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Proceedings of the National Academy of... Sep 2014
Topics: Animals; Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; Female; Humans; Macrolides; Maytansine; Microtubules; Polyketides; Pyrones; Tubulin; Tubulin Modulators
PubMed: 25187564
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1414572111 -
BMC Genomics May 2011Burkholderia rhizoxinica is an intracellular symbiont of the phytopathogenic zygomycete Rhizopus microsporus, the causative agent of rice seedling blight. The...
BACKGROUND
Burkholderia rhizoxinica is an intracellular symbiont of the phytopathogenic zygomycete Rhizopus microsporus, the causative agent of rice seedling blight. The endosymbiont produces the antimitotic macrolide rhizoxin for its host. It is vertically transmitted within vegetative spores and is essential for spore formation of the fungus. To shed light on the evolution and genetic potential of this model organism, we analysed the whole genome of B. rhizoxinica HKI 0454 - a type strain of endofungal Burkholderia species.
RESULTS
The genome consists of a structurally conserved chromosome and two plasmids. Compared to free-living Burkholderia species, the genome is smaller in size and harbors less transcriptional regulator genes. Instead, we observed accumulation of transposons over the genome. Prediction of primary metabolic pathways and transporters suggests that endosymbionts consume host metabolites like citrate, but might deliver some amino acids and cofactors to the host. The rhizoxin biosynthesis gene cluster shows evolutionary traces of horizontal gene transfer. Furthermore, we analysed gene clusters coding for nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS). Notably, B. rhizoxinica lacks common genes which are dedicated to quorum sensing systems, but is equipped with a large number of virulence-related factors and putative type III effectors.
CONCLUSIONS
B. rhizoxinica is the first endofungal bacterium, whose genome has been sequenced. Here, we present models of evolution, metabolism and tools for host-symbiont interaction of the endofungal bacterium deduced from whole genome analyses. Genome size and structure suggest that B. rhizoxinica is in an early phase of adaptation to the intracellular lifestyle (genome in transition). By analysis of tranporters and metabolic pathways we predict how metabolites might be exchanged between the symbiont and its host. Gene clusters for biosynthesis of secondary metabolites represent novel targets for genomic mining of cryptic natural products. In silico analyses of virulence-associated genes, secreted proteins and effectors might inspire future studies on molecular mechanisms underlying bacterial-fungal interaction.
Topics: Anti-Bacterial Agents; Bacterial Proteins; Biological Transport; Burkholderia; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Drug Resistance, Multiple; Evolution, Molecular; Fimbriae, Bacterial; Genome, Bacterial; Genomics; Lipopolysaccharides; Pseudogenes; Rhizopus; Symbiosis
PubMed: 21539752
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-12-210 -
The Journal of Infectious Diseases Oct 2008Environmental isolates of the fungus Rhizopus have been shown to harbor a bacterial endosymbiont (Burkholderia) that produces rhixozin, a plant mycotoxin. We sought to...
Environmental isolates of the fungus Rhizopus have been shown to harbor a bacterial endosymbiont (Burkholderia) that produces rhixozin, a plant mycotoxin. We sought to define the role of rhizoxin production by endosymbionts in the pathogenesis of mucormycosis. Endosymbiotic bacteria were identified by polymerase chain reaction in 15 (54%) of 28 clinical isolates of Zygomycetes, with 33% of the bacterial strains showing 87% identity to Burkholderia 16S rDNA. The presence of rhizoxin in myclial extracts from fungi harboring bacteria was confirmed by high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. However, fungal strains with or without endosymbionts did not differ in their ability to cause endothelial cell injury in vitro, nor did antibiotic-mediated eradication of endosymbionts and rhizoxin production decrease the virulence of fungal strains in mice or flies. In summary, although bacterial endosymbiosis is widely detected in clinical isolates of Zygomycetes, including Rhizopus oryzae strains, we found no evidence that bacterial endosymbionts and rhizoxin contribute to the pathogenesis of mucormycosis in the models studied.
Topics: Animals; Burkholderia; Endothelial Cells; Humans; Macrolides; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mucor; Mucormycosis; Rhizopus; Symbiosis
PubMed: 18694335
DOI: 10.1086/591461 -
Access Microbiology 2023Several species of soil-dwelling nematodes are used in the biocontrol of crop pests, due to their natural capacity to kill diverse lepidopteran species. Although this...
