scholarly journals Bidirectional redox cycling of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid by Citrobacter portucalensis MBL drives increased nitrate reduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lev M. Tsypin ◽  
Dianne K. Newman

ABSTRACTPhenazines are secreted metabolites that microbes use in diverse ways, from quorum sensing to antimicrobial warfare to energy conservation. Phenazines are able to contribute to these activities due to their redox activity. The physiological consequences of cellular phenazine reduction have been extensively studied, but the counterpart phenazine oxidation has been largely overlooked. Phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) is common in the environment and readily reduced by its producers. Here, we describe its anaerobic oxidation by Citrobacter portucalensis strain MBL, which was isolated from topsoil in Falmouth, MA, and which does not produce phenazines itself. This activity depends on the availability of a suitable terminal electron acceptor, specifically nitrate or fumarate. When C. portucalensis MBL is provided reduced PCA and either nitrate or fumarate, it continuously oxidizes the PCA. We compared this terminal electron acceptor-dependent PCA-oxidizing activity of C. portucalensis MBL to that of several other γ-proteobacteria with varying capacities to respire nitrate and/or fumarate. We found that PCA oxidation by these strains in a fumarate-or nitrate-dependent manner is decoupled from growth and correlated with their possession of the fumarate or periplasmic nitrate reductases, respectively. We infer that bacterial PCA oxidation is widespread and genetically determined. Notably, reduced PCA enhances the rate of nitrate reduction to nitrite by C. portucalensis MBL beyond the stoichiometric prediction, which we attribute to C. portucalensis MBL’s ability to also reduce oxidized PCA, thereby catalyzing a complete PCA redox cycle. This bidirectionality highlights the versatility of PCA as a biological redox agent.IMPORTANCEPhenazines are increasingly appreciated for their roles in structuring microbial communities. These tricyclic aromatic molecules have been found to regulate gene expression, be toxic, promote antibiotic tolerance, and promote survival under oxygen starvation. In all of these contexts, however, phenazines are studied as electron acceptors. Even if their utility arises primarily from being readily reduced, they would need to be oxidized in order to be recycled. While oxygen and ferric iron can oxidize phenazines abiotically, biotic oxidation of phenazines has not been studied previously. We observed bacteria that readily oxidize phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) in a nitrate-dependent fashion, concomitantly increasing the rate of nitrate reduction to nitrite. Because nitrate is a prevalent terminal electron acceptor in diverse anoxic environments, including soils, and phenazine-producers are widespread, this observation of linked phenazine and nitrogen redox cycling suggests an underappreciated role for redox-active secreted metabolites in the environment.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lev M Tsypin ◽  
Dianne K. Newman

Phenazines are secreted metabolites that microbes use in diverse ways, from quorum sensing to antimicrobial warfare to energy conservation. Phenazines are able to contribute to these activities due to their redox activity. The physiological consequences of cellular phenazine reduction have been extensively studied, but the counterpart phenazine oxidation has been largely overlooked. Phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) is common in the environment and readily reduced by its producers. Here, we describe its anaerobic oxidation by Citrobacter portucalensis strain MBL, which was isolated from topsoil in Falmouth, MA, and which does not produce phenazines itself. This activity depends on the availability of a suitable terminal electron acceptor, specifically nitrate. When C. portucalensis MBL is provided reduced PCA and nitrate, it rapidly oxidizes the PCA. We compared this terminal electron acceptor-dependent PCA-oxidizing activity of C. portucalensis MBL to that of several other γ-proteobacteria with varying capacities to respire nitrate. We found that PCA oxidation by these strains in a nitrate-dependent manner is decoupled from growth and correlated with their possession of the periplasmic nitrate reductase Nap. We infer that bacterial PCA oxidation is widespread and propose that it may be genetically determined. Notably, oxidizing PCA enhances the rate of nitrate reduction to nitrite by C. portucalensis MBL beyond the stoichiometric exchange of electrons from PCA to nitrate, which we attribute to C. portucalensis MBL's ability to also reduce oxidized PCA, thereby catalyzing a complete PCA redox cycle. This bidirectionality highlights the versatility of PCA as a biological redox agent.


mBio ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lev M. Tsypin ◽  
Dianne K. Newman

Phenazines are increasingly appreciated for their roles in structuring microbial communities. These tricyclic aromatic molecules have been found to regulate gene expression, be toxic, promote antibiotic tolerance, and promote survival under oxygen starvation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 9731-9744 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. McWhinney ◽  
S. Zhou ◽  
J. P. D. Abbatt

Abstract. Chamber secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from low-NOx photooxidation of naphthalene by hydroxyl radical was examined with respect to its redox cycling behaviour using the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay. Naphthalene SOA was highly redox-active, consuming DTT at an average rate of 118 ± 14 pmol per minute per μg of SOA material. Measured particle-phase masses of the major previously identified redox active products, 1,2- and 1,4-naphthoquinone, accounted for only 21 ± 3% of the observed redox cycling activity. The redox-active 5-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone was identified as a new minor product of naphthalene oxidation, and including this species in redox activity predictions increased the predicted DTT reactivity to 30 ± 5% of observations. These results suggest that there are substantial unidentified redox-active SOA constituents beyond the small quinones that may be important toxic components of these particles. A gas-to-SOA particle partitioning coefficient was calculated to be (7.0 ± 2.5) × 10−4 m3 μg−1 for 1,4-naphthoquinone at 25 °C. This value suggests that under typical warm conditions, 1,4-naphthoquinone is unlikely to contribute strongly to redox behaviour of ambient particles, although further work is needed to determine the potential impact under conditions such as low temperatures where partitioning to the particle is more favourable. Also, higher order oxidation products that likely account for a substantial fraction of the redox cycling capability of the naphthalene SOA are likely to partition much more strongly to the particle phase.


