scholarly journals Virulence of Streptococcus pneumoniae: PsaA Mutants Are Hypersensitive to Oxidative Stress

2002 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 1635-1639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsing-Ju Tseng ◽  
Alastair G. McEwan ◽  
James C. Paton ◽  
Michael P. Jennings

ABSTRACT psaA encodes a 37-kDa pneumococcal lipoprotein which is part of an ABC Mn(II) transport complex. Streptococcus pneumoniae D39 psaA mutants have previously been shown to be significantly less virulent than wild-type D39, but the mechanism underlying the attenuation has not been resolved. In this study, we have shown that psaA and psaD mutants are highly sensitive to oxidative stress, i.e., to superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, which might explain why they are less virulent than the wild-type strain. Our investigations revealed altered expression of the key oxidative-stress response enzymes superoxide dismutase and NADH oxidase in psaA and psaD mutants, suggesting that PsaA and PsaD may play important roles in the regulation of expression of oxidative-stress response enzymes and intracellular redox homeostasis.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manbeena Chawla ◽  
Saurabh Mishra ◽  
Pankti Parikh ◽  
Mansi Mehta ◽  
Prashant Shukla ◽  
...  

AbstractOxidative stress response in bacteria is generally mediated through coordination between the regulators of oxidant-remediation systems (e.g.OxyR, SoxR) and nucleoid condensation (e.g.Dps, Fis). However, these genetic factors are either absent or rendered nonfunctional in the human pathogenMycobacterium tuberculosis(Mtb). Therefore, howMtborganizes genome architecture and regulates gene expression to counterbalance oxidative imbalance during infection is not known. Here, we report that an intracellular redox-sensor, WhiB4, dynamically links genome condensation and oxidative stress response inMtb. Disruption of WhiB4 affects the expression of genes involved in maintaining redox homeostasis, central carbon metabolism (CCM), respiration, cell wall biogenesis, DNA repair and protein quality control under oxidative stress. Notably, disulfide-linked oligomerization of WhiB4 in response to oxidative stress activates the protein’s ability to condense DNAin vitroandin vivo. Further, overexpression of WhiB4 led to hypercondensation of nucleoids, redox imbalance and increased susceptibility to oxidative stress, whereas WhiB4 disruption reversed this effect. In accordance with the findingsin vitro, ChIP-Seq data demonstrated non-specific binding of WhiB4 to GC-rich regions of theMtbgenome. Lastly, data indicate that WhiB4 deletion affected the expression of only a fraction of genes preferentially bound by the protein, suggesting its indirect effect on gene expression. We propose that WhiB4 is a novel redox-dependent nucleoid condensing protein that structurally couplesMtb’sresponse to oxidative stress with genome organization and transcription.Significance StatementMycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)needs to adapt in response to oxidative stress encountered inside human phagocytes. In other bacteria, condensation state of nucleoids modulates gene expression to coordinate oxidative stress response. However, this relation remains elusive inMtb. We performed molecular dissection of a mechanism controlled by an intracellular redox sensor, WhiB4, in organizing both chromosomal structure and selective expression of adaptive traits to counter oxidative stress inMtb. Using high-resolution sequencing, transcriptomics, imaging, and redox biosensor, we describe how WhiB4 modulates nucleoid condensation, global gene expression, and redox-homeostasis. WhiB4 over-expression hypercondensed nucleoids and perturbed redox homeostasis whereas WhiB4 disruption had an opposite effect. Our study discovered an empirical role for WhiB4 in integrating redox signals with nucleoid condensation inMtb.


2010 ◽  
Vol 78 (11) ◽  
pp. 4850-4859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda Lo ◽  
Gerald L. Murray ◽  
Chen Ai Khoo ◽  
David A. Haake ◽  
Richard L. Zuerner ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Leptospirosis is a globally significant zoonosis caused by Leptospira spp. Iron is essential for growth of most bacterial species. Since iron availability is low in the host, pathogens have evolved complex iron acquisition mechanisms to survive and establish infection. In many bacteria, expression of iron uptake and storage proteins is regulated by Fur. L. interrogans encodes four predicted Fur homologs; we have constructed a mutation in one of these, la1857. We conducted microarray analysis to identify iron-responsive genes and to study the effects of la1857 mutation on gene expression. Under iron-limiting conditions, 43 genes were upregulated and 49 genes were downregulated in the wild type. Genes encoding proteins with predicted involvement in inorganic ion transport and metabolism (including TonB-dependent proteins and outer membrane transport proteins) were overrepresented in the upregulated list, while 54% of differentially expressed genes had no known function. There were 16 upregulated genes of unknown function which are absent from the saprophyte L. biflexa and which therefore may encode virulence-associated factors. Expression of iron-responsive genes was not significantly affected by mutagenesis of la1857, indicating that LA1857 is not a global regulator of iron homeostasis. Upregulation of heme biosynthetic genes and a putative catalase in the mutant suggested that LA1857 is more similar to PerR, a regulator of the oxidative stress response. Indeed, the la1857 mutant was more resistant to peroxide stress than the wild type. Our results provide insights into the role of iron in leptospiral metabolism and regulation of the oxidative stress response, including genes likely to be important for virulence.


