Castro Joana, França Angela, Bradwell Katie R, Serrano Myrna G, Jefferson Kimberly K, Cerca Nuno
Centre of Biological Engineering (CEB), Laboratory of Research in Biofilms Rosário Oliveira (LIBRO), University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS), University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal.
NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 2017 Feb 2;3:3. doi: 10.1038/s41522-017-0012-7. eCollection 2017.
Bacterial vaginosis is the most common gynecological disorder affecting women of reproductive age. Bacterial vaginosis is frequently associated with the development of a biofilm. Recent data indicates that biofilms are more tolerant to antibiotics and are able to incorporate other bacterial vaginosis -associated species, yielding a multi-species biofilm. However, despite its apparent role in bacterial vaginosis, little is known regarding the molecular determinants involved in biofilm formation by . To gain insight into the role of in the pathogenesis of bacterial vaginosis we carried out comparative transcriptomic analysis between planktonic and biofilm phenotypes, using RNA-sequencing. Significant differences were found in the expression levels of 815 genes. A detailed analysis of the results obtained was performed based on direct and functional gene interactions. Similar to other bacterial species, expression of genes involved in antimicrobial resistance were elevated in biofilm cells. In addition, our data indicate that biofilms assume a characteristic response to stress and starvation conditions. The abundance of transcripts encoding proteins involved in glucose and carbon metabolism was reduced in biofilms. Surprisingly, transcript levels of vaginolysin were reduced in biofilms relative to planktonic cultures. Overall, our data revealed that gene-regulated processes in biofilms resulted in a protected form of bacterial growth, characterized by low metabolic activity. This phenotype may contribute towards the chronic and recurrent nature of bacterial vaginosis. This suggests that is capable of drastically adjusting its phenotype through an extensive change of gene expression.
细菌性阴道病是影响育龄女性的最常见妇科疾病。细菌性阴道病常与生物膜的形成有关。最近的数据表明，生物膜对抗生素更具耐受性，并且能够纳入其他与细菌性阴道病相关的菌种，形成多菌种生物膜。然而，尽管其在细菌性阴道病中显然发挥了作用，但对于参与生物膜形成的分子决定因素却知之甚少。为了深入了解[具体细菌名称未给出]在细菌性阴道病发病机制中的作用，我们使用RNA测序对浮游型和生物膜型表型进行了比较转录组分析。发现815个基因的表达水平存在显著差异。基于直接和功能基因相互作用对所得结果进行了详细分析。与其他细菌种类相似，参与抗菌抗性的基因在生物膜细胞中的表达有所升高。此外，我们的数据表明，[具体细菌名称未给出]生物膜对压力和饥饿条件呈现出特征性反应。生物膜中编码参与葡萄糖和碳代谢的蛋白质的转录本丰度降低。令人惊讶的是，相对于浮游培养物，生物膜中阴道溶素的转录水平降低。总体而言，我们的数据表明，[具体细菌名称未给出]生物膜中的基因调控过程导致了一种受保护的细菌生长形式，其特征是代谢活性低。这种表型可能导致细菌性阴道病的慢性和复发性。这表明[具体细菌名称未给出]能够通过广泛的基因表达变化来大幅调整其表型。
