GSE160348
Genome-wide transcriptional profiling of Bacillus subtilis in response to Hermetia illucens larvae extract
The black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, is a promising source for sustainable production of proteins, lipids and bioactive substances. Feeding on a variety of decomposing organic substrates which are typically inhabited by a range of different microorganisms like bacteria and fungi, H. illucens larvae is expected to be able to strongly produce antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and other substances possessing antibiotic activity. It has been shown that H. illucens larvae extract exhibits antimicrobial activity against some microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, and antimicrobial effect on bacterial biofilm. Numbers of AMPs produced by H. illucens larvae have also been identified so far. Moreover, H. illucens larvae extract was recently observed with significant induction of cell envelop stress response (CESR) in B. subtilis, indicative of potential production of antimicrobial compounds. B. subtilis as a well-established Gram-positive model strain is widely used in scientific research and an arguably robust platform to investigate antimicrobial compounds at the respect of, such as the mode of reaction of and the stress response elicited by corresponding compounds. In this study, we aimed to characterize the stress responses in B. subtilis induced by H. illucens larvae extract by employing transcriptomic study via RNA sequencing technique. With transcriptional profiling, we are expecting to be able to give some hints of potential antimicrobial compounds produced by H. illucens larvae by referring to the transcriptomic researches on well-studied antimicrobial substances. Overall design: Wild type Bacillus subtilis W168 cells at exponential phase of growth were treated with H. illucens larvae extract for 10 min. Non-treatment samples were prepared under the same condition serving as controls. After that, all samples were processed to undergo total RNA extraction, cDNA library preparation and then high-throughput RNA sequencing. The resulting sequencing raw data were analyzed in silico to reveal the differential gene expression in the treatment relative to the non-treatment control.