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Survey of bacterial nucleotide-based second messengers
Beneš, Tomáš ; Branny, Pavel (advisor) ; Dolejšová, Tereza (referee)
Second messengers are small molecules that belong to one of the fundamental types of cell signalling. Their function is to transmit signals from extracellular or intracellular receptors to specific effector proteins. This type of signal transduction is evolutionarily ancient and conserved, occuring in every cellular organism. However, individual taxa differ in the specific compounds they use in signal transduction. In bacteria, different nucleotide derivatives are mostly used. The most important examples are cAMP, (p)ppGpp, c-di-GMP and c-di-AMP. Bacterial second messengers are involved in the regulation of metabolism, biofilm formation, stringent response, osmoregulation, protection against viral infection and many other processes. In addition to describing these signalling pathways, this work also deals with enzymes for synthesis and degradation of these small signalling molecules.
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Analysis of essentiality of glmM gene coding for phosphoglucosamine mutase of Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Krupička, Jiří ; Branny, Pavel (advisor) ; Čáp, Michal (referee)
Phosphoglucosamine mutase (GlmM) is an enzyme of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis. The main aim of this thesis was to find out, whether gene glmM is essential for viability of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Therefore, we prepared merodiploid strain containing two copies of glmM; the genomic gene and ectopic copy under control of zinc inducible promoter. Subsequently, depletion strain was prepared by deletion of genomic copy of glmM. This strain was further used for analysis of viability and phenotype features in the medium containing various concentrations of zinc ions, an inducer of ectopic glmM expression. We found out, that the viability of this strain was strictly dependent on the concentration of inducer and further, that depletion of GlmM resulted in remarkable morphological defects. The rescue of mutant strain was observed after addition of inducer up to the level of the control sample. These results have provided the evidence of glmM essentiality for S. pneumoniae viability. Furthermore, we analyzed, whether phosphorylation of key amino acid residues, S99 and S101, is essential for GlmM functionality. Four different strains were prepared by means of site-directed mutagenesis expressing glmM with substitutions of key serine residues for alanine or glutamic acid. Since deletion of chromosomal locus in...
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Non-conventional bacterial signaling pathways
Krupička, Jiří ; Branny, Pavel (advisor) ; Beranová, Jana (referee)
Two component systems were traditionally considered as main phosphorylation systems of bacteria involved in cell signalling. Recently, attention focuses increasingly on bacterial eukaryote-like Ser/Thr protein kinases (eSTKs). These protein kinases are structurally similar to their eukaryotic counterparts. Some eSTKs possess additional domains such as extracellular PASTA domains that were discovered in a variety of gram-positive bacteria. It has been proved that these domains can act as sensors for unlinked peptidoglycan fragments. However, majority of environmental signal molecules still remains unknown. eSTKs phosphorylate a broad spectrum of substrates including proteins involved in various cell processes such as virulence, cell wall biosynthesis, cell division, and central and secondary metabolism. Cross talk between eSTKs and two component systems also occurs. In this thesis, the current knowledge about eSTKs and their significant substrates in different bacterial species is discussed.
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Functional study of the putative nucleotidase encoded by spr1057 gene in Streptococcus pneumoniae, a homologue of Escherichia coli protein YjjG
Vacková, Zuzana ; Branny, Pavel (advisor) ; Lichá, Irena (referee)
ANGLICKÝ ABSTRAKT Functional study of the putative nucleotidase encoded by spr1057 gene in Streptococcus pneumoniae, a likely homolog of Escherichia coli protein YjjG. Bacterial cells are constantly exposed to innumerable toxic substances, either in their external environment or by by-products of their own metabolism. For these reasons, the bacterial cells evolved several mechanisms to cope with this challenge. These mechanisms are represented by: blocking the uptake, export by specific transporters as well as specific inactivation of these substance by enzymes. A particular group of these toxic substances are noncanonica nucleotides, which can directly inhibit bacterial cell DNA replication or can result in increased mutation rate. Enzymes recognizing these modified derivatives are known as "house-cleaning" nucleotide phsphateses, which can inactivate the potentially mutagenic nucleotides and prevent their incorporation into DNA and RNA. Some of the "house- cleaning" enzymes belong to a group of haloacid dehalogenase enzymes (haloacid dehalogenase-like hydrolase superfamily), which are found in many bacterial species. This thesis is focused on the function of hypothetical protein Spr1057 of Streptococcus pneumoniae with an unknown function. Sequence comparison revealed that Spr1057 has a significant...
