Characterization of catalase activities in a root-colonizing isolate of Pseudomonas putida

1992 ◽  
Vol 38 (10) ◽  
pp. 1026-1032 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Katsuwon ◽  
A. J. Anderson

Pseudomonas putida, a saprophytic root-colonizing bacterium, produces multiple forms of catalase. Catalase A, which increases in specific activity during growth phase and after treatment with H2O2, is located in the cytoplasm and is inhibited by 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole, EDTA, and cyanide, but not by chloroform–methanol treatment. Catalase B, which is induced by external H2O2 or during stationary phase of growth, is membrane associated and is inhibited by chloroform–methanol, EDTA, and cyanide, but not by aminotriazole. Catalase A has a broad pH optimum, from pH 6.0 to 11.0, with two peaks, at pH 8.0 and 11.0. Catalase B is most active at pH 5.0–11.0. Mutant J-1, generated by ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenesis, lacked catalase A activity in extracts of cells harvested throughout lag to early stationary growth phase in liquid medium. Catalase B was produced by J-1 in stationary phase. Exposure of J-1 to H2O2 caused the production of both catalase A and catalase B. Mutant J-1 was more susceptible to cell death than the wild type upon direct exposure to 2.5 mM H2O2 but survived this treatment after exposure to lower (0.3 mM), nonlethal doses of H2O2. The ability to adapt to H2O2 may be related to the behaviour of J-1 on roots where active oxygen species are produced by root surface enzymes. J-1 colonized root surfaces at wild-type levels and produced catalases A and B after exposure to root surfaces for 12 h. Key words: Pseudomonas putida, catalase, root colonization.

1994 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 382-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin G. Klotz ◽  
Anne J. Anderson

The culturability of Pseudomonas putida cells after exposure to hydrogen peroxide and antibiotics was correlated with growth-dependent expression of catalase isozymes. Exponential phase wild-type cells, which contained catalase isozyme A, survived a 15-min treatment with less than 4 mM hydrogen peroxide, but were killed by higher concentrations. The culturability of P. putida mutant JIM, which lacked any functional catalase in exponential phase, was reduced by more than 75% after a 15-min exposure to ≥ 0.25 mM hydrogen peroxide. Because submillimolar concentrations of hydrogen peroxide are physiologically relevant in the bacterial cell, our results demonstrate that catalase isozyme A has essential housekeeping functions for growing cultures of P. putida. The accumulation of catalase isozymes B and C during growth into stationary phase coincided with a decrease in the sensitivity of wild-type and JIM cells of P. putida to hydrogen peroxide. Late stationary phase wild-type cells survived a 15-min exposure to even 50 mM hydrogen peroxide and mutant J1M cells survived exposure to 20 mM but not 50 mM hydrogen peroxide. The antibiotics tetracycline and kanamycin, which inhibit protein synthesis, were used to study the role of catalase induction in resistance to hydrogen peroxide. More than 40 and 80% of exponential phase cells of P. putida wild-type and J1M strains, respectively, were rendered nonculturable after a 20-min exposure to 45 μM tetracycline. Surprisingly, stationary phase cells of both P. putida strains were culturable after a 20-min exposure to tetracycline but remained sensitive to kanamycin. Exposure to tetracycline of stationary phase cells did not reduce the resistance of these cells to hydrogen peroxide. Tetracycline but not kanamycin increased the activity of catalase in lysates prepared from P. putida wild-type and mutant cells in early stationary growth phase. At this growth phase, only catalase isozyme B is operational in both strains, which suggests that tetracycline affects the activity of this enzyme.Key words: Pseudomonas putida, antibiotics, catalase, culturability, growth phase.


2001 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne J Anderson ◽  
Charles D Miller

Peracetic acid is used as a sterilant in several industrial settings. Cells of a plant-colonizing bacterium, Pseudomonas putida in liquid suspension, were more sensitive to killing by peracetic acid when they lacked a major catalase activity, catalase A. Low doses of peracetic acid induced promoter activity of the gene encoding catalase A and increased total catalase specific activity in cell extracts. Microbes present in native agricultural soils rapidly degraded the active oxygen species present in peracetic acid. The simultaneous release of oxygen was consistent with a role for catalase in degrading the hydrogen peroxide that is part of the peracetic acid-equilibrium mixture. Amendment of sterilized soils with wild-type P. putida restored the rate of degradation of peracetic acid to a higher level than was observed in the soils amended with the catalase A-deficient mutant. The association of the bacteria with the plant roots resulted in protection of the wild-type as well as the catalase-deficient mutant from killing by peracetic acid. No differential recovery of the wild-type and catalase A mutant of P. putida was observed from roots after the growth matrix containing the plants was flushed with peracetic acid.Key words: Pseudomonas putida (Pp), activated oxygen species (AOS), hydrogen peroxide, luciferase, colonization.


