Papers by Delphine Capela
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Molecular ecology, Jan 22, 2016
Experimental evolution is a powerful approach to study the process of adaptation to new environme... more Experimental evolution is a powerful approach to study the process of adaptation to new environments, including the colonization of eukaryotic hosts. Facultative endosymbionts, including pathogens and mutualists, face changing and spatially structured environments during the symbiotic process, which impose diverse selection pressures. Here we provide evidence that different selection regimes, involving different times spent in the plant environment, can result in either intra- or extracellular symbiotic adaptations. In previous work, we introduced the symbiotic plasmid of Cupriavidus taiwanensis, the rhizobial symbiont of Mimosa pudica, into the phytopathogen Ralstonia solanacearum and selected three variants able to form root nodules on M. pudica, two (CBM212 and CBM349) being able to rudimentarily infect nodule cells and the third one (CBM356) only capable of extracellular infection of nodules. Each nodulating ancestor was further challenged to evolve using serial ex planta-in pla...
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The Sinorhizobium meliloti genome consists of three replicons. This bacterium forms an intricate ... more The Sinorhizobium meliloti genome consists of three replicons. This bacterium forms an intricate symbiotic relationship with the roots of certain legumes and is considered as an agriculturally important nitrogen-fixer. A consortium of 6 European laboratories was organized to sequence its single chromosome (3.7 Mb), whereas the other two elements (pSyma 1.4 Mb and pSymb 1.7 Mb) will be sequenced by other groups.
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Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions, Oct 1, 2008
Some Sinorhizobium meliloti mutants in genes involved in isoleucine, valine, and leucine biosynth... more Some Sinorhizobium meliloti mutants in genes involved in isoleucine, valine, and leucine biosynthesis were previously described as being unable to induce nodule formation on host plants. Here, we present a reappraisal of the interconnection between the branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis pathway and the nodulation process in S. meliloti. We characterized the symbiotic phenotype of seven mutants that are auxotrophic for isoleucine, valine, or leucine in two closely related S. meliloti strains, 1021 and 2011. We showed that all mutants were similarly impaired for nodulation and infection of the Medicago sativa host plant. In most cases, the nodulation phenotype was fully restored by the addition of the missing amino acids to the plant growth medium. This strongly suggests that auxotrophy is the cause of the nodulation defect of these mutants. However, we confirmed previous findings that ilvC and ilvD2 mutants in the S. meliloti 1021 genetic background could not be restored to nodulation by supplementation with exogenous amino acids even though their Nod factor production appeared to be normal.
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de Bruijn/Molecular Microbial Ecology of the Rhizosphere, 2013
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Molecular plant-microbe interactions : MPMI, 2014
Nitrogen-fixing symbionts of legumes have appeared after the emergence of legumes on earth, appro... more Nitrogen-fixing symbionts of legumes have appeared after the emergence of legumes on earth, approximately 70 to 130 million years ago. Since then, symbiotic proficiency has spread to distant genera of α- and β-proteobacteria, via horizontal transfer of essential symbiotic genes and subsequent recipient genome remodeling under plant selection pressure. To tentatively replay rhizobium evolution in laboratory conditions, we previously transferred the symbiotic plasmid of the Mimosa symbiont Cupriavidus taiwanensis in the plant pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum, and selected spontaneous nodulating variants of the chimeric Ralstonia sp. using Mimosa pudica as a trap. Here, we pursued the evolution experiment by submitting two of the rhizobial drafts to serial ex planta-in planta (M. pudica) passages that may mimic alternating of saprophytic and symbiotic lives of rhizobia. Phenotyping 16 cycle-evolved clones showed strong and parallel evolution of several symbiotic traits (i.e., nodulation...
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Plant and Soil, 2014
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Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 2008
Some Sinorhizobium meliloti mutants in genes involved in isoleucine, valine, and leucine biosynth... more Some Sinorhizobium meliloti mutants in genes involved in isoleucine, valine, and leucine biosynthesis were previously described as being unable to induce nodule formation on host plants. Here, we present a reappraisal of the interconnection between the branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis pathway and the nodulation process in S. meliloti. We characterized the symbiotic phenotype of seven mutants that are auxotrophic for isoleucine, valine, or leucine in two closely related S. meliloti strains, 1021 and 2011. We showed that all mutants were similarly impaired for nodulation and infection of the Medicago sativa host plant. In most cases, the nodulation phenotype was fully restored by the addition of the missing amino acids to the plant growth medium. This strongly suggests that auxotrophy is the cause of the nodulation defect of these mutants. However, we confirmed previous findings that ilvC and ilvD2 mutants in the S. meliloti 1021 genetic background could not be restored to nodulation by supplementation with exogenous amino acids even though their Nod factor production appeared to be normal.
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Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 2006
Sinorhizobium meliloti is a soil bacterium able to induce the formation of nodules on the root of... more Sinorhizobium meliloti is a soil bacterium able to induce the formation of nodules on the root of specific legumes, including alfalfa (Medicago sativa). Bacteria colonize nodules through infection threads, invade the plant intracellularly, and ultimately differentiate into bacteroids capable of reducing atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia, which is directly assimilated by the plant. As a first step to describe global changes in gene expression of S. meliloti during the symbiotic process, we used whole genome microarrays to establish the transcriptome profile of bacteria from nodules induced by a bacterial mutant blocked at the infection stage and from wild-type nodules harvested at various timepoints after inoculation. Comparison of these profiles to those of cultured bacteria grown either to log or stationary phase as well as examination of a number of genes with known symbiotic transcription patterns allowed us to correlate global gene-expression patterns to three known steps of symbiotic bacteria bacteroid differentiation, i.e., invading bacteria inside infection threads, young differentiating bacteroids, and fully differentiated, nitrogen-fixing bacteroids. Finally, analysis of individual gene transcription profiles revealed a number of new potential symbiotic genes.
