EXPRESSION ANALYSIS OF ubaI and ublA GENES IN Streptococus uberis STRAINS

LASAGNO, M. C.; MOLIVA, M. V.; REINOSO, E. B.

CABA

Congreso; REUNIÓN CONJUNTA DE SOCIEDADES DE BIOCIENCIAS; 2017

Bovine mastitis is a disease that causes great economic losses.Streptococcus uberis is the main environmental pathogen. Differentprocedures are utilized to prevent and treat the disease. One of thebiggest challenges of the dairy industry is to reduce the use of antibiotics,and bacteriocins offer an alternative as potential antibacterialagents for the treatment of mastitis. It is known that S. uberis producesdifferent types of bacteriocins. Previously, we determined thepresence of bacteriocin associated genes in 59 S. uberis isolates byPCR assays. ubaI (ubericin A putative immunity protein) and ublA(uberolysin precursor) genes were the most common bacteriocinassociated genes in the examined isolates. The aim of the presentwork was to investigate the expression level of ubaI and ublA genesin an S. uberis strain at different times. qRT-PCR was normalizedto gapdh gene. Changes in transcriptional expression between 4,6 and 10 hours were calculated by the comparative threshold cycle2-ΔΔCT method and plotted as the fold change in mRNA expressionlevels. The results indicated a significant increase in ubaI and ublAgenes at 6 and 10 hours, respectively. The results suggest that theputative immunity protein and the uberolysin precursor are producedbetween 6 and 10 hs, during the stationary phase. The study contributesto a better understanding of the gene expression of bacteriocingenes in S. uberis strains