Several species of soil-dwelling nematodes are used in the biocontrol of crop pests, due to their natural capacity to kill diverse lepidopteran species. Although this insect-killing trait is known to be augmented by the nematodes' endosymbionts, the role of other steinernematid-associated bacterial genera in the nematode lifecycle remains unclear. This genomic study aimed to determine the potential of to contribute to the entomopathogenicity of its host. Insect larvae were infected with three separate cultures. From each of the three treatments, the prevalent bacteria in the haemocoel of cadavers, four days post-infection, were isolated. These three bacterial isolates were morphologically characterised. DNA was extracted from each of the three bacterial isolates and used for long-read genome sequencing and assembly. Assemblies were used to delineate species and identify genes that encode insect toxins, antimicrobials, and confer antibiotic resistance. We assembled three complete genomes. Through digital DNA-DNA hybridisation analyses, we ascertained that the haemocoels of insect cadavers previously infected with sp. Kalro, sp. 75, and sp. 97 were dominated by Kalro, 75, and 97, respectively. Kalro and 97 formed a subspecies with other symbionts of steinernematids from Kenya. 75 phylogenetically clustered with pseudomonads that are characterised by high insecticidal activity. The 75 genome encoded the production pathway of insect toxins such as orfamides and rhizoxins, antifungals such as pyrrolnitrin and pyoluteorin, and the broad-spectrum antimicrobial 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol. The 75 genome encoded resistance to over ten classes of antibiotics, including cationic lipopeptides. Steinernematid-associated bacteria hence have the biosynthetic potential to contribute to nematode entomopathogenicity.
PubMed: 37970093
DOI: 10.1099/acmi.0.000659.v3 -
ELife Sep 2014Some of the proteins and enzymes that allow bacteria to enter living fungal cells and cause rice seedling blight have been identified.
Some of the proteins and enzymes that allow bacteria to enter living fungal cells and cause rice seedling blight have been identified.
Topics: Burkholderia; Macrolides; Rhizopus; Symbiosis
PubMed: 25268072
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.04603 -
Acta Medica Okayama Jun 2002When the development of chemotherapeutic agents reaches the clinical trial stage, it is necessary to perform drug sensitivity tests quickly in order to select the most... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
When the development of chemotherapeutic agents reaches the clinical trial stage, it is necessary to perform drug sensitivity tests quickly in order to select the most promising agents for the treatment of cancer. In order to assess the possibility of using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay as a substitute for the human tumor clonogenic assay (HTCA), we evaluated the correlation between the results obtained by these 2 assays in 5 human lung cancer cell lines. The correlation coefficient between the results of the HTCA and the MTT assay was 0.673, indicating a relatively good correlation. The correlation was most prominent in platinum analogues (r = 0.939) and good in anthracyclines/anthracenedione (r = 0.611). However, no significant correlation was observed in vinca alkaloids, etoposide, irinotecan, SN-38 (an active metabolite of irinotecan), and rhizoxin. The results of the MTT assay showed a high degree of correlation with those of the HTCA in predicting the sensitivity of cancer cell lines to platinum analogues, and anthracyclines/anthracenedione. These results suggest that the MTT assay may be more convenient and quickly performed than the HTCA and can replace HTCA in evaluating the effects of anticancer agents, especially the platinum analogues and anthracyclines/anthracenedione.
Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Coloring Agents; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Humans; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Lung Neoplasms; Tetrazolium Salts; Thiazoles; Tumor Cells, Cultured; Tumor Stem Cell Assay
PubMed: 12108583
DOI: 10.18926/AMO/31714 -
Applied and Environmental Microbiology Dec 2015Pseudomonas protegens strain Pf-5 is a rhizosphere bacterium that suppresses soilborne plant diseases and produces at least seven different secondary metabolites with...
An Interspecies Signaling System Mediated by Fusaric Acid Has Parallel Effects on Antifungal Metabolite Production by Pseudomonas protegens Strain Pf-5 and Antibiosis of Fusarium spp.
