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Transcriptomic responses of the fast-growing bacterium Vibrio natriegens during cold-induced loss of culturability

  • Genomics, Transcriptomics, Proteomics
  • Published:
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Vibrio natriegens has massive biotechnological potential owing to its fast growth rate. However, this bacterium rapidly loses its culturability during low-temperature preservation (LTP), the reason for which is still unknown. To reveal the metabolic responses of V. natriegens during LTP, we analyzed and compared the transcriptome before and after 8 days of preservation at 4 or 25 °C (room-temperature preservation (RTP)) in liquid culture medium. Most genes exhibited significant transcriptional responses to LTP. Using gene set enrichment analysis, we compared the transcriptional responses of different V. natriegens Gene Ontology (GO) sets during LTP or RTP. The enrichment of the GO set “SOS response” during LTP, but not RTP, indicated the occurrence of DNA damage during LTP. The GO set “respiratory electron transport chain” was suppressed during LTP and RTP. Although the GO set “response to oxidative stress” was not significantly altered, we observed an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) during LTP, suggesting a relationship between ROS and cold-induced loss of culturability (CILC) in V. natriegens. The faster loss of culturability and accumulation of ROS in 20 mL compared to 100 mL of liquid culture medium further suggested a relationship between CILC and oxygen availability. Furthermore, we showed that the deletion of Na+-translocating NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase, but not type-II NADH dehydrogenase, accelerated CILC and increased intracellular ROS levels in V. natriegens. These findings will help to understand the cause of CILC which may lead to improving the stability of V. natriegens at low temperatures.

Key points

• V. natriegens transcriptome was analyzed before and after storage at 4 or 25 °C.

• V. natriegens SOS response was induced by 4 °C storage.

• Medium volume, NaCl concentration, and nqr deletion affect the CILC of V. natriegens.

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Data availability

The RNA-seq raw data were submitted to NCBI-SRA (BioProject number: PRJNA740182) in the NCBI BioProject database. All other data are included in this article and its supplementary information files.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31900085, 41907219), the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (LQ19C010003), the Medical and Health Research Projects of Hangzhou Municipality (A20200063), and the International Exchange and Cooperation Project of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China (12210032).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Wenzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology (Wenzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences), Wenzhou, 325006, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Sheng Wang & Xinxin You

  2. Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, 310021, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Bing Wang

  3. College of Advanced Materials Engineering, Jiaxing Nanhu University, Jiaxing, 314001, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Linna Du

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  1. Sheng Wang
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  2. Bing Wang
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Contributions

SW conceived and designed the study. SW and BW conducted the experiments. SW analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. XY and LD managed the laboratory and provided the resources and funding. All the authors have read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sheng Wang or Linna Du.

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Wang, S., Wang, B., You, X. et al. Transcriptomic responses of the fast-growing bacterium Vibrio natriegens during cold-induced loss of culturability. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 107, 3009–3019 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-023-12487-3

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