for gene expression analysis from microarrays, they have been adapted and accelerated for multi-omics next generation sequencing datasets, achieving high scientific impact. In this review, we present an overview of the historical developments and recent advances for local similarity analysis algorithms, their statistical properties, and real applications in analyzing biological time series data. The benchmark data and analysis scripts used in this review are freely available at http://github.com/labxscut/lsareview.

Myxobacteria: biology and bioactive secondary metabolites

Myxobacteria are Gram-negative eubacteria and they thrive in a variety of habitats including soil rich in organic matter, rotting wood, animal dung and marine environment. Myxobacteria are a promising source of new compounds associated with diverse bioactive spectrum and unique mode of action. The genome information of myxobacteria has revealed many orphan biosynthetic pathways indicating that these bacteria can be the source of several novel natural products. In this review, we highlight the biology of myxobacteria with emphasis on their habitat, life cycle, isolation methods and enlist all the bioactive secondary metabolites purified till date and their mode of action.

Effect of bioactive compounds on the regulation of quorum sensing network-associated genes and virulence in Streptococcus mutans-A systematic review

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature on the effect of bioactive compounds and their regulation of quorum sensing (QS)-related and/or -regulated-virulence genes expression in Streptococcus mutans.

DESIGN

The search strategy was conducted through the electronic databases Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science for studies reporting the effects of natural and synthetic bioactive compounds on the regulation of QS-associated and/or -regulated genes of S. mutans.

RESULTS

After full-text reading, 19 studies met the inclusion criteria, in most of them, QS-inhibitors from synthetic origin were evaluated, 16 articles described the effect of the compounds on biofilm formation cultivated in vitro and five studies described these effects on adhesion of biofilm-producing cells. Only 2 studies analyzed the potential target-component of the QS.

CONCLUSIONS

Mostly, the bioactive compounds affected the expression of QS-associated and/or -regulated genes and virulence traits (e.g. adhesion, biofilm formation, acid stress tolerance) of S. mutans. Further studies are necessary to elucidate the target-specific QS-system constituent used by bioactive compounds to achieve QS inhibition as well as validate the use of these compounds in controlling dental caries.

Collaboration in Natural Product Total Synthesis: Carolacton – A Decade of Discovery

Carolacton, a macrocyclic natural product with impressive anti-biofilm biological activity, has been a focus in multiple research groups for the past decade. Chemists and biologists, alike, have been interested in uncovering the mechanism of action and have made great strides towards this goal. Carolacton causes cellular defects in Streptococcus mutans biofilm, which leads to decreases in cellular viability. As biological targets have been uncovered, synthetic chemists have devised synthetic routes that have helped uncover the important chemical functionalities that lead to biological activity. Herein, we discuss our synthetic collaboration that galvanized an entire research program around the natural product carolacton.

Synthetic Simplification of Carolacton Enables Chemical Genetic Studies in Streptococcus mutans

Understanding the broader biological impact of carolacton, a macrolactone natural product, has been ongoing for the past decade. Multiple studies have shown connections to regulatory systems, acid tolerance mechanisms, biofilm formation, and recently folate dehydrogenase (FolD). Progress elucidating the cause of biofilm-specific activity in Streptococcus mutans has been limited due to low-throughput analyses of carolacton-treated cells. We disclose the discovery of a simplified carolacton-inspired analog that demonstrates inhibitory activity against S. mutans biofilm cells. This discovery permitted a proof of concept chemical genetic screen of S. mutans mutants identifying the carbon catabolite protein A signaling pathway as a putative target.

Twelve-membered macrolactones: privileged scaffolds for the development of new therapeutics

Natural products commonly produced as secondary metabolites of various plants and micro-organisms represent a diverse chemical space of compounds. The diversity of natural products makes them an attractive target for interrogation by both chemists and biologists alike. Indeed, the study of 12-membered macrolactones has already led to the discovery of lead drug compounds and new biological targets, which has motivated the development of diverted total synthetic routes to libraries of analogs. This review explores the discovery, biological characterization, and synthesis of several 12-membered macrolactones, exploiting examples that underscore their importance in the drug discovery field. It is our hope that this review will motivate further interest in this class of natural products, a group of molecules that we think merit the classification of 'privileged scaffolds' within the medicinal chemistry community, to further investigate and develop novel compounds with promising bioactivity.

