Physiological role of GlpB of anaerobic glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase ofEscherichia coli

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 147-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica E. R. Varga ◽  
Joel H. Weiner

Anaerobic sn-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase of Escherichia coli is encoded by an operon of three genes, glpACB. The promoter distal gene, glpB, encodes a 44-kilodalton polypeptide that is not part of the purified soluble dehydrogenase. By recombinant plasmid complementation, in a strain harboring a chromosomal deletion of glpACB, we found that all three genes were essential for anaerobic growth on glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P). By isolation of inner membrane preparations we confirmed the cytoplasmic membrane localization of GlpB. GlpB displayed an electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum that suggested the presence of iron–sulfur center(s) within GlpB. We used this spectrum to show that the center(s) were reduced by the artificial reductant dithionite and by the physiological substrate G3P but not by lactate or formate. The center(s) were oxidized by fumarate. These data indicated that GlpB mediates electron transfer from the soluble GlpAC dimer to the terminal electron acceptor fumarate via the membrane-bound menaquinone pool.Key words: glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, anaerobic electron transport, membrane proteins, ferredoxin, Escherichia coli.

1999 ◽  
Vol 344 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura C. POTTER ◽  
Paul MILLINGTON ◽  
Lesley GRIFFITHS ◽  
Gavin H. THOMAS ◽  
Jeffrey A. COLE

The physiological role of the periplasmic nitrate reductase, Nap, one of the three nitrate reductases synthesized by Escherichia coli K-12, has been investigated. A series of double mutants that express only one nitrate reductase were grown anaerobically in batch cultures with glycerol as the non-fermentable carbon source and nitrate as the terminal electron acceptor. Only the strain expressing nitrate reductase A grew rapidly under these conditions. Introduction of a narL mutation severely decreased the growth rate of the nitrate reductase A strain, but enhanced the growth of the Nap+ strain. The ability to use nitrate as a terminal electron acceptor for anaerobic growth is therefore regulated primarily by the NarL protein at the level of transcription. Furthermore, the strain expressing nitrate reductase A had a substantial selective advantage in competition with the strain expressing only Nap during nitrate-sufficient continuous culture. However, the strain expressing Nap was preferentially selected during nitrate-limited continuous growth. The saturation constants for nitrate for the two strains (which numerically are equal to the nitrate concentrations at half of the maximum specific growth rate and therefore reflect the relative affinities for nitrate) were estimated using the integrated Monod equation to be 15 and 50 μM for Nap and nitrate reductase A respectively. This difference is sufficient to explain the selective advantage of the Nap+ strain during nitrate-limited growth. It is concluded that one physiological role of the periplasmic nitrate reductase of enteric bacteria is to enable bacteria to scavenge nitrate in nitrate-limited environments.


Author(s):  
Magali Roger ◽  
Thomas C. P. Reed ◽  
Frank Sargent

Escherichia coli is gram-negative bacterium that is a workhorse for biotechnology. The organism naturally performs a mixed-acid fermentation under anaerobic conditions where it synthesises formate hydrogenlyase (FHL-1). The physiological role of the enzyme is the disproportionation of formate in to H 2 and CO 2 . However, the enzyme has been observed to catalyse hydrogenation of CO 2 given the correct conditions, and so has possibilities in bio-based carbon capture and storage if it can be harnessed as a hydrogen-dependent CO 2 -reductase (HDCR). In this study, an E. coli host strain was engineered for the continuous production of formic acid from H 2 and CO 2 during bacterial growth in a pressurised batch bioreactor. Incorporation of tungsten, in place of molybdenum, in FHL-1 helped to impose a degree of catalytic bias on the enzyme. This work demonstrates that it is possible to couple cell growth to simultaneous, unidirectional formate production from carbon dioxide and develops a process for growth under pressurised gases. IMPORTANCE Greenhouse gas emissions, including waste carbon dioxide, are contributing to global climate change. A basket of solutions is needed to steadily reduce emissions, and one approach is bio-based carbon capture and storage. Here we present out latest work on harnessing a novel biological solution for carbon capture. The Escherichia coli formate hydrogenlyase (FHL-1) was engineered to be constitutively expressed. Anaerobic growth under pressurised H 2 and CO 2 gases was established and aqueous formic acid was produced as a result. Incorporation of tungsten in to the enzyme in place of molybdenum proved useful in poising FHL-1 as a hydrogen-dependent CO 2 reductase (HDCR).


