Dr. Alain Stintzi

Biography

Research Interests

Microbial genomic, gene expression and regulation, microarray and functional genomic. Foodborne pathogens, host-pathogen interactions, colonization and virulence factors, animal models of human infection, and gut-microbe interactions. Campylobacter jejuni, iron acquisition and metabolism, and stress responses.

Major Research Activities

Our current research seeks to identify how human pathogens colonize the host gastrointestinal tract. We are not solely looking at the pathogen level but are also trying to understand the interplay of the pathogen, the endogenous gut microbial community as a whole, and the host. While classical microbiology seeks to understand the function of a gene or a few groups of genes from one single organism, our research aims to elucidate the role of all the genes and how they relate to one another from an entire microbial community. In particular, our research seeks to understand the dynamic interactions between the different components of the gut environment upon the stressful colonization and invasion by a pathogen in order to create a detailed picture on how a pathogen operates.

We have initiated these lines of research by using the foodborne Campylobacter jejuni as the model pathogen organism. Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of gastroenteritis and Guillain-Barré syndrome worldwide. The main goal of our research is to identify Campylobacter colonization and virulence determinants. These determinants could then contribute to the development of more effective methods to diagnose, manage and ultimately prevent Campylobacter infections.

During infection of the host, many microbial pathogens like Campylobacter spp. must survive and grow in diverse environments, suggesting that these organisms have a complex response to growth in the host. Therefore, the inspection of the gene expression profile in these diverse environments is essential to understand the range of events controlling Campylobacter pathophysiology. We are using functional genomic to investigate Campylobacter responses to different relevant environmental stimuli, in particular iron starvation, oxidative stresses, and the in vivo environment. Overall, our research combines techniques from various scientific disciplines ranging from microbiology, genetic, cell biology, functional genomic, and microarray technologies, to pathology, medicine, animal model of human infection, chemistry, mathematic, biochemistry and bioinformatics.

Selected Publications:

• Hoang V, Delatolla R, Abujamel T, Mottawea W, Gadbois A, Laflamme E, Stintzi A. Nitrifying moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) biofilm and biomass response to long term exposure to 1 °C. Water Res. 2014 Feb 1;49:215-24. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2013.11.018. Epub 2013 Nov 21.
• van Alphen LB, Wenzel CQ, Richards MR, Fodor C, Ashmus RA, Stahl M, Karlyshev AV, Wren BW, Stintzi A, Miller WG, Lowary TL, Szymanski CM. Biological roles of the O-methyl phosphoramidate capsule modification in Campylobacter jejuni. PLoS One. 2014 Jan 30;9(1):e87051. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087051. eCollection 2014.
• Forbes N, Selman M, Pelchat M, Jia JJ, Stintzi A, Brown EG. Identification of adaptive mutations in the influenza A virus non-structural 1 gene that increase cytoplasmic localization and differentially regulate host gene expression. PLoS One. 2013 Dec 31;8(12):e84673. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084673. eCollection 2013.
• Butcher J, Stintzi A. The transcriptional landscape of Campylobacter jejuni under iron replete and iron limited growth conditions. PLoS One. 2013 Nov 1;8(11):e79475. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079475. eCollection 2013.
• Martin Stahl, James Butcher and Alain Stintzi. 2012. Nutrition acquisition and metabolism by Campylobacter jejuni. Front. Microbiol, Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2012 Feb 7;2:5. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2012.00005. eCollection 2012.
• Flint A, Sun YQ, Stintzi A. 2012. Cj1386 is an ankyrin-containing protein involved in heme trafficking to catalase in Campylobacter jejuni. J Bacteriol. Jan; 194(2):334-45.
• James Butcher, Sabina Sarvan, Joseph Brunzelle, Jean-Francois Couture and Alain Stintzi. 2012. Structure and regulon of Campylobacter jejuni ferric uptake regulator Fur define apo-Fur regulation. PNAS, June 19; 109: 10047-10052
• Butcher, J., Flint A., Stahl, M, and A. Stintzi. Campylobacter Fur and PerR regulons. 2010. In Iron Uptake in Microorganisms. Horizon Scientific Press. Pierre Cornelis and Simon Andrews (eds.). in press.
• Kiran Palyada, Yi-Qian Sun, Annika Flint, James Butcher, Hemant Naikare and Alain Stintzi. 2009. Characterization of the oxidative stress stimulon and PerR regulon of Campylobacter jejuni. BMC Genomics, Oct 18;10:481  (730 KB).
• Marshall B., Stintzi, A., Gilmour, C., Meyer, J.M., and Poole K. 2009. Citrate-mediated iron uptake in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: involvement of the citrate-inducible FecA receptor and the FeoB ferrous iron transporter. Microbiology. 155(Pt 1):305-15  (234 KB).
• Stintzi A., van Vliet A.H.M, and J. Ketley. Iron metabolism, transport and regulation. 2008. Campylobacter, 3rd Edition. ASM book. Irving Nachamkin, Christine Szymanski, Martin Blaser (eds). 591-610.
• K.L. Hiett, A. Stintzi, T.M. Andacht, R.L. Kuntz, and B.S. Seal. 2008. Genomic differences between Campylobacter jejuni isolates identify surfaces membrane and flagellar function gene products potentially important for colonizing the chicken intestine. Functional and Integrative Genomics. 2008 Nov;8(4):407-20  (397 KB)
• A. N. Reid, R. Pandey, K. Palyada, H. Naikare, and A. Stintzi. 2008. Identification of C. jejuni genes involved in the response to acidic pH and stomach transit. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Vol.74(5):1583-97  (740 KB).
• A. Reid, R. Pandey, K. Palyada, L. Whitworth, E. Doukhanine, and A. Stintzi. 2008. Identification of C. jejuni genes contributing to acid adaptation by transcriptional profiling and genome-wide mutagenesis. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Vol.74(5):1598-612  (497 KB).
• B.S. Seal, K.L. Hiett, R.L.Kuntz, R. Woolsey, K.M. Schegg, M. Ard and A. Stintzi. 2007. Proteomic Analyses of a Robust versus a Poor Chicken Gastrointestinal Colonizing Isolate of C.  jejuni. Journal of Proteome Research. Dec;6(12):4582-91  (1.20 MB).
• Dertz, E.A., Stintzi, A., and K.N. Raymond. Siderophore-mediated iron transport in B. subtilis and C. glutamicum. 2006. Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry. 11(8):1087-97.
• Naikare, H., Palyada, P., Panciera, R., Marlow, D. and A. Stintzi. A major role for FeoB in Campylobacter jejuni ferrous ion acquisition, gut colonization and intracellular survival. 2006. Infection and Immunity. 74 (10): 5433-5444.
• Dertz, E.A., Xu, J., Stintzi, A., and K.N. Raymond. Bacillibactin-mediated iron transport in Bacillus subitilis. 2006. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006 Jan 11;128(1):22-3.
• Ducey, T.F., M.B. Carson, M.B., J. Orvis, A. Stintzi, and D.W. Dyer. Identification of the iron-responsive genes of Neisseria gonorrhoeae by microarray analysis in defined medium. 2005. Journal of Bacteriology. 187 (14): 4865-4874.
• Poly, F., D. Threadgill, and A. Stintzi. Genomic diversity in Campylobacter jejuni: Identification of C. jejuni 81-176 specific genes. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 2005. 43 (5); 2330-2338.
• Stintzi, A., D. Marlow, K. Palyada, H. Naikare, L. Whitworth, and C. Clarke. Use of genome-wide expression profiling and mutagenesis to study the intestinal lifestyle of Campylobacter jejuni. 2005. Infection and Immunity. 73 (3); 1797-1810.
• Palyada, K., D. Threadgill, and A. Stintzi. Iron acquisition and regulation in Campylobacter jejuni. 2004. Journal of Bacteriology. 186(14):4714-29.
• Poly, F., D. Threadgill, and A. Stintzi. Identification of Campylobacter jejuni ATCC 43431 specific genes by whole microbial genome comparisons. 2004. Journal of Bacteriology. 186(14):4781-95.
• Stintzi, A. and L. Whitworth. Investigation of the Campylobacter jejuni cold shock response by global transcript profiling. 2003. Genome Letters. 2, 24-33.
• Stintzi, A. Gene expression profile of Campylobacter jejuni in response to growth temperature variation. 2003. Journal of Bacteriology. 185, 2009-2016.