Project

Pathogen leptospires are responsible for the zoonotic disease leptospirosis. This neglected but emerging infectious disease has a worldwide distribution and affects people from developing countries, mostly under tropical areas. The clinical manifestations of this infection range from a febrile state to a severe life-threatening form characterized by multiple organ hemorrhages. More than one million cases of leptospirosis are currently estimated annually in the word, with 10% of mortality. Pathogenic Leptospira are well-equipped to sustain the oxidative stress encountered when infecting their hosts. We aim at exploring the regulatory and genetic network allowing pathogenic Leptospira to adapt to superoxide, one of the deadly infection-related oxidants. We have obtained RNASeq data of Leptospira in the presence of superoxide and we aim at mapping the non-coding RNA that participate in the adaptive response to superoxide.