2012 ◽  
Vol 303 (11) ◽  
pp. C1198-C1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Ponce-Coria ◽  
Kenneth B. Gagnon ◽  
Eric Delpire

X-ray crystallography of the catalytic domain of oxidative stress response 1 (OSR1) has provided evidence for dimerization and domain swapping. However, the functional significance of dimer formation or domain swapping has yet to be addressed. In this study, we used nine glutamine residues to link the carboxyl end of one SPAK (related Ste20 kinase) monomer to the amino end of another SPAK monomer to assess the role of kinase monomers versus dimers in Na-K-2Cl cotransporter 1 (NKCC1) activation. Transport studies in Xenopus laevis oocytes show that forcing dimerization of two wild-type SPAK molecules results in cotransporter activation when calcium-binding protein 39 (Cab39) is coexpressed, indicating that the presence of Cab39 can bypass the upstream phosphorylation requirement of SPAK normally associated with kinase activation. We determined that monomers are the functional units of the kinase as concatamers consisting of an active and various inactive monomers were still functional. Furthermore, we found that two different nonfunctional SPAK mutants could be linked together in a concatamer and activated, presumably by domain swapping, indicating that dimerization and domain swapping are both important components of kinase activation. Finally, we demonstrate rescue of a nonfunctional SPAK mutant by domain swapping with wild-type OSR1, indicating that heterodimers of the two Ste20-related kinases are possible and therefore potentially relevant to the regulation of NKCC1 activity.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazushige Ota ◽  
Andrey Brydun ◽  
Ari Itoh-Nakadai ◽  
Jiying Sun ◽  
Kazuhiko Igarashi

Oxidative stress contributes to both aging and tumorigenesis. The transcription factor Bach1, a regulator of oxidative stress response, augments oxidative stress by repressing the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) gene (Hmox1) and suppresses oxidative stress-induced cellular senescence by restricting the p53 transcriptional activity. Here we investigated the lifelong effects ofBach1deficiency on mice.Bach1-deficient mice showed longevity similar to wild-type mice. Although HO-1 was upregulated in the cells ofBach1-deficient animals, the levels of ROS inBach1-deficient HSCs were comparable to those in wild-type cells.Bach1−/−;p53−/−mice succumbed to spontaneous cancers as frequently asp53-deficient mice.Bach1deficiency significantly altered transcriptome in the liver of the young mice, which surprisingly became similar to that of wild-type mice during the course of aging. The transcriptome adaptation toBach1deficiency may reflect how oxidative stress response is tuned upon genetic and environmental perturbations. We concluded thatBach1deficiency and accompanying overexpression of HO-1 did not influence aging or p53 deficiency-driven tumorigenesis. Our results suggest that it is useful to target Bach1 for acute injury responses without inducing any apparent deteriorative effect.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah M. Chang ◽  
Melanie R. McReynolds ◽  
Wendy Hanna-Rose

ABSTRACTMitochondrial sirtuins regulate biochemical pathways and are emerging drug targets for metabolic and age-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration. Yet, their functions remain unclear. Here, we uncover a novel physiological role for the C. elegans mitochondrial sirtuins, sir-2.2 and sir-2.3, in lifespan regulation. Using a genetic approach, we demonstrate that sir-2.2 and sir-2.3 mutants live 28-30% longer than controls when fed the normal lab diet of E. coli OP50. Interestingly, this effect is diet specific and is not observed when animals are fed the strain HT115, which is typically used for RNAi experiments. While decreased consumption of food is a known mechanism for lifespan extension, this does not account for the increased lifespan in the mitochondrial sirtuin mutants. sir-2.2 and sir-2.3 mutants display altered expression of genes involved in oxidative stress response, including increased expression of the mitochondrial superoxide dismutase sod-3 and decreased levels of catalases ctl-1 and ctl-2. Like their extended lifespan phenotype, these alterations in oxidative stress gene expression are diet dependent. The mitochondrial sirtuin mutants are more resistant to the lifespan extending effects of low levels of superoxide, suggesting that their increased lifespan involves a hormetic response. Our data suggest that sir-2.2 and sir-2.3 are not completely redundant in function and may possess overlapping yet distinct mechanisms for regulating oxidative stress response and lifespan.


