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PubMedDate not supplied

Genes for breakfast: the have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too of bacterial transformation.

Bacterial transformation, in which cells take up and recombine free strands of DNA, is the simplest process thought to have evolved for genetic exchange, i.e., because of the potential benefits of producing progeny with recombinant genotypes. However, two other functions are equally plausible: acquisition of intact DNA strands to use for recombinational repair of DNA damage, and acquisition of the nutrients contained in DNA molecules. Although the recombinant progeny produced by transformation can be beneficial, the success of genes causing transformation is limited by other factors, especially by the genetic quality of DNA derived from dead cells. Our recent experiments in the naturally transformable bacteria Haemophilus influenzae and Bacillus subtilis suggest that the DNA-repair hypothesis is unlikely to be correct. In H. influenzae, transformation does not detectably increase the cells' ability to survive DNA damage. More importantly, we have found that, although competence (the ability to take up DNA) is induced by nutritional limitation in both H. influenzae and B. subtilis, it is not induced by DNA damage in either. Thus we favor the hypothesis that transformation evolved as a nutrient-uptake system, especially because unrelated DNA is abundant in the environments of many naturally transformable bacteria.

Bacteria↗
PubMed1989

Effects of some poorly digestible carbohydrates on bile acid bacterial transformations in the rat.

The effects of ingestion of poorly digestible carbohydrates on bacterial transformations of cholic acid and beta-muricholic acid were studied in rats fed on increasing levels of lactose, lactulose, amylomaize or potato starches. Each level was given for 3 weeks and, at the end of each dietary treatment, bile acid faecal composition was analysed and a group of six rats was killed every 4 h during 24 h to determine the amounts of fermented carbohydrate and fermentation characteristics (caecal pH, volatile fatty acids (VFA) and lactic acid concentrations). Fermentation of carbohydrates decreased caecal pH and enhanced caecal VFA and lactic acid concentrations. Irrespective of the poorly digestible carbohydrate, the variation of bacterial transformation always occurred in the same way: the bacterial transformation of beta-muricholic acid into hyodeoxycholic acid was the first to disappear, while omega-muricholic acid formation increased; second, cholic acid transformation decreased and finally all bile acid transformations were strongly affected. There was a significant correlation between bile acid transfer and the minimal caecal pH in vivo. This effect of pH was similar in vitro. To determine whether the levels of bacteria which transformed bile acids were modified, rats fed on the highest amounts of poorly digestible carbohydrates were introduced into isolators and carbohydrate feeding was stopped. Caecal pH recovered its initial value but bile acid transformations remained changed, suggesting that the intestinal microflora were modified by ingestion of fermentable carbohydrates.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Chitosan-DNA nanoparticles: effect on DNA integrity, bacterial transformation and transfection efficiency.

While somatic gene therapy has the potential to treat many genetic disorders, recent clinical trials suggest that an efficient and safe delivery vehicle for successful gene therapy is lacking. The current study examines the influence of two different preparation (the solvent evaporation method and the complex coacervation method) methods on the encapsulation of a model plasmid with chitosan. The ability of different molecular weights of chitosan to form nanoparticles with a plasmid, and particulated polymers to stabilize a plasmid in a supercoiled form, were examined by agarose gel electrophoresis. Protection of encapsulated pDNA offered by these nanoparticles from nuclease attack was confirmed by assessing degradation in the presence of DNase I, and the transformation of the plasmids with incubated nanoparticles were examined by beta-galactosidase assay. Model pDNA existed as a mixture of both supercoiled (84.2%) and open circular (15.8%) forms. Our results demonstrated that supercoiled forms decreased while open circular forms and fragmented linear forms increased during the preparation of formulations. F1 formulation prepared by the complex coacervation method protected the supercoiled form of pDNA effectively. There weren't any significant changes in nanoparticle size and zeta potential values at pH 5.5 for a period of 3 months, but differences in particle sizes were observed after lyophilization with a cryoprotective agent. The efficiency of nanoparticles mediated transformation to Escherichia coli cells was significantly higher than naked DNA or poly-L-lysine (PLL)-DNA polycation complexes. The transfection studies were performed in COS-7 cells. A 3-fold increase in gene expression was produced by nanoparticles as compared to the same amount of naked plasmid DNA (pDNA). These observations suggest that formulations with high molecular weight (HMW) chitosan can be an effective non-viral method of gene vector in animal studies.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Persistence of transgenic and not transgenic extracellular DNA in soil and bacterial transformation.

The study of the fate of transgenic and not transgenic extracellular DNA in soil is of extreme relevance because the soil extracellular DNA pool represents a genetic reservoir that could be utilized as a source of food by any heterotrophic microorganism or genetic information by recipient eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. Several data have clearly evidenced that extracellular DNA could persist in soil for long time maintaining a sufficient integrity of the molecule. Recent microcosm studies under laboratory conditions have evidenced that extracellular DNA molecule could be leached or raised up by capillarity. The persistence and movement of extracellular DNA molecule in soil suggest that the genetic information of extracellular DNA could be taken up by microorganisms temporarily and spatially separated. Several authors have studied the persistence and transformation efficiency of the extracellular DNA in soil demonstrating that there is a sharp discrepancy between its biological efficiency and its persistence; fragments of target DNA were detected after a long time in soil but no transformations were determined probably because the genetic information originally present in the complete DNA molecule could be lost by degradation. It is also important to underline that the frequency of gene transfer in soil is markedly limited by the few number of bacteria able to develop competence and that this physiological state is reached only under certain conditions. Furthermore the dilution of the transgene in the soil extracellular DNA pool drastically decreases chances for the uptake of the transgene. Anyway the importance of transformation in evolutionary terms, represents a valid reason to continue the investigation on the fate of extracellular DNA in soil.

DNA↗