Uzunovic, J. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2024

Dysbiosis-associated gut bacterium Ruminococcus gnavus varies at the strain level in ability to utilize key mucin component sialic acid

Ruminococcus gnavus is a prevalent human gut commensal bacterium with known roles in intestinal mucus degradation, including by catabolism of the terminal mucin sugar sialic acid. While R. gnavus is not considered a pathogen, overabundance of this species is correlated with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), and its sialic acid metabolism may play a role in the dysbiotic state. Interestingly, liberation of mucin-bound sialic acid by R. gnavus yields the distinct product of 2,7-anhydro-N-acetylneuraminic acid (2,7-anhydro-Neu5Ac), in contrast to other known mucin-degrading bacteria, which generate Neu5Ac. This prompted us to look for 2,7-anhydro-Neu5Ac metabolism proteins in the genomes of 77 R. gnavus clinical isolates. We found that 2,7-anhydro-Neu5Ac metabolism is sporadically distributed in this species with respect to phylogeny and strain origin. We measured sialic acid-dependent growth of 12 sequenced isolates, finding that the presence of 2,7-anhydro-Neu5Ac catabolism proteins was predictive of growth on this substrate. Our analysis also uncovered "partial" 2,7-anhydro-Neu5Ac catabolism pathways in two R. gnavus strains, which we determined constitute the canonical Neu5Ac catabolism pathway, previously unreported in this species. These results reveal a notable diversity of sialic acid catabolism across the R. gnavus species, an essential consideration for further investigations into the importance of this metabolism in mucin degradation and in roles of R. gnavus in IBD and other gut dysbioses.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2018

Transposable elements are important contributors to standing variation in gene expression in Capsella grandiflora

Transposable elements (TEs) make up a significant portion of eukaryotic genomes, and thus are important drivers of genome evolution. However, the evolutionary forces controlling TE copy number and the extent to which TEs affect phenotypic variation on a genome-wide scale are still unclear. We characterised TE insertion polymorphism and its effects on gene expression in 124 whole genome sequences from a single population of Capsella grandiflora. The frequency of insertions was negatively correlated with distance to genes, as well as density of conserved non-coding elements, suggesting that the negative effects of TEs on gene regulation are important in limiting their abundance. Rare TE variants strongly influence gene expression variation, predominantly through downregulation. In contrast, rare single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) contribute equally to up- and down-regulation, but have a weaker effect. Taken together, these results imply that TEs are a significant contributor to gene expression variation and can be more likely than rare SNPs to cause extreme changes in gene expression.\n\nAuthor SummaryTransposable elements (TEs), mobile DNA elements with the ability to excise from the genome and reinsert in new locations, are important components of genomic diversity. Due to their abundance and mobility, TEs play an influential role in genomic evolution, often deleterious. Here we show that TEs in a population of the plant Capsella grandiflora are most deleterious when they insert in genic and regulatory regions. We find that TEs indeed are associated with unusual levels of gene expression, predominantly decreased expression.\n\nFurthermore, this effect is stronger than the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms with gene expression variation, highlighting the importance of TE contribution to the maintenance of expression variation.

evolutionary biology↗