title: Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Selective Metabolic Adaptation of Streptococcus suis to Porcine Blood and Cerebrospinal Fluid.
abstract: Streptococcus suisis a zoonotic pathogen that can cause severe pathologies such as septicemia and meningitis in its natural porcine host as well as in humans. Establishment of disease requires not only virulence of the infecting strain but also an appropriate metabolic activity of the pathogen in its host environment. However, it is yet largely unknown how the streptococcal metabolism adapts to the different host niches encountered during infection. Our previous isotopologue profiling studies onS. suisgrown in porcine blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) revealed conserved activities of central carbon metabolism in both body fluids. On the other hand, they suggested differences in the de novo amino acid biosynthesis. This prompted us to further dissectS. suisadaptation to porcine blood and CSF by RNA deep sequencing (RNA-seq). In blood, the majority of differentially expressed genes were associated with transport of alternative carbohydrate sources and the carbohydrate metabolism (pentose phosphate pathway, glycogen metabolism). In CSF, predominantly genes involved in the biosynthesis of branched-chain and aromatic amino acids were differentially expressed. Especially, isoleucine biosynthesis seems to be of major importance forS. suisin CSF because several related biosynthetic genes were more highly expressed. In conclusion, our data revealed niche-specific metabolic gene activity which emphasizes a selective adaptation ofS. suisto host environments.
authors.affiliation: Center for Infection Medicine, Institute for Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany. anna.koczula@tiho-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koczula
authors.affiliation: Genome Analytics, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Inhoffenstaße 7, 38124 Braunschweig, Germany. michael.jarek@helmholtz-hzi.de.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jarek
authors.affiliation: Institute for Animal Nutrition, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany. christian.visscher@tiho-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Visscher
authors.affiliation: Center for Infection Medicine, Institute for Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany. peter.valentin@tiho-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Valentin-Weigand
authors.affiliation: Center for Infection Medicine, Institute for Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany. ralph.goethe@tiho-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goethe
authors.affiliation: Center for Infection Medicine, Institute for Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany. joerg.willenborg@tiho-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Willenborg
keywords: RNA-seq; Streptococcus suis; amino acid; metabolism