Effect of Catecholamines on the Dental Pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans

The two-component system qseBC is a putative prokaryotic adrenergic receptor. In Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa), it was shown that the qseBC responds significantly to the presence of both catecholamines and ferrous iron. In addition, growth is significantly increased in the presence of both. Therefore, we performed a custom Aa microarray in order to determine the effects of catecholamines and catecholamines and iron (CAT-Fe) on Aa. Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans was grown in triplicate in a chemically defined media (CDM) supplemented with either 100uM of ferrous chloride or 50uM of norepinephrine or both. At mid-log, RNA was harvested using the Qiagen Lipid Tissue Minikit.