Upregulation of Transcripts for Metabolism in Diverse Environments is a Shared Response Associated with Survival and Adaptation of Klebsiella Pneumoniae in Response to Temperature Extremes

Klebsiella pneumoniae being ubiquitous in nature encounters wide differences in environmental condition. The organism’s abundance in natural water reservoirs exposed to temperature variation forms the basis of its persistence and spread in the soil and other farm produce. In order to investigate the effect of temperature changes on the survival and adaptation of the bacteria, the transcriptional response of K. pneumoniae subjected to low (20 °C) and high (50 °C) temperature shock were executed using Applied Biosystems SOLiD platform. Approximately, 33 and 34 % of protein coding genes expressed in response to 20 and 50 °C, respectively, displayed significant up- or downregulation (p < 0.01). Most of the significantly expressed transcripts mapped to metabolism, membrane transport, and cell motility were downregulated at 50 °C, except for protein folding, sorting, and degradation, suggesting that heat stress causes general downregulation of gene expression together with induction of heat shock proteins. While at 20 °C, the transcripts of carbohydrate, lipid, and amino acid metabolism were highly upregulated. Hypothetical proteins as well as canonical heat and cold shock proteins, viz. grpE, clpX, recA, and deaD were upregulated commonly in response to 20 and 50 °C. Significant upregulation of genes encoding ribosomal proteins at 20 and 50 °C possibly suggest their role in the survival of K. pneumoniae cells under low- and high-temperature stress.