1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. J. Alvarez ◽  
T. M. Vogel

Batch incubations, seeded with four different aquifer materials, were used to survey the catabolic capacity of indigenous microorganisms under nitrate reducing conditions. Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes (BTEX), and selected potential metabolites of their incomplete aerobic degradation, were tested as substrates for nitrate-based respiration. Toluene and its potential aerobic metabolites, benzoate, protocatechuate, 3-methylcatechol, 4-methylcatechol, succinate, and adipate were degraded in strictly anoxic (O2 < 0.1 mg/l) nitrate reducing incubations. Toluene degradation was directly coupled to nitrate reduction. Ortho-xylene removal was toluene dependent. Meta- and para-xylenes were degraded in nitrate reducing enrichments from only one of the four aquifer samples. Benzene, ethylbenzene, catechol and gentisate were not degraded within up to four months in any of the incubations, even though nitrate reduction occurred. Anaerobic benzene degradation was not observed. Incubations receiving nitrate as an adjunct electron acceptor to oxygen degraded significantly more benzene than incubations amended with only oxygen, although benzene was only degraded until the dissolved oxygen was depleted. Possibly, more oxygen was available to degrade benzene when nitrate was added because denitrifiers utilizing nitrate as terminal electron acceptor oxidized benzoate, which had been added to increase the biochemical oxygen demand of the system. Benzoate oxidation with nitrate apparently spared oxygen for benzene degradation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 9107-9149 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. McWhinney ◽  
S. Zhou ◽  
J. P. D. Abbatt

Abstract. Chamber secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from low-NOx photooxidation of naphthalene by hydroxyl radical was examined with respect to its redox cycling behaviour using the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay. Naphthalene SOA was highly redox active, consuming DTT at an average rate of 118 ± 14 pmol per minute per μg of SOA material. Measured particle-phase masses of the major previously identified redox active products, 1,2- and 1,4-naphthoquinone, accounted for only 21 ± 3% of the observed redox cycling activity. The redox-active 5-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone was identified as a new minor product of naphthalene oxidation, and including this species in redox activity predictions increased the predicted DTT reactivity to 30 ± 5% of observations. Similar attempts to predict redox behaviour of oxidised two-stroke engine exhaust particles by measuring 1,2-naphthoquinone, 1,4-naphthoquinone and 9,10-phenanthrenequinone predicted DTT decay rates only 4.9 ± 2.5% of those observed. Together, these results suggest that there are substantial unidentified redox-active SOA constituents beyond the small quinones that may be important toxic components of these particles. A gas-to-SOA particle partitioning coefficient was calculated to be (7.0 ± 2.5) × 10−4 m3 μg−1 for 1,4-naphthoquinone at 25 °C. This value suggests that under typical warm conditions, 1,4-naphthoquinone is unlikely to contribute strongly to redox behaviour of ambient particles, although further work is needed to determine the potential impact under conditions such as low temperatures where partitioning to the particle is more favourable. As well, higher order oxidation products that likely account for a substantial fraction of the redox cycling capability of the naphthalene SOA are likely to partition much more strongly to the particle phase.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (24) ◽  
pp. 3816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Zhuang ◽  
Qijian Zhang ◽  
Yongxiang Zhu ◽  
Xufeng Xu ◽  
Haifeng Liu ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 63 (Pt_5) ◽  
pp. 1824-1833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis A. Bazylinski ◽  
Timothy J. Williams ◽  
Christopher T. Lefèvre ◽  
Denis Trubitsyn ◽  
Jiasong Fang ◽  
...  

A magnetotactic bacterium, designated strain MV-1T, was isolated from sulfide-rich sediments in a salt marsh near Boston, MA, USA. Cells of strain MV-1T were Gram-negative, and vibrioid to helicoid in morphology. Cells were motile by means of a single polar flagellum. The cells appeared to display a transitional state between axial and polar magnetotaxis: cells swam in both directions, but generally had longer excursions in one direction than the other. Cells possessed a single chain of magnetosomes containing truncated hexaoctahedral crystals of magnetite, positioned along the long axis of the cell. Strain MV-1T was a microaerophile that was also capable of anaerobic growth on some nitrogen oxides. Salinities greater than 10 % seawater were required for growth. Strain MV-1T exhibited chemolithoautotrophic growth on thiosulfate and sulfide with oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor (microaerobic growth) and on thiosulfate using nitrous oxide (N2O) as the terminal electron acceptor (anaerobic growth). Chemo-organoautotrophic and methylotrophic growth was supported by formate under microaerobic conditions. Autotrophic growth occurred via the Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle. Chemo-organoheterotrophic growth was supported by various organic acids and amino acids, under microaerobic and anaerobic conditions. Optimal growth occurred at pH 7.0 and 26–28 °C. The genome of strain MV-1T consisted of a single, circular chromosome, about 3.7 Mb in size, with a G+C content of 52.9–53.5 mol%.Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain MV-1T belongs to the family Rhodospirillaceae within the Alphaproteobacteria , but is not closely related to the genus Magnetospirillum . The name Magnetovibrio blakemorei gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed for strain MV-1T. The type strain of Magnetovibrio blakemorei is MV-1T ( = ATCC BAA-1436T  = DSM 18854T).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document