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Intestinal metabolism of bilirubin
Jirásková, Alena ; Branny, Pavel (advisor) ; Španová, Alena (referee) ; Pátek, Miroslav (referee)
CONCLUSIONS In this study we focused on the process of bilirubin reducfion catalyzed by an anaerobic intestinal bacterium C' peýingen.s. We aimed to undertake analysis of bile pigments metabolized by C. perfringens and their respective reduction products and to identify gene(s) encoding protein(s) involved in metabolism of bilirubin. Analysis of bile pigments metabolized by C. perfringens and their respective reduction products 1) The C. perfringens strain BRI isolated from neonatal stools reduces a variety of different bile pigments indicating that this broad substrate speciÍicity could be an effective tool for disposal of electrons produced in catabolic pÍocesseswithin thesebacteria. 2) The examined strain reduces UCB only to the level of urobilinogen. Other bacterial sfoains and species, absent in neonates, are presumed to be essential for catabolism to the level ofstercobilinogen. Identification of gene(s)involved in bilirubin metabolism 1) The C. perfringens strain BRl is resistant to the transformation of plasmid DNA mediatedby electroporation and thereforeit is not a candidate suitable for transposonmutagenesis. A transformab|e C. peýingens P90.2,2. strain was found to reduce bilirubin. Rapid and simple method suitable for electroporation of this strain was developed providing transformation...
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Molecular dynamics of proteins interacting with substrate or ligand: mitochondrial processing peptidase and FixL oxygen sensor
Dvořáková Holá, Klára ; Janata, Jiří (advisor) ; Váchová, Libuše (referee) ; Branny, Pavel (referee)
I I Ovenvrew I I I II I I I I I I I I I The presenteddoctoralthesis includesfive publishedscientificarticlesand one manuscriptpreparedfor submission.All describestudieson threeproteinmodels.The four papersnumbered(1)- (4)inthelistofpublications,sharea commonobjectivee.i.observingand describingfunctionalproteindynamicsandconformationchangeinducedby ligandor substrate binding,andrepresentthemainresultofmyPhDwork. Thepapers(1)and(4)offerresultsof a projectfrommyhomelaboratoryattheInstitute ofMicrobiologyAS CR, LaboratoryforBiologyofSecondaryMetabolism,underthesupervisionof JiřÍ Janata, PhD. The projectis focusedon the protein-proteindynamicsinteractionof mitochondrialprocessingpeptidase(MPP) fromSaccharomycescerevisiaewithits preproteins substrates. The papers(2)and(3)describeresultsof a project,inwhichI haveparticipatedduring myMarieCuriefellowshipattheEcolePolytechnique(PalaiseauCedex,France),Laboratoryfor OpticsandBiosciences,in2004.Theprojectconcernsresearchon proteinstructuraldynamicsof theheme-basedoxygensensorFixLfromBradyrhizobiumjaponicum,inwhichoxygenbindingto the heme sensor domain inducesconformationchange,which regulatesthe activityof neighboringkinasedomain. ln bothprojects,analogyin methodicalapproach,i.e.seriesof molecularbiologyand...
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The role of alternative sigma factors of RNA polymerase in regulation of gene expression in Corynebacterium glutamicum
Šilar, Radoslav ; Nešvera, Jan (advisor) ; Branny, Pavel (referee) ; Lichá, Irena (referee)
Abstract Regulation of transcription by extracytoplasmic-function (ECF) sigma factors of RNA polymerase is an efficient way of cell adaptation to diverse environmental stresses. Amino acid-producing gram-positive bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum codes for seven sigma factors: the primary sigma factor SigA, the primary-like sigma factor SigB and five ECF stress- responsive sigma factors (SigC, SigD, SigE, SigH and SigM). The sigH gene encoding SigH sigma factor is located in a gene cluster together with the rshA gene, encoding the anti-sigma factor of SigH. Anti-sigma factors bind to their cognate sigma factors and inhibit their transcriptional activity. Under the stress conditions the binding is released allowing the sigma factors to bind to the RNAP core enzyme. In this thesis, regulation of expression of genes encoding the most important ECF sigma factor SigH and its anti-sigma factor RshA as well as genes belonging to the SigH-regulon were mainly studied. The transcriptional analysis of the sigH-rshA operon revealed four housekeeping promoters of the sigH gene and one SigH-dependent promoter of the rshA gene. For testing the role of the complex SigH-RshA in gene expression, the C. glutamicum ΔrshA strain was used for genome-wide transcription profiling with DNA Microarrays technique under...
