Shihua Wang

Genome sequencing of 161 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from China identifies genes and intergenic regions associated with drug resistance.

The worldwide emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis threatens to make this disease incurable. Drug resistance mechanisms are only partially understood, and whether the current understanding of the genetic basis of drug resistance in M. tuberculosis is sufficiently comprehensive remains unclear. Here we sequenced and analyzed 161 isolates with a range of drug resistance profiles, discovering 72 new genes, 28 intergenic regions (IGRs), 11 nonsynonymous SNPs and 10 IGR SNPs with strong, consistent associations with drug resistance. On the basis of our examination of the dN/dS ratios of nonsynonymous to synonymous SNPs among the isolates, we suggest that the drug resistance–associated genes identified here likely contain essentially all the nonsynonymous SNPs that have arisen as a result of drug pressure in these isolates and should thus represent a near-complete set of drug resistance–associated genes for these isolates and antibiotics. Our work indicates that the genetic basis of drug resistance is more complex than previously anticipated and provides a strong foundation for elucidating unknown drug resistance mechanisms.

The pathogenesis, detection, and prevention of Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a Gram-negative motile bacterium that inhabits marine and estuarine environments throughout the world, is a major food-borne pathogen that causes life-threatening diseases in humans after the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood. The global occurrence of V. parahaemolyticus accentuates the importance of investigating its virulence factors and their effects on the human host. This review describes the virulence factors of V. parahaemolyticus reported to date, including hemolysin, urease, two type III secretion systems and two type VI secretion systems, which both cause both cytotoxicity in cultured cells and enterotoxicity in animal models. We describe various types of detection methods, based on virulence factors, that are used for quantitative detection of V. parahaemolyticus in seafood. We also discuss some useful preventive measures and therapeutic strategies for the diseases mediated by V. parahaemolyticus, which can reduce, to some extent, the damage to humans and aquatic animals attributable to V. parahaemolyticus. This review extends our understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of V. parahaemolyticus mediated by virulence factors and the diseases it causes in its human host. It should provide new insights for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of V. parahaemolyticus infection.

Aflatoxin B1 Negatively Regulates Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway through Activating miR-33a

MicroRNAs are known to play an important role in modulating gene expression in various diseases including cancers and cardiovascular disorders, but only a few of them are associated with the pathology of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), a potent mycotoxin. Here, we discovered a novel regulatory network between AFB1, miR-33a and β-catenin in human carcinoma cells. The level of miR-33a was up-regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells treated with AFB1, while in the same cells causing the decrease in β-catenin expression when treated at their IC50 values. miR-33a, specifically miR-33a-5p, was demonstrated to down-regulate the expression of β-catenin, affect the β-catenin pathway, and inhibit cell growth. Also, by employing a luciferase assay, we found that miR-33a down-regulated β-catenin by directly binding to the 3’-UTR of β-catenin. These results suggested that AFB1 might down-regulate β-catenin by up-regulating miR-33a. This understanding opens new lines of thought in the potential role of miR-33a in the clinical therapy of cancer.

The DmtA methyltransferase contributes to Aspergillus flavus conidiation, sclerotial production, aflatoxin biosynthesis and virulence

DNA methylation is essential for epigenetic regulation of gene transcription and development in many animals, plants and fungi. We investigated whether DNA methylation plays a role in the development and secondary metabolism of Aspergillus flavus, identified the DmtA methyltransferase from A. flavus, and produced a dmtA knock-out mutant by replacing the dmtA coding sequence with the pyrG selectable marker. The A. flavus dmtA null mutant lines produced white fluffy mycelium in liquid medium, and displayed a slightly flavescent conidial pigmentation compared with the normal yellow of the wild-type strain when grown on agar. The ΔdmtA lines exhibited decreased conidiation and aflatoxin (AF) biosynthesis, compared with the wild-type line, suggesting that the DmtA knock-out affected the transcriptional level of genes in the AF cluster. In particular, sclerotia development and host colonization were altered in the dmtA null mutants. Green fluorescent protein tagging at the C-terminus of DmtA showed that DmtA localized to the nucleus and cytoplasm. DNA methylation content measurements in the dmtA mutants revealed no widespread DNA methylation in the mutants or wild-type lines. Thus, our findings suggest that DmtA, apart from being a C-5 cytosine methyltransferase in A. flavus, contributes to asexual development, aflatoxin biosynthesis, sclerotial production and virulence.