2008 ◽  
Vol 74 (15) ◽  
pp. 4847-4852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Matthies ◽  
Thomas Clavel ◽  
Michael Gütschow ◽  
Wolfram Engst ◽  
Dirk Haller ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The metabolism of isoflavones by gut bacteria plays a key role in the availability and bioactivation of these compounds in the intestine. Daidzein and genistein are the most common dietary soy isoflavones. While daidzein conversion yielding equol has been known for some time, the corresponding formation of 5-hydroxy-equol from genistein has not been reported previously. We isolated a strictly anaerobic bacterium (Mt1B8) from the mouse intestine which converted daidzein via dihydrodaidzein to equol as well as genistein via dihydrogenistein to 5-hydroxy-equol. Strain Mt1B8 was a gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium identified as a member of the Coriobacteriaceae. Strain Mt1B8 also transformed dihydrodaidzein and dihydrogenistein to equol and 5-hydroxy-equol, respectively. The conversion of daidzein, genistein, dihydrodaidzein, and dihydrogenistein in the stationary growth phase depended on preincubation with the corresponding isoflavonoid, indicating enzyme induction. Moreover, dihydrogenistein was transformed even more rapidly in the stationary phase when strain Mt1B8 was grown on either genistein or daidzein. Growing the cells on daidzein also enabled conversion of genistein. This suggests that the same enzymes are involved in the conversion of the two isoflavones.


2000 ◽  
Vol 182 (23) ◽  
pp. 6707-6713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eve-Ly Ojangu ◽  
Andres Tover ◽  
Riho Teras ◽  
Maia Kivisaar

ABSTRACT The main sigma factor activating gene expression, necessary in stationary phase and under stress conditions, is ςS. In contrast to other minor sigma factors, RNA polymerase holoenzyme containing ςS (EςS) recognizes a number of promoters which are also recognized by that containing ς70 (Eς70). We have previously shown that transposon Tn4652 can activate silent genes in starvingPseudomonas putida cells by creating fusion promoters during transposition. The sequence of the fusion promoters is similar to the ς70-specific promoter consensus. The −10 hexameric sequence and the sequence downstream from the −10 element differ among these promoters. We found that transcription from the fusion promoters is stationary phase specific. Based on in vivo experiments carried out with wild-type and rpoS-deficient mutant P. putida, the effect of ςS on transcription from the fusion promoters was established only in some of these promoters. The importance of the sequence of the −10 hexamer has been pointed out in several published papers, but there is no information about whether the sequences downstream from the −10 element can affect ςS-dependent transcription. Combination of the −10 hexameric sequences and downstream sequences of different fusion promoters revealed that ςS-specific transcription from these promoters is not determined by the −10 hexameric sequence only. The results obtained in this study indicate that the sequence of the −10 element influences ςS-specific transcription in concert with the sequence downstream from the −10 box.


2001 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 2739-2742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Ramamoorthy ◽  
Dorothy Scholl-Meeker

ABSTRACT Previously, we had demonstrated the upregulation in the expression of several proteins, including the lipoproteins OspC and P35, ofBorrelia burgdorferi in the stationary growth phase. Since the expression of OspC is also known to be affected by culture temperature and pH, we examined the effects of both variables on the expression of the remaining stationary-phase-upregulated proteins. Our study revealed that the expression of each of the remaining stationary-phase-upregulated proteins, P35 included, was also influenced by culture temperature; these proteins were selectively expressed at 34°C but not at 24°C. Significantly, the expression of a majority of these proteins was also affected by culture pH, since they were abundantly expressed at pH 7.0 (resembling the tick midgut pH of 6.8 during feeding) but only sparsely at pH 8.0 (a condition closer to that of the unfed tick midgut pH of 7.4). We propose that this group of B. burgdorferi proteins, which in culture is selectively expressed under conditions of 34°C and pH 7.0, may be induced in the tick midgut during the feeding event. Furthermore, the differential and coordinate expression of these proteins under different environmental conditions suggests that the encoding genes may be coregulated.