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Cytoplasmic membrane of Bacillus subtilis Regulation of the physical parameters
Beranová, Jana ; Konopásek, Ivo (advisor) ; Branny, Pavel (referee) ; Holoubek, Aleš (referee)
Bacillus subtilis, a model Gram-positive soil bacterium, employs two distinct mechanisms in its membrane adaptation to low temperature: 1) Long-term adaptation to suboptimal temperature is accomplished by increasing the ratio of anteiso- to iso-branched fatty acids in the membrane lipids. 2) After a sudden temperature decrease, the oxygen-dependent fatty acid desaturase (Des) is induced which desaturates fatty-acyl chains incorporated in membrane lipids. The transcription of the gene encoding desaturase, des, is activated by the decrease of the membrane order, via two- component system DesK-DesR. In this work, I studied the influence of cultivation conditions on the mechanisms of B. subtilis membrane adjustments for a low temperature employing fatty acid analysis, fluorescence spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and methods of molecular biology. In the first part of this work, I examined the impact of the cultivation medium on the composition and biophysical features of the B. subtilis cytoplasmic membrane during growth under the optimal (40 řC) and suboptimal (20 řC) cultivation temperature. I compared the nutrient-rich complex medium containing glucose and the mineral medium supplemented with either glucose or glycerol. The results obtained showed the crucial importance of medium...
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The effect of 6S-like RNAs on physiological differentiation of Streptomyces coelicolor
Burýšková, Barbora ; Bobek, Jan (advisor) ; Branny, Pavel (referee)
The variety of bacteria and their genomes sometimes causes conservation of homologue molecules to be displayed not in sequence but in secondary and tertiary structures. In the case of the regulatory 6S RNA, sequence homologues have been found in over 100 bacterial species so far. However, none were found in the genus Streptomyces. The unique genome of these soil- dwelling bacteria, known for their capacity to produce antibiotics, has a high G/C content and diverges substantially from distantly related bacteria. Yet in the non-coding 6S RNA it is the secondary structure that is crucial for its function. The 6S RNAs trap sigma factors by mimicking target promoter sequences in order to help with switching sets of expressed genes during developmental transitions. 6S-like RNA genes in Streptomyces coelicolor have been computationally predicted by comparison of in silico modelled secondary structures of known 6S RNAs. The aim of this thesis was the verification of these 6S-like RNA predictions. The experimental approach was based on RNA co-immunoprecipitation (RNA CoIP), as well as RT- PCR from RNA samples. The outcomes of this project are the detection of six novel ncRNA transcripts with possible 6S-like RNA functions, which also served as the wet-lab verification of the in silico prediction technique...
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Critical sites determining the resistance phenotype of ABC proteins from the ARE subfamily and the molecular mechanism of their function
Lenart, Jakub ; Balíková Novotná, Gabriela (advisor) ; Melter, Oto (referee) ; Branny, Pavel (referee)
Vga(A) and Msr(A) are resistance proteins belonging to the ARE subfamily of ABC -F proteins. They confer resistance to inhibitors of the peptidyltransferase center. It has been proposed that the mechanism of resistance is based on interaction with a transmembrane partner that forms the functional transporter. Their ribosomal function has been described by cryoelectron microscopy of ribosome complexes with ABCF mutants unable to hydrolyze ATP. However, the exact mechanism of resistance is not yet known. We have produced the mutant proteins combining the four amino acid residues in Vga(A) and Vga(A)LC at the linker tip, and we were the first to describe the effects of substrate specificity of the single mutants. Amino acid positions 212 and 220 are important for resistance to lincosamides and pleuromutilins, respectively, while position 219 is responsible for resistance to streptogramin A. Each amino acid property plays a critical role in conferring antibiotic specificity, as confirmed by the fact that amino acid substitution at position K218T in the Vga(A) protein causes the shift in resistance from streptogramins to lincosamides and pleuromutilins. The mechanism of resistance conferred by Vga(A) is ribosomal protection. This is supported by the fact that the rate of [3H]-lincomycin accumulation in...
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