Natural products from myxobacteria: novel metabolites and bioactivities

Covering: 2011-July 2016Myxobacteria are a rich source for structurally diverse secondary metabolites with intriguing biological activities. Here we report on new natural products that were isolated from myxobacteria in the period of 2011 to July 2016. Some examples of recent advances on modes-of-action are also summarised along with a more detailed overview on five compound classes currently assessed in preclinical studies.

Network-Guided Key Gene Discovery for a Given Cellular Process

Identification of key genes for a given physiological or pathological process is an essential but still very challenging task for the entire biomedical research community. Statistics-based approaches, such as genome-wide association study (GWAS)- or quantitative trait locus (QTL)-related analysis have already made enormous contributions to identifying key genes associated with a given disease or phenotype, the success of which is however very much dependent on a huge number of samples. Recent advances in network biology, especially network inference directly from genome-scale data and the following-up network analysis, opens up new avenues to predict key genes driving a given biological process or cellular function. Here we review and compare the current approaches in predicting key genes, which have no chances to stand out by classic differential expression analysis, from gene-regulatory, protein-protein interaction, or gene expression correlation networks. We elaborate these network-based approaches mainly in the context of immunology and infection, and urge more usage of correlation network-based predictions. Such network-based key gene discovery approaches driven by information-enriched 'omics' data should be very useful for systematic key gene discoveries for any given biochemical process or cellular function, and also valuable for novel drug target discovery and novel diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic-efficiency marker prediction for a specific disease or disorder.

Stress Physiology of Lactic Acid Bacteria

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are important starter, commensal, or pathogenic microorganisms. The stress physiology of LAB has been studied in depth for over 2 decades, fueled mostly by the technological implications of LAB robustness in the food industry. Survival of probiotic LAB in the host and the potential relatedness of LAB virulence to their stress resilience have intensified interest in the field. Thus, a wealth of information concerning stress responses exists today for strains as diverse as starter (e.g., Lactococcus lactis), probiotic (e.g., several Lactobacillus spp.), and pathogenic (e.g., Enterococcus and Streptococcus spp.) LAB. Here we present the state of the art for LAB stress behavior. We describe the multitude of stresses that LAB are confronted with, and we present the experimental context used to study the stress responses of LAB, focusing on adaptation, habituation, and cross-protection as well as on self-induced multistress resistance in stationary phase, biofilms, and dormancy. We also consider stress responses at the population and single-cell levels. Subsequently, we concentrate on the stress defense mechanisms that have been reported to date, grouping them according to their direct participation in preserving cell energy, defending macromolecules, and protecting the cell envelope. Stress-induced responses of probiotic LAB and commensal/pathogenic LAB are highlighted separately due to the complexity of the peculiar multistress conditions to which these bacteria are subjected in their hosts. Induction of prophages under environmental stresses is then discussed. Finally, we present systems-based strategies to characterize the "stressome" of LAB and to engineer new food-related and probiotic LAB with improved stress tolerance.

The biofilm inhibitor Carolacton inhibits planktonic growth of virulent pneumococci via a conserved target

