Transcriptional Effects of Melatonin of the Gut Commensal Bacterium Klebsiella aerogenes

In this study, we implemented RNA sequencing to identify melatonin sensitive transcripts during culture maturation. This work demonstrates that majority of melatonin sensitive genes are growth stage specific. Melatonin caused differential gene expression of 81 transcripts during the exponential growth and 30 during early stationary phase. This indole molecule affects genes related to the biofilm formation, fimbria biogenesis, transcriptional regulators, carbohydrate transport and metabolism, phosphotransferase system (PTS), stress response, metal ion binding and transport. It is likely that differential expression of biofilm and fimbria related genes is responsible for differences in macrocolony area. Additionally, melatonin potentially helps Klebsiella aerogenes in host colonization. Overall design: K. aerogenes mRNA profiles of exponential cells grown with 0nM or 1nM melatonin and early stationary cells incubated with 0nM or 1nM melatonin