Escherichia coli K-12 transcriptomics for assessing the mechanism of action of high-power ultrasound

Spiteri, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9195-7291, Griffin, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0038-6399, Karatzas, K.-A., Scerri, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6499-234X and Valdramidis, V. P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6486-3890 (2023) Escherichia coli K-12 transcriptomics for assessing the mechanism of action of high-power ultrasound. Microorganisms, 11 (11). 2768. ISSN 2076-2607 doi: 10.3390/microorganisms11112768

Abstract/Summary

An investigation into the mechanisms of action on bacteria involving exposure to stress factors was conducted in this study. The effects of ultrasound on Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 and its isogenic mutant, ∆gadW, under high power ultrasound treatments (26 kHz) were screened and identified by analysing their transcriptome differences between primary and secondary sequential treatments using RNA-Seq. This also helped to assess any developed protection for cells between different generations. According to our results, 1825 genes of all tested conditions were expressed, playing different roles in the cell. The expression of these genes is associated with DNA damage, cell membrane integrity, and also metabolic effects. The studied strains also showed different differential expressed genes (DEGs), with some genes being directly responsible for defence mechanisms, while others play an indirect effect due to cell damage. A gradual decrease in the expression of the genes, as we moved from just one cycle of ultrasound treatment to sequential treatment, was evident from a heat map analysis of the results. Overall, E. coli K-12 builds a self-protection mechanism by increasing the expression of genes involved in the respiration for increased growth, and production of flagellum and pili. It can be concluded that high power ultrasound is a technology that triggers several different defence mechanisms which directly link to E. coli.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/114137
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences > Food Microbial Sciences Research Group
Uncontrolled Keywords	Virology, Microbiology (medical), Microbiology
Publisher	MDPI AG
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