New antibacterial compounds, preferentially exploiting novel cellular targets, are urgently needed to fight the increasing resistance of pathogens against conventional antibiotics. Here we demonstrate that Carolacton, a myxobacterial secondary metabolite previously shown to damage Streptococcus mutans biofilms, inhibits planktonic growth of Streptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4 and multidrug-resistant clinical isolates of serotype 19A at nanomolar concentrations. A Carolacton diastereomer is inactive in both streptococci, indicating a highly specific interaction with a conserved cellular target. S. mutans requires the eukaryotic-like serine/threonine protein kinase PknB and the cysteine metabolism regulator CysR for susceptibility to Carolacton, whereas their homologues are not needed in S. pneumoniae, suggesting a specific function for S. mutans biofilms only. A bactericidal effect of Carolacton was observed for S. pneumoniae TIGR4, with a reduction of cell numbers by 3 log units. The clinical pneumonia isolate Sp49 showed immediate growth arrest and cell lysis, suggesting a bacteriolytic effect of Carolacton. Carolacton treatment caused a reduction in membrane potential, but not membrane integrity, and transcriptome analysis revealed compensatory reactions of the cell. Our data show that Carolacton might have potential for treating pneumococcal infections.

The Chemical Ecology of Predatory Soil Bacteria

The study of natural products is entering a renaissance, driven by the discovery that the majority of bacterial secondary metabolites are not produced under standard laboratory conditions. Understanding the ecological role of natural products is key to efficiently directing our screening efforts, and to ensuring that each screen efficiently captures the full biosynthetic repertoire of the producing organisms. Myxobacteria represent one of the most common and diverse groups of bacteria, with roughly 2500 strains publically available. Fed largely through predation, the myxobacteria have developed a large repertoire of natural products that target other microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi. Many of these interactions can be observed in predation assays, providing direct evidence for environmental interactions. With a focus on Myxococcus xanthus, this review will highlight how recent advances in myxobacteria are revealing the chemical ecology of bacterial natural products.

Carolacton Treatment Causes Delocalization of the Cell Division Proteins PknB and DivIVa in Streptococcus mutans in vivo

The small inhibitory molecule Carolacton has been shown to cause chain formation and bulging in Streptococci, suggesting a defect in cell division, but it is not known how cell division is impaired on a molecular level. Fluorescent fusion proteins have successfully been applied to visualize protein localization and dynamics in vivo and have revolutionized our understanding of cell wall growth, cell division, chromosome replication and segregation. However, in Streptococci the required vectors are largely lacking. We constructed vectors for chromosomal integration and inducible expression of fluorescent fusion proteins based on GFP+ in S. mutans. Their applicability was verified using four proteins with known localization in the cell. We then determined the effect of Carolacton on the subcellular localization of GFP+ fusions of the cell division protein DivIVa and the serine-threonine protein kinase PknB. Carolacton caused a significant delocalization of these proteins from midcell, in accordance with a previous study demonstrating the Carolacton insensitive phenotype of a pknB deletion strain. Carolacton treated cells displayed an elongated phenotype, increased septum formation and a severe defect in daughter cell separation. GFP+ fusions of two hypothetical proteins (SMU_503 and SMU_609), that had previously been shown to be the most strongly upregulated genes after Carolacton treatment, were found to be localized at the septum in midcell, indicating their role in cell division. These findings highlight the importance of PknB as a key regulator of cell division in streptococci and indicate a profound impact of Carolacton on the coordination between peripheral and septal cell wall growth. The established vector system represents a novel tool to study essential steps of cellular metabolism.

Streptococcus mutans copes with heat stress by multiple transcriptional regulons modulating virulence and energy metabolism

Dental caries is closely associated with the virulence of Streptococcus mutans. The virulence expression of S. mutans is linked to its stress adaptation to the changes in the oral environment. In this work we used whole-genome microarrays to profile the dynamic transcriptomic responses of S. mutans during physiological heat stress. In addition, we evaluated the phenotypic changes, including, eDNA release, initial biofilm formation, extracellular polysaccharides generation, acid production/acid tolerance, and ATP turnover of S. mutans during heat stress. There were distinct patterns observed in the way that S. mutans responded to heat stress that included 66 transcription factors for the expression of functional genes being differentially expressed. Especially, response regulators of two component systems (TCSs), the repressors of heat shock proteins and regulators involved in sugar transporting and metabolism co-ordinated to enhance the cell’s survival and energy generation against heat stress in S. mutans.