Altered transcription of murine genes induced in the small bowel by administration of probiotic strain Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001.

Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 is a probiotic strain reported to increase resistance to epithelium-adherent and -invasive intestinal pathogens in experimental animals. To increase understanding of the relationship between strain HN001 and the bowel, transcription of selected genes in the mucosa of the murine small bowel was measured. Mice previously naive to lactobacilli (Lactobacillus-free mice) were examined after daily exposure to HN001 in drinking water.

Unique secreted-surface protein complex of Lactobacillus rhamnosus, identified by phage display.

Proteins are the most diverse structures on bacterial surfaces; hence, they are candidates for species- and strain-specific interactions of bacteria with the host, environment, and other microorganisms. Genomics has decoded thousands of bacterial surface and secreted proteins, yet the function of most cannot be predicted because of the enormous variability and a lack of experimental data that would allow deduction of function through homology. Here, we used phage display to identify a pair of interacting extracellular proteins in the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001.

Direct selection and phage display of a Gram-positive secretome.

Surface, secreted and transmembrane protein-encoding open reading frames, collectively the secretome, can be identified in bacterial genome sequences using bioinformatics. However, functional analysis of translated secretomes is possible only if many secretome proteins are expressed and purified individually. We have now developed and applied a phage display system for direct selection, identification, expression and purification of bacterial secretome proteins.

Light and clock expression of the Neurospora clock gene frequency is differentially driven by but dependent on WHITE COLLAR-2.

Visible light is thought to reset the Neurospora circadian clock by acting through heterodimers of the WHITE COLLAR-1 and WHITE COLLAR-2 proteins to induce transcription of the frequency gene. To characterize this photic entrainment we examined frq expression in constant light, under which condition the mRNA and protein of this clock gene were strongly induced. In continuous illumination FRQ accumulated in a highly phosphorylated state similar to that seen at subjective dusk, the time at which a step from constant light to darkness sets the clock.