PLoS Genetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. e1009946
Author(s):  
Paul F. Langton ◽  
Michael E. Baumgartner ◽  
Remi Logeay ◽  
Eugenia Piddini

Cell competition induces the elimination of less-fit “loser” cells by fitter “winner” cells. In Drosophila, cells heterozygous mutant in ribosome genes, Rp/+, known as Minutes, are outcompeted by wild-type cells. Rp/+ cells display proteotoxic stress and the oxidative stress response, which drive the loser status. Minute cell competition also requires the transcription factors Irbp18 and Xrp1, but how these contribute to the loser status is partially understood. Here we provide evidence that initial proteotoxic stress in RpS3/+ cells is Xrp1-independent. However, Xrp1 is sufficient to induce proteotoxic stress in otherwise wild-type cells and is necessary for the high levels of proteotoxic stress found in RpS3/+ cells. Surprisingly, Xrp1 is also induced downstream of proteotoxic stress, and is required for the competitive elimination of cells suffering from proteotoxic stress or overexpressing Nrf2. Our data suggests that a feed-forward loop between Xrp1, proteotoxic stress, and Nrf2 drives Minute cells to become losers.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Fu ◽  
Jiaming Liu ◽  
Xudong Gao ◽  
Xinglin Zhang ◽  
Juan Bai ◽  
...  

AbstractRoot growth relies on both cell division and elongation, which occur in the meristem and elongation zones respectively. SCARECROW (SCR) is a GRAS family gene essential for root growth and radial patterning in the Arabidopsis root. Previous studies showed that SCR promotes root growth by suppressing cytokinin response in the meristem, but there is also evidence that SCR expressed beyond the meristem is required as well for root growth. Here we report that SCR promotes root growth by promoting cell elongation through suppression of oxidative stress response and maintenance of redox homeostasis in the elongation zone. In the scr root, a higher level of hydrogen peroxide was detected, which can be attributed to down-regulation of peroxidase gene 3. When stress response was blocked or redox status was ameliorated by the aba2 or upb1 mutation, the scr mutant produced a significantly longer root with longer cells and a larger and mitotically more active meristem, even though the stem cell and radial patterning defects still persisted. We showed that WRKY15, an oxidative responsive gene, was a direct target of SCR down-regulated in the scr mutant, which suggests that SCR has an active role in suppressing oxidative stress response. Since hydrogen peroxide and peroxidases are essential for endodermal differentiation, these results suggest that SCR plays a central role in coordinating cell elongation, endodermal differentiation, redox homeostasis, and oxidative stress response in plant root.One sentence summaryThis study reveals a novel mechanism of root growth regulation, which involves a previously unrecognized role of SCR in regulating cell elongation, endodermal differentiation, and redox homeostasis.


Microbiology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 155 (6) ◽  
pp. 1912-1922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiyonobu Honma ◽  
Elina Mishima ◽  
Satoru Inagaki ◽  
Ashu Sharma

Tannerella forsythia is an anaerobic periodontal pathogen that encounters constant oxidative stress in the human oral cavity due to exposure to air and reactive oxidative species from coexisting dental plaque bacteria as well as leukocytes. In this study, we sought to characterize a T. forsythia ORF with close similarity to bacterial oxidative stress response sensor protein OxyR. To analyse the role of this OxyR homologue, a gene deletion mutant was constructed and characterized. Aerotolerance, survival after hydrogen peroxide challenge and transcription levels of known bacterial antioxidant genes were then determined. Since an association between oxidative stress and biofilm formation has been observed in bacterial systems, we also investigated the role of the OxyR protein in biofilm development by T. forsythia. Our results showed that aerotolerance, sensitivity to peroxide challenge and the expression of oxidative stress response genes were significantly reduced in the mutant as compared with the wild-type strain. Moreover, the results of biofilm analyses showed that, as compared with the wild-type strain, the oxyR mutant showed significantly less autoaggregation and a reduced ability to form mixed biofilms with Fusobacterium nucleatum. In conclusion, a gene annotated in the T. forsythia genome as an oxyR homologue was characterized. Our studies showed that the oxyR homologue in T. forsythia constitutively activates antioxidant genes involved in resistance to peroxides as well as oxygen stress (aerotolerance). In addition, the oxyR deletion attenuates biofilm formation in T. forsythia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shao-Yu Lee ◽  
Hsueh-Fen Chen ◽  
Ying-Chieh Yeh ◽  
Yao-Peng Xue ◽  
Chung-Yu Lan

Candida albicans is a commensal that inhabits the skin and mucous membranes of humans. Because of the increasing immunocompromised population and the limited classes of antifungal drugs available, C. albicans has emerged as an important opportunistic pathogen with high mortality rates. During infection and therapy, C. albicans frequently encounters immune cells and antifungal drugs, many of which exert their antimicrobial activity by inducing the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, antioxidative capacity is important for the survival and pathogenesis of C. albicans. In this study, we characterized the roles of the zinc finger transcription factor Sfp1 in the oxidative stress response against C. albicans. A sfp1-deleted mutant was more resistant to oxidants and macrophage killing than wild-type C. albicans and processed an active oxidative stress response with the phosphorylation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) Hog1 and high CAP1 expression. Moreover, the sfp1-deleted mutant exhibited high expression levels of antioxidant genes in response to oxidative stress, resulting in a higher total antioxidant capacity, glutathione content, and glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase enzyme activity than the wild-type C. albicans. Finally, the sfp1-deleted mutant was resistant to macrophage killing and ROS-generating antifungal drugs. Together, our findings provide a new understanding of the complex regulatory machinery in the C. albicans oxidative stress response.


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