1998 ◽  
Vol 333 (3) ◽  
pp. 765-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan K. CHANG ◽  
Ronald G. DUGGLEBY

Acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS) catalyses the first step in the synthesis of the branched-chain amino acids and is the target of several classes of herbicides. Four mutants (A122V, W574S, W574L and S653N) of the AHAS gene from Arabidopsis thaliana were constructed, expressed in Escherichia coli, and the enzymes were purified. Each mutant form and wild-type was characterized with respect to its catalytic properties and sensitivity to nine herbicides. Each enzyme had a pH optimum near 7.5. The specific activity varied from 13% (A122V) to 131% (W574L) of the wild-type and the Km for pyruvate of the mutants was similar to the wild-type, except for W574L where it was five-fold higher. The activation by cofactors (FAD, Mg2+ and thiamine diphosphate) was examined. A122V showed reduced affinity for all three cofactors, whereas S653N bound FAD more strongly than wild-type AHAS. Six sulphonylurea herbicides inhibited A122V to a similar degree as the wild-type but S653N showed a somewhat greater reduction in sensitivity to these compounds. In contrast, the W574 mutants were insensitive to these sulphonylureas, with increases in the Kiapp (apparent inhibition constant) of several hundred fold. All four mutants were resistant to three imidazolinone herbicides with decreases in sensitivity ranging from 100-fold to more than 1000-fold.


2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (24) ◽  
pp. 7241-7252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina L. López-Garcı́a ◽  
Tirso E. E. Vázquez ◽  
Gabriel Favelukes ◽  
Anı́bal R. Lodeiro

ABSTRACT In this study, we addressed the effects of N limitation inBradyrhizobium japonicum for its association with soybean roots. The wild-type strain LP 3001 grew for six generations with a growth rate of 1.2 day−1 in a minimal medium with 28 mM mannitol as the carbon source and with the N source [(NH4)2SO4] limited to only 20 μM. Under these conditions, the glutamine synthetase (GS) activity was five to six times higher than in similar cultures grown with 1 or 0.1 mM (NH4)2SO4. The NtrBC-inducible GSII form of this enzyme accounted for 60% of the specific activity in N-starved rhizobia, being negligible in the other two cultures. The exopolysaccharide (EPS) and capsular polysaccharide (CPS) contents relative to cell protein were significantly higher in the N-starved cultures, but on the other hand, the poly-3-hydroxybutyrate level did not rise in comparison with N-sufficient cultures. In agreement with the accumulation of CPS in N-starved cultures, soybean lectin (SBL) binding as well as stimulation of rhizobial adsorption to soybean roots by SBL pretreatment were higher. The last effect was evident only in cultures that had not entered stationary phase. We also studied nodC gene induction in relation to N starvation. In the chromosomalnodC::lacZ fusion Bj110-573,nodC gene expression was induced by genistein 2.7-fold more in N-starved young cultures than in nonstarved ones. In stationary-phase cultures, nodC gene expression was similarly induced in N-limited cultures, but induction was negligible in cultures limited by another nutrient. Nodulation profiles obtained with strain LP 3001 grown under N starvation indicated that these cultures nodulated faster. In addition, as culture age increased, the nodulation efficiency decreased for two reasons: fewer nodules were formed, and nodulation was delayed. However, their relative importance was different according to the nutrient condition: in older cultures the overall decrease in the number of nodules was the main effect in N-starved cultures, whereas a delay in nodulation was more responsible for a loss in efficiency of N-sufficient cultures. Competition for nodulation was studied with young cultures of two wild-type strains differing only in their antibiotic resistance, the N-starved cultures being the most competitive.


2003 ◽  
Vol 185 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Weichart ◽  
Nadine Querfurth ◽  
Mathias Dreger ◽  
Regine Hengge-Aronis

ABSTRACT To elucidate the involvement of proteolysis in the regulation of stationary-phase adaptation, the clpA, clpX, and clpP protease mutants of Escherichia coli were subjected to proteome analysis during growth and during carbon starvation. For most of the growth-phase-regulated proteins detected on our gels, the clpA, clpX, or clpP mutant failed to mount the growth-phase regulation found in the wild type. For example, in the clpP and clpA mutant cultures, the Dps protein, the WrbA protein, and the periplasmic lysine-arginine-ornithine binding protein ArgT did not display the induction typical for late-stationary-phase wild-type cells. On the other hand, in the protease mutants, a number of proteins accumulated to a higher degree than in the wild type, especially in late stationary phase. The proteins affected in this manner include the LeuA, TrxB, GdhA, GlnA, and MetK proteins and alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (AhpC). These proteins may be directly degraded by ClpAP or ClpXP, respectively, or their expression could be modulated by a protease-dependent mechanism. From our data we conclude that the levels of most major growth-phase-regulated proteins in E. coli are at some point controlled by the activity of at least one of the ClpP, ClpA, and ClpX proteins. Cultures of the strains lacking functional ClpP or ClpX also displayed a more rapid loss of viability during extended stationary phase than the wild type. Therefore, regulation by proteolysis seems to be more important, especially in resting cells, than previously suspected.


