echemi logo
Product
  • Product
  • Supplier
  • Inquiry
    Home > Biochemistry News > Microbiology News > University of Queensland Water Centre Guo Jianhua team Adv. Sci.: Unlocking the new role of plasmids—regulating antibiotic-induced changes in bacterial morphology

    University of Queensland Water Centre Guo Jianhua team Adv. Sci.: Unlocking the new role of plasmids—regulating antibiotic-induced changes in bacterial morphology

    • Last Update: 2023-02-03
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
    Search more information of high quality chemicals, good prices and reliable suppliers, visit www.echemi.com

    First author: Yu Zhigang

    Corresponding author: Guo Jianhua

    Newsletter: Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB), University of Queensland

    Paper DOI: 10.
    1002/advs.
    202203260

    Nature hides many magical mysteries: deciduous plants lose their leaves in autumn to prevent excessive transpiration in winter, and chameleons adapt to changes in the outside environment by changing the color and temperature of their bodies
    .
    In the microscopic world, do you know how bacteria adapt to changing environments?
    Normally, bacteria maintain a specific shape (such as a ball or a short rod) to maintain their survival needs
    .
    But when exposed to environmental stressors, such as antibiotics, this particular morphology changes to some extent in order to survive better, and filamentization is one of
    them.

    What is filamentization?

    Bacterial filamentization is a "malformed" way of growth: during reproduction, cells are blocked from dividing after extension, resulting in a significant increase
    in cell body length.
    Under adverse environmental conditions, such as antibiotic stress, bacteria thrive this way
    .
    In addition, filamentization of bacteria is a temporary manifestation in which bacteria return to their normal form
    when environmental conditions are improved (without antibiotic stress pressure).

    Image source: Drawn by the author

    Why filamentosis?

    Bacterial filamentization is usually due to
    adverse environmental conditions.
    These adverse environmental conditions include antibiotics
    , pH, nutrition, temperature, and UV exposure
    .
    Taking antibiotics as an example, when exposed to ciprofloxacin and cephalexin, bacterial
    DNA is damaged and the SOS rescue response (RecA-LexA, that is, the DNA repair system) in the body is activated.
    This inhibits the formation of a diaphragm (Z-ring), which plays an important role in cell division
    , and induces the production of
    filament.

    Image source: Drawn by the author

    What are the adverse effects of filamentization?

    Filiform cells are long and difficult to be completely engulfed by bacterial predators, phagocytes or the host immune system to escape predators
    and predators.
    For example, E.
    coli, which can cause urinary tract infections in humans, is prone to filamentization
    after antibiotic treatment.
    Because these filamentized cells can escape predation from phagocytes or the host immune system and cannot be completely removed, they will cause repeated urinary tract infections
    .
    In addition, filamentous bacteria have a stronger ability to colonize and take nutrients in the environment than normal bacteria, and are easy to form biofilms, which are difficult to be completely removed, so it is easy to cause human health and other related problems
    .

    What are the characteristics of filamentous bacterial division?

    This study found that although the normal division of filamentous bacteria is blocked, they can still divide in an unequal way, which is different from
    the traditional cognitive diquoting method.
    Under low-dose antibiotic treatment, this unequal division occurs mainly at both ends of the cell
    .

    Filamentous bacterial division process (selected from the original text)


    What role do plasmids play in filamentization?

    In this study, two strains (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas alloputida) and two plasmids (RP4 and pKJK5) were first tested ), they were analyzed in real time with confocal microscopy to change
    cell morphology under the action of antibiotics.
    The results showed that both plasmid-free strains (
    E.
    coli
    and P.
    alloputida
    ) were filamentized, while the plasmid-containing bacteria remained in normal form
    .
    Further studies have found that E.
    coli (UPEC), which can cause urinary tract infections in humans
    , can also be filamentized under the action of antibiotics, while the bacteria remain in normal form
    after containing plasmids.

    Antibiotic-induced filamentization of bacteria (from original)


    How do plasmids work?

    By analyzing the genetic data of the above two plasmids, we found that both carry plasmid distribution systems (so that plasmids can be stably inherited and distributed to daughter cells), especially the toxin-antitoxin system (TA system, such as parDE
    。 Toxin
    proteins in this system inhibit or kill bacteria, while antitoxin proteins neutralize toxin toxicity
    .
    The TA system is widely present in prokaryotes and has an important impact
    on bacterial survival and coping with environmental stresses.
    In order to further elucidate
    whether the TA system carried by plasmids is an important factor in changing bacterial filament, the Escherichia coli J53 strain was selected and five different plasmids
    were constructed.
    Both toxins and antitoxins carried by these plasmids are expressed
    under the control of arabinose-induced promoters.

    Strains

    plasmid

    toxin

    antitoxin

    E.
    coli
    J53

    pBAD24 (control).

    ×

    ×

    pJIMK78

    ×

    pJIMK92

    (but not expressed).

    ×

    pJIMK99

    ×

    pJIMK78/pJIMK99

    ×: None; : Yes
    .

    We found that all bacteria were filamentized when exposed only to antibiotics; When exposed only to arabinose, the toxin-containing bacteria (pJIMK78) are filamentized, while the bacteria containing the complete TA system (pJIMK78/pJIMK99) remain in normal form; When exposed to arabinose and antibiotics at the same time, bacteria containing intact TA systems remain in their original form
    .
    This result shows that
    the TA system can influence the morphological response
    of bacteria to antibiotic stress.

    Effect of the toxin-antitoxin system on filamentization (from the original).


