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. 2024 Nov 9;25(22):12059.
doi: 10.3390/ijms252212059.

The Transcriptomic Response of Cells of the Thermophilic Bacterium Geobacillus icigianus to Terahertz Irradiation

Sergey Peltek  1   2 , Svetlana Bannikova  1   2 , Tamara M Khlebodarova  2 , Yulia Uvarova  1   2 , Aleksey M Mukhin  2 , Gennady Vasiliev  2 , Mikhail Scheglov  3 , Aleksandra Shipova  1   2 , Asya Vasilieva  1   2 , Dmitry Oshchepkov  2 , Alla Bryanskaya  1   2 , Vasily Popik  3
Affiliations

The Transcriptomic Response of Cells of the Thermophilic Bacterium Geobacillus icigianus to Terahertz Irradiation

Sergey Peltek et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

As areas of application of terahertz (THz) radiation expand in science and practice, evidence is accumulating that this type of radiation can affect not only biological molecules directly, but also cellular processes as a whole. In this study, the transcriptome in cells of the thermophilic bacterium Geobacillus icigianus was analyzed immediately after THz irradiation (0.23 W/cm2, 130 μm, 15 min) and at 10 min after its completion. THz irradiation does not affect the activity of heat shock protein genes and diminishes the activity of genes whose products are involved in peptidoglycan recycling, participate in redox reactions, and protect DNA and proteins from damage, including genes of chaperone protein ClpB and of DNA repair protein RadA, as well as genes of catalase and kinase McsB. Gene systems responsible for the homeostasis of transition metals (copper, iron, and zinc) proved to be the most sensitive to THz irradiation; downregulation of these systems increased significantly 10 min after the end of the irradiation. It was also hypothesized that some negative effects of THz radiation on metabolism in G. icigianus cells are related to disturbances in activities of gene systems controlled by metal-sensitive transcription factors.

Keywords: Geobacillus icigianus; nonthermal radiation; stress response; terahertz radiation; transcriptomics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proposed mechanism of action of THz irradiation on Fur-dependent operons in G. icigianus.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The experimental scheme.
Figure 3
Figure 3
RNA quality of total RNA from the K3-ink sample.
Figure 4
Figure 4
An example of the quality of an obtained RNA-Seq library.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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