Transcriptional profiles of Treponema denticola in response to environmental conditions.
The periodontal pathogen T. denticola resides in a stressful environment rife with challenges, the human oral cavity. Knowledge of the stress response capabilities of this invasive spirochete is currently very limited. Whole genome expression profiles in response to different suspected stresses including heat shock, osmotic downshift, oxygen and blood exposure were examined. Most of the genes predicted to encode conserved heat shock proteins (HSPs) were found to be induced under heat and oxygen stress. Several of these HSPs also seem to be important for survival in hypotonic solutions and blood. In addition to HSPs, differential regulation of many genes encoding metabolic proteins, hypothetical proteins, transcriptional regulators and transporters was observed in patterns that could betoken functional associations. In summary, stress responses in T. denticola exhibit many similarities to the corresponding stress responses in other organisms but also employ unique components including the induction of hypothetical proteins.
Department of Microbiology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
Ian
I
McHardy
Caroline
C
Keegan
Jee-Hyun
JH
Sim
Wenyuan
W
Shi
Renate
R
Lux
D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D009995:Osmosis; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D048373:Treponema denticola / Q000235:genetics*; D015854:Up-Regulation
D017931:DNA Primers