    By flow cytometry and reverse transcription qPCR analysis, this study further reveals that the TA system can influence antibiotic-induced bacterial filamentization in two ways: · Reduce DNA damage produced by antibiotics, SOS response in bacteria, and expression of cell division inhibitory proteins; · Promotes extracellular efflux pumps and enhances bacterial tolerance to antibiotics
    .
    The picture is taken from the original text

    Significance

    In this study, we are the first to discover the effect of plasmids on antibiotic-induced bacterial filament, expanding our new understanding
    of plasmid-mediated evolution of bacterial resistance.
    Due to the widespread use of antibiotics, the toxin-antitoxin system carried by plasmids
    plays an important role
    in bacterial evolution.
    In addition, for human pathogens that do not contain a
    toxin-antitoxin system, antibiotic treatment is likely to induce filamentization of these pathogenic bacteria, resulting in recurrent infections
    .
    This study provides a new basis
    for potential risk assessment and new drug development due to antibiotic therapy.

    Paper link

    https://onlinelibrary.
    wiley.
    com/doi/full/10.
    1002/advs.
    202203260

    About the author

    First author: Yu Zhigang, postdoctoral
    fellow at the University of Queensland Water Centre, Australia.
    His research interests include the mechanism of bacterial resistance and its spread and control
    in the environment.
    At present, many
    research results have been published in Advanced Science, The ISME Journal, Gut Microbes, Water Research and other journals
    Corresponding author: Professor Guo Jianhua, Deputy Director of the Water Centre at the University of Queensland, Australia, is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hazardous Materials and Water Science & Technology Associate Editor
    of Water Research.
    His research interests include the spread and control of bacterial resistance, the treatment and control of new environmental pollutants, the new technology of biological denitrification of sewage, and microbial ecology in water engineering systems
    .


    Source: UQ Water Center
    .
    Submit, cooperate
    , reprint, and join the group, please add the editor WeChat Environmentor2020! Environmentor is the largest academic public account in the field of environment, with 13W+ active readers
    .
    Since WeChat
    has modified the push rules, please add the environmental person Environmentor as a star, or click "Watching" at the bottom of the page after each view, so that you can receive our daily tweets as soon as possible! Environmentor has more than 20 comprehensive groups, journal submission groups, fund application groups, study abroad application groups, and research field groups, etc.
    , welcome to add WeChat Environmentor2020, we will pull you into the corresponding group
    as soon as possible.



    Past Recommendations

    Thesis pitch

    ES&T Editor-in-Chief/Associate Editor: Why was my paper rejected before it was submitted for review?

    Angew, Academician Qu Jiuhui of Tsinghua University: Restriction Enhancement Using Free Radical-Led Rapid Fenton-like Reaction
    Menachem Elimelech Team and Harbin Institute of Technology Nat.
    Commun.
    : Janus Electrocatalytic Membrane Highly Selective Synthesis ROS Academician Qu Jiuhui Team of Tsinghua University ES&T: Green Fenton - Atomic Hydrogen-Mediated Hydrogen Peroxide Hydroelectric Reduction Activation Process Hongying Zhao and Guohua Zhao of Tongji University ES&T: Electro-Fenton Cathodic Oxidation-Reduction Synergistic Advanced Treatment of Halogen-Containing Pollutants ES& T: Research on the Application of Conductive Anaerobic Granular Sludge in Sewage Treatment and Electricity Production: HKUST Lam Mitsu Team ES&T: How to achieve selective adsorption and removal of phosphate in water? Professor Lin Shihong of Vanderbilt University, USA, ES&T Outlook: Intuitive Understanding of Energy Efficiency in Desalination ProcessWR: Sewage biodegradability determines the construction mechanism
    of microorganisms in sewage plants, Professor Lowry of Carnegie Mellon University, and AM: Sulfur content and morphology regulate the hydrophobicity, electron transport, reactivity and selectivity of sulfide nano-ZVI iron Academic Recruitment: Vanderbilt University Environmental Engineering Graduate Program Enrollment (Ph.
    D.
    M.
    )Yujie's research group in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, recruits doctoral students (or postdoctoral fellows)Dr.
    Dr.
    Yujie, School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong.
    Sam H.
    Y.
    HSU Research Group Recruitment Ph.
    D.
    , Laboratory of Environmental Molecular and Synthetic Biology at the University of Notre Dame, USA, plans to recruit 2 full-award doctoral students, Stockholm University in Sweden and Eawag, Switzerland, jointly recruiting full-award doctoral students (environmental direction), Professor Zhao Huazhang of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Peking University, recruits doctoral academic information, Professor Julie B.
    Zimmerman of Yale University as the editor-in-chief
    of ES&T Professor Bryan W.
    Brooks of Baylor University will become editor-in-chief of ES&T Letters,
    academician of the Korean Academy of Sciences, and Wonyong Choi will become the founding editor-in-chief of ACS ES&T Engineering, and Professor Wang Zimeng of the Department of Environment of Fudan University will become co-editor-in-chief of Applied Geochemistry CEJ Advances was launched in | Professor Pan Bingcai is the editor-in-chief, and four Chinese scholars are the associate editors of the ACS Dialogue | Interview with Academician Ma Jun, Founding Associate Editor of ACS ES&T Engineering: Environmental Science & Ecotechnology Editor-in-Chief Team!

    Scan the QR code and quickly join the group~


    This article is an English version of an article which is originally in the Chinese language on echemi.com and is provided for information purposes only. This website makes no representation or warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness ownership or reliability of the article or any translations thereof. If you have any concerns or complaints relating to the article, please send an email, providing a detailed description of the concern or complaint, to service@echemi.com. A staff member will contact you within 5 working days. Once verified, infringing content will be removed immediately.

    Contact Us

    The source of this page with content of products and services is from Internet, which doesn't represent ECHEMI's opinion. If you have any queries, please write to service@echemi.com. It will be replied within 5 days.

    Moreover, if you find any instances of plagiarism from the page, please send email to service@echemi.com with relevant evidence.