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Mitochondrial DNA, 2000
The Sinorhizobium meliloti genome consists of three replicons. This bacterium forms an intricate ... more The Sinorhizobium meliloti genome consists of three replicons. This bacterium forms an intricate symbiotic relationship with the roots of certain legumes and is considered as an agriculturally important nitrogen-fixer. A consortium of 6 European laboratories was organized to sequence its single chromosome (3.7 Mb), whereas the other two elements (pSyma 1.4 Mb and pSymb 1.7 Mb) will be sequenced by other groups.
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Current Microbiology, 2000
A high-resolution physical map of the larger megaplasmid (pSymb) of Sinorhizobium meliloti strain... more A high-resolution physical map of the larger megaplasmid (pSymb) of Sinorhizobium meliloti strain 1021 has been constructed by using BAC libraries and an original two-step PCR screening method. This method, previously used to map both the chromosome and the smaller megaplasmid (pSyma), allowed us to position over the genome a total of 842 markers with an average density of one marker every 8.3 kb. In addition, we used BLASTX and PRODOM analysis to predict a function for a number of STSs. This work led to the discovery of several interesting loci and to a comparison of the genetic information carried by each replicon. The two main results emerging from this study are (i) a biased distribution of housekeeping genes, mainly detected on chromosome, and (ii) the presence of an unexpected number of transporters, mainly belonging to the ABC superfamily. These are broadly distributed across the whole genome, but particularly found on pSymb.
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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2005
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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2008
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The ISME Journal, 2013
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With the advent of new generation sequencing, the annotation of new prokaryotic ge-nomic sequence... more With the advent of new generation sequencing, the annotation of new prokaryotic ge-nomic sequences will occur in a data-rich context, including a variety of libraries of short reads of transcriptomic sequences. This rich context creates new potentialities in annotation. In this pa-per, we describe the new prokaryotic variant of the integrative gene prediction software EuGene. By leveraging RNA-Seq data, EuGene becomes capable of predicting new functional structures, including RNA genes and untranslated transcribed regions inside operons.
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2003 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe (CLEO/Europe 2003) (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8666), 2003
Surface plasmon resonance is a sensitive method for detecting biomolecular interactions like DNA-... more Surface plasmon resonance is a sensitive method for detecting biomolecular interactions like DNA-DNA, protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions. The principle of this system is to transform a biochemical signal into an optical signal. This method avoids the need of fluorescent labels because we are measuring precisely the local variation of the optical index caused by the biomolecular interaction. This system has
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Journal of Bacteriology, 2000
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PLoS biology, 2014
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important mode of adaptation and diversification of prokaryo... more Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important mode of adaptation and diversification of prokaryotes and eukaryotes and a major event underlying the emergence of bacterial pathogens and mutualists. Yet it remains unclear how complex phenotypic traits such as the ability to fix nitrogen with legumes have successfully spread over large phylogenetic distances. Here we show, using experimental evolution coupled with whole genome sequencing, that co-transfer of imuABC error-prone DNA polymerase genes with key symbiotic genes accelerates the evolution of a soil bacterium into a legume symbiont. Following introduction of the symbiotic plasmid of Cupriavidus taiwanensis, the Mimosa symbiont, into pathogenic Ralstonia solanacearum we challenged transconjugants to become Mimosa symbionts through serial plant-bacteria co-cultures. We demonstrate that a mutagenesis imuABC cassette encoded on the C. taiwanensis symbiotic plasmid triggered a transient hypermutability stage in R. solanacearum tran...
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The Plant Journal, 2014
Rhizobium-induced root nodules are specialized organs for symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Indetermin... more Rhizobium-induced root nodules are specialized organs for symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Indeterminate-type nodules are formed from an apical meristem and exhibit a spatial zonation which corresponds to successive developmental stages. To get a dynamic and integrated view of plant and bacterial gene expression associated with nodule development, we used a sensitive and comprehensive approach based upon oriented high-depth RNA sequencing coupled to laser microdissection of nodule regions. This study, focused on the association between the model legume Medicago truncatula and its symbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti, led to the production of 942 million sequencing read pairs that were unambiguously mapped on plant and bacterial genomes. Bioinformatic and statistical analyses enabled in-depth comparison, at a whole-genome level, of gene expression in specific nodule zones. Previously characterized symbiotic genes displayed the expected spatial pattern of expression, thus validating the robustness of our approach. We illustrate the use of this resource by examining gene expression associated with three essential elements of nodule development, namely meristem activity, cell differentiation and selected signaling processes related to bacterial Nod factors and redox status. We found that transcription factor genes essential for the control of the root apical meristem were also expressed in the nodule meristem, while the plant mRNAs most enriched in nodules compared with roots were mostly associated with zones comprising both plant and bacterial partners. The data, accessible on a dedicated website, represent a rich resource for microbiologists and plant biologists to address a variety of questions of both fundamental and applied interest.
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Papers by Delphine Capela