Predicting bacterial fitness in Mycobacterium tuberculosis with transcriptional regulatory network-informed interpretable machine learning.

(Mtb) is the causative agent of tuberculosis disease, the greatest source of global mortality by a bacterial pathogen. Mtb adapts and responds to diverse stresses such as antibiotics by inducing transcriptional stress-response regulatory programs. Understanding how and when these mycobacterial regulatory programs are activated could enable novel treatment strategies for potentiating the efficacy of new and existing drugs.

Transcriptional regulator-induced phenotype screen reveals drug potentiators in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Transposon-based strategies provide a powerful and unbiased way to study the bacterial stress response, but these approaches cannot fully capture the complexities of network-based behaviour. Here, we present a network-based genetic screening approach: the transcriptional regulator-induced phenotype (TRIP) screen, which we used to identify previously uncharacterized network adaptations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to the first-line anti-tuberculosis drug isoniazid (INH). We found regulators that alter INH susceptibility when induced, several of which could not be identified by standard gene disruption approaches.

Ultra-low Dose Aerosol Infection of Mice with Mycobacterium tuberculosis More Closely Models Human Tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a heterogeneous disease manifesting in a subset of individuals infected with aerosolized Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Unlike human TB, murine infection results in uniformly high lung bacterial burdens and poorly organized granulomas. To develop a TB model that more closely resembles human disease, we infected mice with an ultra-low dose (ULD) of between 1-3 founding bacteria, reflecting a physiologic inoculum.

Integrated Modeling of Gene Regulatory and Metabolic Networks in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is the causative bacterium of tuberculosis, a disease responsible for over a million deaths worldwide annually with a growing number of strains resistant to antibiotics. The development of better therapeutics would greatly benefit from improved understanding of the mechanisms associated with MTB responses to different genetic and environmental perturbations. Therefore, we expanded a genome-scale regulatory-metabolic model for MTB using the Probabilistic Regulation of Metabolism (PROM) framework.

A comprehensive map of genome-wide gene regulation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is a pathogenic bacterium responsible for 12 million active cases of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. The complexity and critical regulatory components of MTB pathogenicity are still poorly understood despite extensive research efforts. In this study, we constructed the first systems-scale map of transcription factor (TF) binding sites and their regulatory target proteins in MTB.

The DNA-binding network of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infects 30% of all humans and kills someone every 20-30 s. Here we report genome-wide binding for ~80% of all predicted MTB transcription factors (TFs), and assayed global expression following induction of each TF. The MTB DNA-binding network consists of ~16,000 binding events from 154 TFs.

Mapping and manipulating the Mycobacterium tuberculosis transcriptome using a transcription factor overexpression-derived regulatory network.

Background: Mycobacterium tuberculosis senses and responds to the shifting and hostile landscape of the host. To characterize the underlying intertwined gene regulatory network governed by approximately 200 transcription factors of M. tuberculosis, we have assayed the global transcriptional consequences of overexpressing each transcription factor from an inducible promoter.

Osmosensory signaling in Mycobacterium tuberculosis mediated by a eukaryotic-like Ser/Thr protein kinase.

Bacteria are able to adapt to dramatically different microenvironments, but in many organisms, the signaling pathways, transcriptional programs, and downstream physiological changes involved in adaptation are not well-understood. Here, we discovered that osmotic stress stimulates a signaling network in Mycobacterium tuberculosis regulated by the eukaryotic-like receptor Ser/Thr protein kinase PknD. Expression of the PknD substrate Rv0516c was highly induced by osmotic stress.

Bioinformatic and empirical analysis of novel hypoxia-inducible targets of the human antituberculosis T cell response.

We analyzed whole genome-based transcriptional profiles of Mycobacterium tuberculosis subjected to prolonged hypoxia to guide the discovery of novel potential Ags, by a combined bioinformatic and empirical approach. We analyzed the fold induction of the 100 most highly induced genes at 7 d of hypoxia, as well as transcript abundance, peptide-binding prediction (ProPred) adjusted for population-specific MHC class II allele frequency, and by literature search. Twenty-six candidate genes were selected by this bioinformatic approach and evaluated empirically using IFN-γ and IL-2 ELISPOT using immunodominant Ags (Acr-1, CFP-10, ESAT-6) as references.

Global analysis of mRNA stability in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is a highly successful pathogen that infects over a billion people. As with most organisms, MTB adapts to stress by modifying its transcriptional profile. Remodeling of the transcriptome requires both altering the transcription rate and clearing away the existing mRNA through degradation, a process that can be directly regulated in response to stress.

Hypoxia induces an immunodominant target of tuberculosis specific T cells absent from common BCG vaccines.

M. tuberculosis (MTB) species-specific antigenic determinants of the human T cell response are important for immunodiagnosis and vaccination. As hypoxia is a stimulus in chronic tuberculosis infection, we analyzed transcriptional profiles of MTB subject to 168 hours of hypoxia to test the hypothesis that upregulation by hypoxia might result in gene products being recognized as antigens.

Characterization of a Clp protease gene regulator and the reaeration response in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) enters a non-replicating state when exposed to low oxygen tension, a condition the bacillus encounters in granulomas during infection. Determining how mycobacteria enter and maintain this state is a major focus of research. However, from a public health standpoint the importance of latent TB is its ability to reactivate.

Hypoxia: a window into Mycobacterium tuberculosis latency.

Tuberculosis is a massive public health problem on a global scale and the success of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is linked to its ability to persist within humans for long periods without causing any overt disease symptoms. Hypoxia is predicted to be a key host-induced stress limiting growth of the pathogen in vivo. However, multiple studies in vitro and in vivo indicate that M.

Isolation of mycobacterial RNA.

This chapter describes two protocols for isolating total RNA from mycobacteria: one for extraction from in vitro cultures and one for extraction from in vivo. In these protocols, RNA is liberated from mycobacteria by disruption with small glass beads in the presence of Trizol to stabilize the RNA. The RNA is further purified with DNAse treatment and RNeasy columns.

The enduring hypoxic response of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Background: A significant body of evidence accumulated over the last century suggests a link between hypoxic microenvironments within the infected host and the latent phase of tuberculosis. Studies to test this correlation have identified the M. tuberculosis initial hypoxic response, controlled by the two-component response regulator DosR.

The Candida albicans mating type like locus [MTL] is not involved in chlamydospore formation.

Candida albicans produces chlamydospores, which can be used as a diagnostic tool for species identification. It has been suggested that these chlamydospores are degenerate spores. If so, then their production might be linked to the mating loci, and clinical strains that are homozygous for the C.

Genes required for intrinsic multidrug resistance in Mycobacterium avium.

Genes required for intrinsic multidrug resistance by Mycobacterium avium were identified by screening a library of transposon insertion mutants for the inability to grow in the presence of ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, and penicillin at subinhibitory concentrations. Two genes, pks12 and Maa2520, were disrupted in multiple drug-susceptible mutants. The pks12 gene (Maa1979), which may be cotranscribed with a downstream gene (Maa1980), is widely conserved in the actinomycetes.

Homozygosity at the Candida albicans MTL locus associated with azole resistance.

Antifungal drug resistance in the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans is a serious threat to the growing population of immunocompromised patients. This study describes a significant correlation between loss of heterozygosity at the C. albicans mating-type-like (MTL) locus and resistance to azole antifungals.