Pseudomonas protegens strain Pf-5 is a rhizosphere bacterium that suppresses soilborne plant diseases and produces at least seven different secondary metabolites with antifungal properties. We derived mutants of Pf-5 with single and multiple mutations in biosynthesis genes for seven antifungal metabolites: 2,4-diacetylphoroglucinol (DAPG), pyrrolnitrin, pyoluteorin, hydrogen cyanide, rhizoxin, orfamide A, and toxoflavin. These mutants were tested for inhibition of the pathogens Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi. Rhizoxin, pyrrolnitrin, and DAPG were found to be primarily responsible for fungal antagonism by Pf-5. Previously, other workers showed that the mycotoxin fusaric acid, which is produced by many Fusarium species, including F. verticillioides, inhibited the production of DAPG by Pseudomonas spp. In this study, amendment of culture media with fusaric acid decreased DAPG production, increased pyoluteorin production, and had no consistent influence on pyrrolnitrin or orfamide A production by Pf-5. Fusaric acid also altered the transcription of biosynthetic genes, indicating that the mycotoxin influenced antibiotic production by Pf-5 at the transcriptional level. Addition of fusaric acid to the culture medium reduced antibiosis of F. verticillioides by Pf-5 and derivative strains that produce DAPG but had no effect on antibiosis by Pf-5 derivatives that suppressed F. verticillioides due to pyrrolnitrin or rhizoxin production. Our results demonstrated the importance of three compounds, rhizoxin, pyrrolnitrin, and DAPG, in suppression of Fusarium spp. by Pf-5 and confirmed that an interspecies signaling system mediated by fusaric acid had parallel effects on antifungal metabolite production and antibiosis by the bacterial biological control organism.
Topics: Antibiosis; Antifungal Agents; Culture Media; Fusaric Acid; Fusarium; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Microbial Interactions; Pseudomonas; Signal Transduction; Transcription, Genetic
PubMed: 26655755
DOI: 10.1128/AEM.02574-15 -
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy May 2004The microtubule, which is one of the major targets of anthelmintics, anticancer drugs, and fungicides, is composed mainly of alpha- and beta-tubulins. We focused on a...
Screening for microtubule-disrupting antifungal agents by using a mitotic-arrest mutant of Aspergillus nidulans and novel action of phenylalanine derivatives accompanying tubulin loss.
The microtubule, which is one of the major targets of anthelmintics, anticancer drugs, and fungicides, is composed mainly of alpha- and beta-tubulins. We focused on a unique characteristic of an Aspergillus nidulans benA33 mutant to screen for microtubule-disrupting antifungal agents. This mutant, which has a beta-tubulin with a mutation of a single amino acid, undergoes mitotic arrest due to the formation of hyperstable microtubules at 37 degrees C. The heat sensitivity of the mutant is remedied by some antimicrotubule agents. We found that an agar plate assay with the mutant was able to distinguish three types of microtubule inhibitors. The growth recovery zones of the mutant were formed around paper disks containing microtubule inhibitors, including four benzimidazoles, ansamitocin P-3, griseofulvin, and rhizoxin, on the agar plate at 37 degrees C. Nocodazole, thiabendazole, and griseofulvin reversed the mitotic arrest of the mutant and promoted its hyphal growth. Ansamitocin P-3 and rhizoxin showed growth recovery zones around the growth-inhibitory zones. Benomyl and carbendazim also reversed mitotic arrest but produced weaker growth recovery than the aforementioned drugs. Other microtubule inhibitors, such as colchicine, Colcemid, paclitaxel, podophyllotoxin, TN-16, vinblastine, and vincristine, as well as some cytoskeletal inhibitors tested, did not show such activity. In our screening, we newly identified two mycotoxins, citrinin and patulin, two sesquiterpene dialdehydes, polygodial and warburganal, and four phenylalanine derivatives, arphamenine A, L-2,5-dihydrophenylalanine (DHPA), N-tosyl-L-phenylalanine chloromethylketone, and N-carbobenzoxy-L-phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone. In a wild-type strain of A. nidulans, DHPA caused selective losses of microtubules, as determined by fluorescence microscopy, and of both alpha- and beta-tubulins, as determined by Western blot analysis. This screening method involving the benA33 mutant of A. nidulans is useful, convenient, and highly selective. The phenylalanine derivatives tested are of a novel type of microtubule-disrupting antifungal agents, producing an accompanying loss of tubulins, and are different from well-known tubulin inhibitors affecting the assembly of tubulin dimers into microtubules.
