Gene expression profiling of Clostridium botulinum under heat shock stress

During growth, C. botulinum is always exposed to different environmental changes, such as temperature increase, nutrient deprivation, and pH change; however, its corresponding global transcriptional profile is uncharacterized. This study is the first description of the genome-wide gene expression profile of C. botulinum in response to heat shock stress. Under heat stress (temperature shift from 37°C to 45°C over a period of 15 min), 176 C. botulinum ATCC 3502 genes were differentially expressed. The response included overexpression of heat shock protein genes (dnaK operon, groESL, hsp20, and htpG) and downregulation of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase genes (valS, queA, tyrR, and gatAB) and ribosomal and cell division protein genes (ftsZ and ftsH). In parallel, several transcriptional regulators (marR, merR, and ompR families) were induced, suggesting their involvement in reshuffling of the gene expression profile. In addition, many ABC transporters (oligopeptide transport system), energy production and conversion related genes (glpA and hupL), cell wall and membrane biogenesis related genes (fabZ, fabF, and fabG), flagella-associated genes (flhA, flhM, flhJ, flhS, and motAB), and hypothetical genes also showed changed expression patterns, indicating that they may play important roles in survival under high temperatures.