Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Propionibacterium acnes is an anaerobic, gram-positive, opportunistic pathogen known to involved in wide variety of diseases ranging from mild acne to prostate cancer. Bacterial small RNAs vary in length from approximately 50 to 600 nucleotides and are usually not translated into proteins. They are encoded from the intergenic regions and are only expressed under highly specific growth conditions. They are recognized as novel regulators of gene expression and are known to be involved in virulence, pathogenesis, stress tolerance & adaptation to environmental changes in bacteria. Present study was undertaken keeping in view the lack of predicted sRNAs of Propionibacterium acnes KPA171202 in databases. This report represents first attempt to identify sRNAs in P. acnes. A total of eight potential candidate sRNAs were predicted using SIPHT, one was found to have Rfam homolog and seven were novel. Out of these seven predicted sRNAs, five were validated by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and sequencing. The expression of these sRNAs was quantified in different growth phases by qPCR (Quantitative PCR). Also, the expression of one of the sRNA: sPPAK4 was analyzed under heat shock. They were found to be expressed in all stages of growth but with varied expression level which points to regulatory role for them. Further investigation of their targets and regulatory functions is in progress.

Biography

Email: puneetkhushu@gmail.com