Gene/Protein
Disease
Symptom
Drug
Enzyme
Compound
Pivot Concepts:
Gene/Protein
Disease
Symptom
Drug
Enzyme
Compound
Target Concepts:
Gene/Protein
Disease
Symptom
Drug
Enzyme
Compound
Query: UNIPROT:P51532 (
transcriptional activator
)
6,546
document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)
Plague
is a flea-borne rodent-associated zoonotic disease caused by
Yersinia pestis
The disease is characterized by epizootics with high rodent mortalities, punctuated by interepizootic periods when the bacterium persists in an unknown reservoir. This study investigates the interaction between
Y. pestis
and the ubiquitous soil free-living amoeba (FLA)
Acanthamoeba castellanii
to assess if the bacterium can survive within soil amoebae and whether intracellular mechanisms are conserved between infection of mammalian macrophages and soil amoebae. The results demonstrate that during coculture with amoebae, representative
Y. pestis
strains of epidemic biovars Medievalis, Orientalis, and Antiqua are phagocytized and able to survive within amoebae for at least 5 days. Key
Y. pestis
determinants of the intracellular interaction of
Y. pestis
and phagocytic macrophages, PhoP and the type three secretion system (T3SS), were then tested for their roles in the
Y. pestis
-amoeba interaction. Consistent with a requirement for the PhoP
transcriptional activator
in the intracellular survival of
Y. pestis
in macrophages, a PhoP mutant is unable to survive when cocultured with amoebae. Additionally, induction of the T3SS blocks phagocytic uptake of
Y. pestis
by amoebae, similar to that which occurs during macrophage infection. Electron microscopy revealed that in
A. castellanii
,
Y. pestis
resides intact within spacious vacuoles which were characterized using lysosomal trackers as being separated from the lysosomal compartment. This evidence for prolonged survival and subversion of intracellular digestion of
Y. pestis
within FLA suggests that protozoa may serve as a protective soil reservoir for
Y. pestis
IMPORTANCE
Yersinia pestis
is a reemerging flea-borne zoonotic disease. Sylvatic
plague
cycles are characterized by an epizootic period during which the disease spreads rapidly, causing high rodent mortality, and an interepizootic period when the bacterium quiescently persists in an unknown reservoir. An understanding of the ecology of
Y. pestis
in the context of its persistence in the environment and its reactivation to initiate a new epizootic cycle is key to implementing novel surveillance strategies to more effectively predict and prevent new disease outbreaks. Here, we demonstrate prolonged survival and subversion of intracellular digestion of
Y. pestis
within a soil free-living amoeba. This suggests the potential role for protozoa as a protective soil reservoir for
Y. pestis
, which may help explain the recrudescence of
plague
epizootics.
...
PMID:Yersinia pestis Resists Predation by Acanthamoeba castellanii and Exhibits Prolonged Intracellular Survival. 2845 35
The world population is expected to increase from 7.3 to 9.7 billion by 2050.
Pest
outbreak and increased abiotic stresses due to climate change pose a high risk to tropical crop production. Although conventional breeding techniques have significantly increased crop production and yield, new approaches are required to further improve crop production in order to meet the global growing demand for food. The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein9) genome editing technology has shown great promise for quickly addressing emerging challenges in agriculture. It can be used to precisely modify genome sequence of any organism including plants to achieve the desired trait. Compared to other genome editing tools such as zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) and
transcriptional activator
-like effector nucleases (TALENs), CRISPR/Cas9 is faster, cheaper, precise and highly efficient in editing genomes even at the multiplex level. Application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in editing the plant genome is emerging rapidly. The CRISPR/Cas9 is becoming a user-friendly tool for development of non-transgenic genome edited crop plants to counteract harmful effects from climate change and ensure future food security of increasing population in tropical countries. This review updates current knowledge and potentials of CRISPR/Cas9 for improvement of crops cultivated in tropical climates to gain resiliency against emerging pests and abiotic stresses.
...
PMID:Application of CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing Technology for the Improvement of Crops Cultivated in Tropical Climates: Recent Progress, Prospects, and Challenges. 2986 73