Topics: Adenine; Antifungal Agents; Antineoplastic Agents; Aspergillus nidulans; Blotting, Western; Cell Nucleus; Chromosomes, Fungal; Coloring Agents; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; Fungal Proteins; Fungi; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Microtubules; Mitosis; Mitotic Index; Nocodazole; Oxazines; Phenylalanine; Tubulin; Xanthenes
PubMed: 15105129
DOI: 10.1128/AAC.48.5.1739-1748.2004 -
British Journal of Cancer Feb 1996Rhizoxin is a new anti-tumour agent isolated from the pathogenic fungus Rhizopus chinensis. It has shown broad activity against murine tumour models and is also active... (Clinical Trial)
Clinical Trial
Rhizoxin is a new anti-tumour agent isolated from the pathogenic fungus Rhizopus chinensis. It has shown broad activity against murine tumour models and is also active against vinca alkaloid-resistant cells. The purpose of our studies was to determine the clinical activity of this compound in patients with advanced breast cancer and melanoma. Based on the results of a phase I study, 2.0 mg m-2 was administered as intravenous infusion over 5 min every 21 days. Nineteen patients were entered into the breast cancer phase II trial and received a total of 50 courses (median 2, range 1-6). Of these, dose reductions were performed in three courses because of leucopenia or stomatitis (1.5 mg m-2, one course; 1.45 mg m-2, two courses). Twenty-six patients were entered into the melanoma trial and received a total of 70 courses (median 2, range 1-12). No dose reductions were required. All patients were eligible for toxicity. Haematological toxicity included neutropenia CTC grade 3 (29/120 courses, 24.2%) and grade 4 (11/20 courses, 9.2%). Only drug-related CTC grade 1 thrombocytopenia was observed. Non-haematological toxicity included alopecia in all patients after two courses of treatment as well as CTC grade 3/4 stomatitis and asthenia. In the breast cancer study, one patient achieved a more than 50% tumour reduction after six cycles but was progressing after 6 weeks. Another patient showed a partial remission after the first course but was taken off the study because of CTC grade 3 skin toxicity. One patient was not evaluable for response (early death). No objective remissions were observed in 15 evaluable patients. In melanoma, no objective remissions were observed. We conclude that rhizoxin can be safely administered at 2.0 mg m-2 every 3 weeks. However, it has little activity in patients with advanced breast cancer and melanoma.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; Breast Neoplasms; Female; Hematopoiesis; Humans; Lactones; Macrolides; Male; Melanoma; Middle Aged
PubMed: 8562349
DOI: 10.1038/bjc.1996.68 -
EFSA Journal. European Food Safety... Oct 2020The European Commission requested EFSA to provide scientific advice on the translocation potential by MA342 in plants after seed treatment of cereals and peas and, if...
The European Commission requested EFSA to provide scientific advice on the translocation potential by MA342 in plants after seed treatment of cereals and peas and, if applicable, for a revision of the assessment of the risk to humans by its metabolite 2,3-deepoxy-2,3-didehydro-rhizoxin (DDR) and this based on the evidence available in the dossier for renewal of the approval. The information from other strains than MA342 was taken into account with care, because the studies available in the dossier did not confirm the identity of the strain MA342 as belonging to the species . It has been concluded that there is a potential for translocation of MA342 to edible plant parts following seed treatment till an estimated concentration up to about 10 cfu/g and some exposure can be assumed by consumption of fresh commodities. Also, production of the metabolite DDR in the plant cannot be excluded. Regarding levels of DDR in the raw agricultural commodities, exposure estimates based on the limit of quantification (LOQ) for DDR in cereals cannot be further refined while there is no information on the levels of DDR in peas in the dossier. As regards genotoxicity, DDR induced chromosomal damage; however, it was not possible to conclude whether it is through an aneugenic or clastogenic mechanism. Hence, it is not possible to draw a reliable conclusion that DDR is producing an aneugenic effect nor to determine a threshold dose for aneugenicity. Thus, it is not possible to revise the human risk assessment as regards exposure to DDR. The concerns identified in the EFSA conclusion of 2017 remain.
PubMed: 33133274
DOI: 10.2903/j.efsa.2020.6276