2004 ◽  
Vol 70 (9) ◽  
pp. 5493-5502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Bertani ◽  
Vittorio Venturi

ABSTRACT Quorum sensing is a cell population-density dependent regulatory system which in gram-negative bacteria often involves the production and detection of N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs). Some Pseudomonas putida strains have been reported to produce AHLs, and one quorum-sensing locus has been identified. However, it appears that the majority of strains do not produce AHLs. In this study we report the identification and regulation of the AHL-dependent system of rhizosphere P. putida WCS358. This system is identical to the recently identified system of P. putida strain IsoF and very similar to the las system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It is composed of three genes, the luxI family member ppuI, the putative repressor rsaL, and the luxR family member ppuR. A genomic ppuR::Tn5 mutant of strain WCS358 was identified by its inability to produce AHLs when it was cross-streaked in close proximity to an AHL biosensor, whereas an rsaL::Tn5 genomic mutant was identified by its ability to overproduce AHL molecules. Using transcriptional promoter fusions, we studied expression profiles of the rsaL, ppuI, and ppuR promoters in various genetic backgrounds. At the onset of the stationary phase, the autoinducer synthase ppuI gene expression is under positive regulation by PpuR-AHL and under negative regulation by RsaL, indicating that the molecules could be in competition for binding at the ppuI promoter. In genomic rsaL::Tn5 mutants ppuI expression and production of AHL levels increased dramatically; however, both processes were still under growth phase regulation, indicating that RsaL is not involved in repressing AHL production at low cell densities. The roles of the global response regulator GacA and the stationary-phase sigma factor RpoS in the regulation of the AHL system at the onset of the stationary phase were also investigated. The P. putida WCS358 gacA gene was cloned and inactivated in the genome. It was determined that the three global regulatory systems are closely linked, with quorum sensing and RpoS regulating each other and GacA positively regulating ppuI expression. Studies of the regulation of AHL quorum-sensing systems have lagged behind other studies and are important for understanding how these systems are integrated into the overall growth phase and metabolic status of the cells.


2004 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 1733-1745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah E. Geiman ◽  
Deepak Kaushal ◽  
Chiew Ko ◽  
Sandeep Tyagi ◽  
Yukari C. Manabe ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Mycobacterium tuberculosis alternate sigma factor, SigF, is expressed during stationary growth phase and under stress conditions in vitro. To better understand the function of SigF we studied the phenotype of the M. tuberculosis ΔsigF mutant in vivo during mouse infection, tested the mutant as a vaccine in rabbits, and evaluated the mutant's microarray expression profile in comparison with the wild type. In mice the growth rates of theΔ sigF mutant and wild-type strains were nearly identical during the first 8 weeks after infection. At 8 weeks, theΔ sigF mutant persisted in the lung, while the wild type continued growing through 20 weeks. Histopathological analysis showed that both wild-type and mutant strains had similar degrees of interstitial and granulomatous inflammation during the first 12 weeks of infection. However, from 12 to 20 weeks the mutant strain showed smaller and fewer lesions and less inflammation in the lungs and spleen. Intradermal vaccination of rabbits with the M. tuberculosis ΔsigF strain, followed by aerosol challenge, resulted in fewer tubercles than did intradermal M. bovis BCG vaccination. Complete genomic microarray analysis revealed that 187 genes were relatively underexpressed in the absence of SigF in early stationary phase, 277 in late stationary phase, and only 38 genes in exponential growth phase. Numerous regulatory genes and those involved in cell envelope synthesis were down-regulated in the absence of SigF; moreover, the ΔsigF mutant strain lacked neutral red staining, suggesting a reduction in the expression of envelope-associated sulfolipids. Examination of 5′-untranslated sequences among the downregulated genes revealed multiple instances of a putative SigF consensus recognition sequence: GGTTTCX18GGGTAT. These results indicate that in the mouse the M. tuberculosis ΔsigF mutant strain persists in the lung but at lower bacterial burdens than wild type and is attenuated by histopathologic assessment. Microarray analysis has identified SigF-dependent genes and a putative SigF consensus recognition site.


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