This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental material Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lo, M. Articles by Adler, B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lo, M. Articles by Adler, B.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infection and Immunity, October 2006, p. 5848-5859, Vol. 74, No. 10
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00755-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Effects of Temperature on Gene Expression Patterns in Leptospira interrogans Serovar Lai as Assessed by Whole-Genome Microarrays

Australian Bacterial Pathogenesis Program,¹ Department of Microbiology, Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia,² David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095,³ Division of Infectious Diseases, Veteran Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California 90073,⁴ Bacterial Diseases of Livestock Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Ames, Iowa 50010,⁵ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia⁶

Received 12 May 2006/ Returned for modification 20 June 2006/ Accepted 8 July 2006

Leptospirosis is an important zoonosis of worldwide distribution. Humans become infected via exposure to pathogenic Leptospira spp. from infected animals or contaminated water or soil. The availability of genome sequences for Leptospira interrogans, serovars Lai and Copenhageni, has opened up opportunities to examine global transcription profiles using microarray technology. Temperature is a key environmental factor known to affect leptospiral protein expression. Leptospira spp. can grow in artificial media at a range of temperatures reflecting conditions found in the environment and the mammalian host. Therefore, transcriptional changes were compared between cultures grown at 20°C, 30°C, 37°C, and 39°C to represent ambient temperatures in the environment, growth under laboratory conditions, and temperatures in healthy and febrile hosts. Data from direct pairwise comparisons of the four temperatures were consolidated to examine transcriptional changes at two generalized biological conditions representing mammalian physiological temperatures (37°C and 39°C) versus environmental temperatures (20°C and 30°C). Additionally, cultures grown at 30°C then shifted overnight to 37°C were compared with those grown long-term at 30°C and 37°C to identify genes potentially expressed in the early stages of infection. Comparison of data sets from physiological versus environmental experiments with upshift experiments provided novel insights into possible transcriptional changes at different stages of infection. Changes included differential expression of chemotaxis and motility genes, signal transduction systems, and genes encoding proteins involved in alteration of the outer membrane. These findings indicate that temperature is an important factor regulating expression of proteins that facilitate invasion and establishment of disease.

Editor: J. T. Barbieri

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://iai.asm.org/.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Matsunaga, J., Medeiros, M. A., Sanchez, Y., Werneid, K. F., Ko, A. I. (2007). Osmotic regulation of expression of two extracellular matrix-binding proteins and a haemolysin of Leptospira interrogans: differential effects on LigA and Sph2 extracellular release. Microbiology 153: 3390-3398 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Asuthkar, S., Velineni, S., Stadlmann, J., Altmann, F., Sritharan, M. (2007). Expression and Characterization of an Iron-Regulated Hemin-Binding Protein, HbpA, from Leptospira interrogans Serovar Lai. Infect. Immun. 75: 4582-4591 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Matsunaga, J., Lo, M., Bulach, D. M., Zuerner, R. L., Adler, B., Haake, D. A. (2007). Response of Leptospira interrogans to Physiologic Osmolarity: Relevance in Signaling the Environment-to-Host Transition. Infect. Immun. 75: 2864-2874 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Choy, H. A., Kelley, M. M., Chen, T. L., Moller, A. K., Matsunaga, J., Haake, D. A. (2007). Physiological Osmotic Induction of Leptospira interrogans Adhesion: LigA and LigB Bind Extracellular Matrix Proteins and Fibrinogen. Infect. Immun. 75: 2441-2450 [Abstract] [Full Text]