title: Transcriptional response of Pasteurella multocida to nutrient limitation.
abstract: Bacteria often encounter environments where nutrient availability is limited, and they must adapt accordingly. To identify Pasteurella multocida genes that are differentially expressed during nutrient limitation, we utilized whole-genome microarrays to compare levels of gene expression during growth in rich and minimal media. Our analysis showed that the levels of expression of a total of 669 genes, representing approximately one-third of the genome, were detectably altered over the course of the experiment. A large number (n = 439) of genes, including those involved in energy metabolism, transport, protein synthesis, and binding, were expressed at higher levels in rich medium, suggesting that, upon exposure to a rich environment, P. multocida immediately begins to turn on many energy-intensive biosynthetic pathways or, conversely, turns these genes off when it is exposed to a nutrient-deficient environment. Genes with increased expression in minimal medium (n = 230) included those encoding amino acid biosynthesis and transport systems, outer membrane proteins, and heat shock proteins. Importantly, our analysis also identified a large number (n = 164) of genes with unknown functions whose expression was altered during nutrient limitation. Overall, the results of our study show that a wide repertoire of genes, many of which have yet to be functionally classified, undergo transcriptional regulation in P. multocida in response to growth in minimal medium and provide a strong foundation to investigate the transcriptional response of this multispecies pathogen to growth in a nutrient-limited environment.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Genomics Center and Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Paustian
authors.forename: Barbara J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: Vivek
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kapur
mesh_terms: D001120:Arginine / Q000378:metabolism; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002455:Cell Division / Q000235:genetics; D003470:Culture Media; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D016979:Pasteurella multocida / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D003470:Culture Media; D001120:Arginine