RNA-Seq-Based Transcriptome Analysis of Aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus in Response to Water Activity

Aspergillus flavus is one of the most important producers of carcinogenic aflatoxins in crops, and the effect of water activity (aw) on growth and aflatoxin production of A. flavus has been previously studied. Here we found the strains under 0.93 aw exhibited decreased conidiation and aflatoxin biosynthesis compared to that under 0.99 aw. When RNA-Seq was used to delineate gene expression profile under different water activities, 23,320 non-redundant unigenes, with an average length of 1297 bp, were yielded. By database comparisons, 19,838 unigenes were matched well (e-value < 10−5) with known gene sequences, and another 6767 novel unigenes were obtained by comparison to the current genome annotation of A. flavus. Based on the RPKM equation, 5362 differentially expressed unigenes (with |log2Ratio| ≥ 1) were identified between 0.99 aw and 0.93 aw treatments, including 3156 up-regulated and 2206 down-regulated unigenes, suggesting that A. flavus underwent an extensive transcriptome response during water activity variation. Furthermore, we found that the expression of 16 aflatoxin producing-related genes decreased obviously when water activity decreased, and the expression of 11 development-related genes increased after 0.99 aw treatment. Our data corroborate a model where water activity affects aflatoxin biosynthesis through increasing the expression of aflatoxin producing-related genes and regulating development-related genes.

Integrative analyses reveal transcriptome-proteome correlation in biological pathways and secondary metabolism clusters in A. flavus in response to temperature.

To investigate the changes in transcript and relative protein levels in response to temperature, complementary transcriptomic and proteomic analyses were used to identify changes in Aspergillus flavus grown at 28 °C and 37 °C. A total of 3,886 proteins were identified, and 2,832 proteins were reliably quantified. A subset of 664 proteins was differentially expressed upon temperature changes and enriched in several Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways: translation-related pathways, metabolic pathways, and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. The changes in protein profiles showed low congruency with alterations in corresponding transcript levels, indicating that post-transcriptional processes play a critical role in regulating the protein level in A. flavus. The expression pattern of proteins and transcripts related to aflatoxin biosynthesis showed that most genes were up-regulated at both the protein and transcript level at 28 °C. Our data provide comprehensive quantitative proteome data of A. flavus at conducive and nonconducive temperatures.

Thrombolytic effects of Douchi Fibrinolytic enzyme from Bacillus subtilis LD-8547 in vitro and in vivo

BackgroundToday, thrombosis is one of the most widely occurring diseases in modern life. Drugs with thrombolytic functions are the most effective methods in the treatment of thrombosis. Among them, Douchi fibrinolytic enzyme (DFE) is a promising agent. DFE was isolated from Douchi, a typical and popular soybean-fermented food in China, and it can dissolve fibrin directly and efficiently. A strain, Bacillus subtilis LD-8547 produced DFE with high fibrinolytic activity has been isolated in our lab previously.ResultsIn the study, thrombolytic effect of DFE from Bacillus subtilis LD-8547 was studied in vitro and in vivo systematically. The results showed that DFE played a significant role in thrombolysis and anticoagulation in vitro. And the thrombolytic effects correlated with DFE in a dose-dependent manner. In vivo, the acute toxicity assay showed that DFE had no obvious acute toxicity to mice. Test of carrageenan-induced thrombosis in mice indicated that the DFE significantly prevented tail thrombosis, and arterial thrombosis model test indicated that Douchi fibrinolytic enzyme DFE had thrombolytic effect on carotid thrombosis of rabbits in vivo. Other results in vivo indicated that DFE could increase bleeding and clotting time obviously.ConclusionsThe DFE isolated from Bacillus subtilis LD-8547 has obvious thrombolytic effects in vitro and in vivo. This function demonstrates that this enzyme can be a useful tool for preventing and treating clinical thrombus.

