Anna K. Szafrańska

Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures

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Matthias Steglich

Medizinische Hochschule Hannover

Ulrich Nübel

German Center for Infection Research

Joachim Wink

Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research

Diego Chaves‐Moreno

Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research

Georg Peters

British Heart Foundation

Sarah A. Horst

Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research

F. Baro

KU Leuven

Karin Martin

Leibniz-Institut für Naturstoff-Forschung und Infektionsbiologie e. V. - Hans-Knöll-Institut (HKI)

Tadeusz Parnowski

Polskie Towarzystwo Gastroenterologii

Peter Kämpfer

University of Giessen

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Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research

German Center for Infection Research

Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures

Medizinische Hochschule Hannover

Biology of Infection

University Hospital Münster

University of Münster

Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology

Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland

Saarland University

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A polyphasic approach leads to seven new species of the cellulose-decomposing genus Sorangium, Sorangium ambruticinum sp. nov., Sorangium arenae sp. nov., Sorangium bulgaricum sp. nov., Sorangium dawidii sp. nov., Sorangium kenyense sp. nov., Sorangium orientale sp. nov. and Sorangium reichenbachii sp. nov.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY (2018)

Kathrin I. Mohr Corinna Wolf Ulrich Nübel Anna K. Szafrańska Matthias Steglich

Seventy-three strains of Sorangium have been isolated from soil samples collected from all over the world. The strains were characterized using a polyphasic approach and phenotypic, genotypic and chemotype analyses clarified their taxonomic relationships. 16S rRNA, xynB1, groEL1, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ioniziation time-of-flight mass spectrometry and API-ZYM analyses were conducted. In addition, from selected representative strains, fatty acids, quinones and phospholipids were analysed. In silico DNA-DNA hybridization and DNA-DNA hybridization against the current type species of Sorangiumcellulosum strain Soce 1871T (DSM 14627T) completed the analyses. Finally, our study revealed seven new species of Sorangium: Sorangium ambruticinum (Soce 176T; DSM 53252T, NCCB 100639T, sequence accession number ERS2488998), Sorangium arenae (Soce 1078T; DSM 105768T, NCCB 100643T, ERS2489002), Sorangium bulgaricum (Soce 321T; DSM 53339T, NCCB 100640T, ERS2488999), Sorangium dawidii (Soce 362T; DSM 105767T, NCCB 100641T, ERS2489000), Sorangium kenyense (Soce 375T; DSM 105741T, NCCB 100642T, ERS2489001), Sorangium orientale (Soce GT47T; DSM 105742T, NCCB 100638T, ERS2501484) and Sorangium reichenbachii (Soce 1828T; DSM 105769T, NCCB 100644T, ERS2489003).

10.1099/ijsem.0.003034

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High-Resolution Transcriptomic Analysis of the Adaptive Response of Staphylococcus aureus during Acute and Chronic Phases of Osteomyelitis

mBio (2014)

Anna K. Szafrańska Andrew P. A. Oxley Diego Chaves‐Moreno Sarah A. Horst Steffen Roßlenbroich

Osteomyelitis is a difficult-to-eradicate bone infection typically caused by Staphylococcus aureus. In this study, we investigated the in vivo transcriptional adaptation of S. aureus during bone infection. To this end, we determined the transcriptome of S. aureus during the acute (day 7) and chronic (day 28) phases of experimental murine osteomyelitis using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). We identified a total of 180 genes significantly more highly expressed by S. aureus during acute or chronic in vivo infection than under in vitro growth conditions. These genes encoded proteins involved in gluconeogenesis, proteolysis of host proteins, iron acquisition, evasion of host immune defenses, and stress responses. At the regulatory level, sarA and -R and saeR and -S as well as the small RNA RsaC were predominantly expressed by S. aureus during in vivo infection. Only nine genes, including the genes encoding the arginine deiminase (ADI) pathway and those involved in the stringent response, were significantly more highly expressed by S. aureus during the chronic than the acute stage of infection. Analysis by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) of a subset of these in vivo-expressed genes in clinical specimens yielded the same results as those observed in the murine system. Collectively, our results show that during acute osteomyelitis, S. aureus induced the transcription of genes that mediate metabolic adaptation, immune evasion, and replication. During the chronic phase, however, S. aureus switched its transcriptional response from a proliferative to a persistence mode, probably driven by the severe deficiency in nutrient supplies. Interfering with the survival strategies of S. aureus during chronic infection could lead to more effective treatments.The key to the survival success of pathogens during an infection is their capacity to rapidly adjust to the host environment and to evade the host defenses. Understanding how a pathogen redirects and fine-tunes its gene expression in response to the challenges of infection is central to the development of more efficient anti-infective therapies. Osteomyelitis is a debilitating infection of the bone predominantly caused by S. aureus. In this study, we evaluated the transcriptional response of S. aureus during bone infection. Our results indicate that S. aureus reprograms its genetic repertoire during the acute phase of infection to adapt to nutrient availability and to replicate within the host. During the chronic phase, S. aureus upregulates a survival genetic program activated in response to nutrient starvation. Thus, we have uncovered key survival pathways of S. aureus during acute and chronic osteomyelitis that can be used as therapeutic targets.

10.1128/mbio.01775-14

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Rapid cell division of Staphylococcus aureus during colonization of the human nose

BMC Genomics (2019)

Anna K. Szafrańska Vera Junker Matthias Steglich Ulrich Nübel

Staphylococcus aureus is an important opportunistic pathogen and a commensal bacterium, thriving in the nasal cavities of 20% of the human population. Little is known about the dynamics of asymptomatic colonization and the occasional transition to infectious disease. In this study, we inferred that S. aureus cells replicate every one to three hours on average while colonizing the human nose, based on two independent lines of genomic evidence. First, we collected nasal swab samples from human subjects, extracted and sequenced metagenomic DNA, and analyzed the distribution of sequencing coverage along the staphylococcal chromosome. Calibration of this data by comparison to a laboratory culture enabled measuring S. aureus cell division rates in nasal samples. Second, we applied mutation accumulation experiments paired with genome sequencing to measure spontaneous mutation rates at a genome scale. Relating these mutation rates to annual evolutionary rates confirmed that nasal S. aureus continuously pass several thousand cell divisions per year when averaged over large, globally distributed populations and over many years, corresponding to generation times of less than two hours. The cell division rates we determined were higher than the fastest documented rates during fulminant disease progression (in a mouse model of systemic infection) and much higher than those previously measured in expectorated sputum from cystic fibrosis patients. This paper supplies absolute in-vivo generation times for an important bacterial commensal, indicating that colonization of the human upper respiratory tract is characterized by a highly dynamic equilibrium between bacterial growth and removal.

10.1186/s12864-019-5604-6

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Citations (30)

The prevalence of dementia in Poland: A population-based, door-to-door survey in an urban community

T Gabryelewicz Tadeusz Parnowski Anna K. Szafrańska E Matuszewska E Jarkiewicz

Urban community

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