A correlative study of the genomic underpinning of virulence traits and drug tolerance of Candida auris

Authors: Bo Yang, Benjamin Vaisvil, Daniel Schmitt, Joseph Collins, Eric Young, Vinayak Kapatral, Reeta Rao

Candida auris is an opportunistic fungal pathogen with high mortality rates which presents a clear threat to public health. The risk of C. auris infection is high because it can colonize the body, resist antifungal treatment, and evade the immune system. The genetic mechanisms for these traits are not well known. Identifying them could lead to new targets for new treatments. To this end, we present an analysis of the genetics and gene expression patterns of C. auris carbon metabolism, drug resistance, and macrophage interaction. We chose to study two C. auris isolates simultaneously, one drug sensitive (B11220 from Clade II) and one drug resistant (B11221 from Clade III). Comparing the genomes, we confirm the previously reported finding that B11220 was missing a 12.8 kb region on chromosome VI. This region contains a gene cluster encoding proteins related to alternative sugar utilization. We show that B11221, which has the gene cluster, readily assimilates and utilizes D-galactose and L-rhamnose as compared to B11220, which harbors the deletion. B11221 exhibits increased adherence and drug resistance compared to B11220 when grown in these sugars. Transcriptomic analysis of both isolates grown on glucose or galactose showed that the gene cluster was upregulated when grown on D-galactose. These findings reinforce growing evidence of a link between metabolism and drug tolerance. B11221 resists phagocytosis by macrophages and exhibits decreased β-1,3-glucan exposure, a key determinant that allows Candida to evade the host immune system, as compared to B11220. In a transcriptomic analysis of both isolates co-cultured with macrophages, we find upregulation of genes associated with transport and transcription factors in B11221. Our studies show a positive correlation between membrane composition and immune evasion, alternate sugar utilization, and drug tolerance in C. auris.

Beyond rational—biosensor-guided isolation of 100 independently evolved bacterial strain variants and comparative analysis of their genomes

Philipp T. Baumann, Michael Dal Molin, Hannah Aring, Karin Krumbach, Moritz-Fabian Müller, Bas Vroling, Philana V. van Summeren-Wesenhagen, Stephan Noack, and Jan Marienhagen

Background

In contrast to modern rational metabolic engineering, classical strain development strongly relies on random mutagenesis and screening for the desired production phenotype. Nowadays, with the availability of biosensor-based FACS screening strategies, these random approaches are coming back into fashion. In this study, we employ this technology in combination with comparative genome analyses to identify novel mutations contributing to product formation in the genome of a Corynebacterium glutamicum l-histidine producer. Since all known genetic targets contributing to l-histidine production have been already rationally engineered in this strain, identification of novel beneficial mutations can be regarded as challenging, as they might not be intuitively linkable to l-histidine biosynthesis.

Results

In order to identify 100 improved strain variants that had each arisen independently, we performed > 600 chemical mutagenesis experiments, > 200 biosensor-based FACS screenings, isolated > 50,000 variants with increased fluorescence, and characterized > 4500 variants with regard to biomass formation and l-histidine production. Based on comparative genome analyses of these 100 variants accumulating 10–80% more l-histidine, we discovered several beneficial mutations. Combination of selected genetic modifications allowed for the construction of a strain variant characterized by a doubled l-histidine titer (29 mM) and product yield (0.13 C-mol C-mol−1) in comparison to the starting variant.

Conclusions

This study may serve as a blueprint for the identification of novel beneficial mutations in microbial producers in a more systematic manner. This way, also previously unexplored genes or genes with previously unknown contribution to the respective production phenotype can be identified. We believe that this technology has a great potential to push industrial production strains towards maximum performance.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12915-023-01688-x.

Keywords: Biosensor, Fluorescence-activated cell sorting, High-throughput screening, Genome sequencing, Comparative genome analysis, Single-nucleotide polymorphism, Metabolic engineering, l-histidine, Corynebacterium glutamicum

Comparative Genome-Scale Metabolic Reconstruction and Flux Balance Analysis of Multiple Staphylococcus aureus Genomes Identify Novel Antimicrobial Drug Targets

Deok-Sun Lee, Henry Burd, Jiangxia Liu, Eivind Almaas, Olaf Wiest, Albert-László Barabási, Zoltán N. Oltvai, and  Vinayak Kapatral

Mortality due to multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection is predicted to surpass that of human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS in the United States. Despite the various treatment options for S. aureusinfections, it remains a major hospital- and community-acquired opportunistic pathogen. With the emergence of multidrug-resistant S. aureus strains, there is an urgent need for the discovery of new antimicrobial drug targets in the organism. To this end, we reconstructed the metabolic networks of multidrug-resistant S. aureus strains using genome annotation, functional-pathway analysis, and comparative genomic approaches, followed by flux balance analysis-based in silico single and double gene deletion experiments. We identified 70 single enzymes and 54 pairs of enzymes whose corresponding metabolic reactions are predicted to be unconditionally essential for growth. Of these, 44 single enzymes and 10 enzyme pairs proved to be common to all 13 S. aureus strains, including many that had not been previously identified as being essential for growth by gene deletion experiments in S. aureus. We thus conclude that metabolic reconstruction and in silico analyses of multiple strains of the same bacterial species provide a novel approach for potential antibiotic target identification.

J Bacteriol. 2009 Jun; 191(12): 4015–4024.
Published online 2009 Apr 17. doi:  10.1128/JB.01743-08

Comparative Genomics of the Vitamin B12 Metabolism and Regulation in Prokaryotes

Dmitry A. Rodionov, Alexey G. Vitreschak, Andrey A. Mironov, Mikhail S. Gelfand

Using comparative analysis of genes, operons, and regulatory elements, we describe the cobalamin (vitamin B12) biosynthetic pathway in available prokaryotic genomes. Here we found a highly conserved RNA secondary structure, the regulatory B12 element, which is widely distributed in the upstream regions of cobalamin biosynthetic/transport genes in eubacteria. In addition, the binding signal (CBL-box) for a hypothetical B12 regulator was identified in some archaea. A search for B12 elements and CBL-boxes and positional analysis identified a large number of new candidate B12-regulated genes in various prokaryotes. Among newly assigned functions associated with the cobalamin biosynthesis, there are several new types of cobalt transporters, ChlI and ChlD subunits of the CobN-dependent cobaltochelatase complex, cobalt reductase BluB, adenosyltransferase PduO, several new proteins linked to the lower ligand assembly pathway, l-threonine kinase PduX, and a large number of other hypothetical proteins. Most missing genes detected within the cobalamin biosynthetic pathways of various bacteria were identified as nonorthologous substitutes. The variable parts of the cobalamin metabolism appear to be the cobalt transport and insertion, the CobG/CbiG- and CobF/CbiD-catalyzed reactions, and the lower ligand synthesis pathway. The most interesting result of analysis of B12 elements is that B12-independent isozymes of the methionine synthase and ribonucleotide reductase are regulated by B12 elements in bacteria that have both B12-dependent and B12-independent isozymes. Moreover, B12 regulons of various bacteria are thought to include enzymes from known B12-dependent or alternative pathways.