Development of ELISA and colloidal gold immunoassay for tetrodotoxin detetcion based on monoclonal antibody

A monoclonal hybridoma cell named 5B9 against tetrodotoxin (TTX) was obtained after fusion of myeloma SP2/0 cells with spleen cells isolated from the immunized Balb/c mice. The 5B9 monoclonal antibody (McAb) with high affinity (about 2.55 × 10(9)) is specific to TTX, and this McAb belongs to the immunoglobulin G (IgG) isotype. Finally, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and colloidal gold immunoassay were established based on this McAb. The linear range of ELISA to detect TTX was 5-500 ng/mL, and the limit of detection (LOD) was 4.44 ng/mL. The average CV of intra- and inter-assay was less than 8%, with the samples recovery range of 70.93-99.99%. A competitive format colloidal gold strip was developed for detection of TTX in real samples, and the LOD for TTX is 20 ng/mL, and the assay time of the qualitative test can be finished in less than 10 min without any equipment. The result from test strip revealed that the test strip has a good agreement with those obtained from ELISA.

Engineering production of functional scFv antibody in E. coli by co-expressing the molecule chaperone Skp

Single-chain variable fragment (scFv) is a class of engineered antibodies generated by the fusion of the heavy (VH) and light chains (VL) of immunoglobulins through a short polypeptide linker. ScFv play a critical role in therapy and diagnosis of human diseases, and may in fact also be developed into a potential diagnostic and/or therapeutic agent. However, the fact that current scFv antibodies have poor stability, low solubility, and affinity, seriously limits their diagnostic and clinical implication. Here we have developed four different expression vectors, and evaluated their abilities to express a soluble scFv protein. The solubility and binding activity of the purified proteins were determined using both SDS-PAGE and ELISA. Amongst the four purified proteins, the Skp co-expressed scFv showed the highest solubility, and the binding activity to antigen TLH was 3-4 fold higher than the other three purified scFv. In fact, this scFv is specific for TLH and does not cross-react with other TLH-associated proteins and could be used to detect TLH directly in real samples. These results suggest that the pACYC-Duet-skp co-expression vector might be a useful tool for the production of soluble and functional scFv antibody.

Proteomic profile of Aspergillus flavus in response to water activity

Aspergillus flavus, a common contaminant of crops and stored grains, can produce aflatoxins that are harmful to humans and other animals. Water activity (aw) is one of the key factors influencing both fungal growth and mycotoxin production. In this study, we used the isobaric tagging for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) technique to investigate the effect of aw on the proteomic profile of A. flavus. A total of 3566 proteins were identified, of which 837 were differentially expressed in response to variations in aw. Among these 837 proteins, 403 were over-expressed at 0.99 aw, whereas 434 proteins were over-expressed at 0.93 aw. According to Gene Ontology (GO) analysis, the secretion of extracellular hydrolases increased as aw was raised, suggesting that extracellular hydrolases may play a critical role in induction of aflatoxin biosynthesis. On the basis of Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) categorizations, we identified an exportin protein, KapK, that may down-regulate aflatoxin biosynthesis by changing the location of NirA. Finally, we considered the role of two osmotic stress-related proteins (Sln1 and Glo1) in the Hog1 pathway and investigated the expression patterns of proteins related to aflatoxin biosynthesis. The data uncovered in this study are critical for understanding the effect of water stress on toxin production and for the development of strategies to control toxin contamination of agricultural products.