1988 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 822-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly E. Richter ◽  
Jacek Switala ◽  
Peter C. Loewen

The addition of ascorbate to aerobically growing cultures of Escherichia coli B caused only a short pause in growth and no subsequent change in the rate or extent of growth. The effect of ascorbate on oxygen uptake varied from inhibition in minimal medium to stimulation in rich medium. Cyanide-resistant growth and oxygen uptake were stimulated by ascorbate. Both the rate and extent of anaerobic growth were stimulated in proportion to the amount of ascorbate added when fumarate was the terminal electron acceptor. Ascorbate had no effect on any aspect of anaerobic growth in the absence of a terminal electron acceptor or in the presence of nitrate.


2008 ◽  
Vol 190 (18) ◽  
pp. 6170-6177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda D. Rankin ◽  
Diane M. Bodenmiller ◽  
Jonathan D. Partridge ◽  
Shirley F. Nishino ◽  
Jim C. Spain ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Chromatin immunoprecipitation and microarray (ChIP-chip) analysis showed that the nitric oxide (NO)-sensitive repressor NsrR from Escherichia coli binds in vivo to the promoters of the tynA and feaB genes. These genes encode the first two enzymes of a pathway that is required for the catabolism of phenylethylamine (PEA) and its hydroxylated derivatives tyramine and dopamine. Deletion of nsrR caused small increases in the activities of the tynA and feaB promoters in cultures grown on PEA. Overexpression of nsrR severely retarded growth on PEA and caused a marked repression of the tynA and feaB promoters. Both the growth defect and the promoter repression were reversed in the presence of a source of NO. These results are consistent with NsrR mediating repression of the tynA and feaB genes by binding (in an NO-sensitive fashion) to the sites identified by ChIP-chip. E. coli was shown to use 3-nitrotyramine as a nitrogen source for growth, conditions which partially induce the tynA and feaB promoters. Mutation of tynA (but not feaB) prevented growth on 3-nitrotyramine. Growth yields, mutant phenotypes, and analyses of culture supernatants suggested that 3-nitrotyramine is oxidized to 4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenylacetate, with growth occurring at the expense of the amino group of 3-nitrotyramine. Accordingly, enzyme assays showed that 3-nitrotyramine and its oxidation product (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenylacetaldehyde) could be oxidized by the enzymes encoded by tynA and feaB, respectively. The results suggest that an additional physiological role of the PEA catabolic pathway is to metabolize nitroaromatic compounds that may accumulate in cells exposed to NO.


2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 657-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xueqiao Liu ◽  
Gabriela R. Peña Sandoval ◽  
Barry L. Wanner ◽  
Won Seok Jung ◽  
Dimitris Georgellis ◽  
...  

1989 ◽  
Vol 37 (12) ◽  
pp. 1893-1898 ◽  
Author(s):  
H F Zoellner ◽  
N Hunter

Alkaline phosphatase (AP) is a widely studied membrane bound ecto-enzyme with an extensive distribution in nature. Three major human isoenzymes have been defined and can be distinguished on the basis of their differential sensitivity to specific inhibitors. Despite the voluminous literature describing AP, the physiological role of this enzyme is unclear. Microvascular endothelium is strongly AP positive and may provide a convenient model for study of the role of AP in vitro. This report describes the use of freeze-substitution and high-resolution plastic embedding techniques to identify the isoenzyme of endothelial AP by quantitative analysis of the relative inhibition by specific inhibitors of AP, using human gingival tissues and a number of rat tissues. Endothelial AP is found to be the liver/bone/kidney isoenzyme, indicating kidney as a credible source of enzyme for further experimental work investigating the role of AP.


1998 ◽  
Vol 334 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sutipa TANAPONGPIPAT ◽  
Eleanor REID ◽  
Jeffrey A. COLE ◽  
Helen CROOKE

The eight ccm genes located at minute 47 on the Escherichia coli chromosome, in the order ccmABCDEFGH, encode homologues of proteins which are essential for cytochrome c assembly in other bacteria. The ccm genes are immediately downstream from the napFDAGHBC genes encoding a periplasmic nitrate reductase. CcmH was previously shown to be essential for cytochrome c assembly. Deletion analysis and a two-plasmid strategy have now been used to demonstrate that CcmA, B, D, E, F and G are also essential for cytochrome c assembly, and hence for cytochrome-c-dependent nitrite reduction. The ccm genes are transcribed from a ccmA promoter located within the adjacent gene, napC, which is the structural gene for a 24 kDa membrane-bound c-type cytochrome, NapC. Transcription from this ccmA promoter is induced approximately 5-fold during anaerobic growth, independently of a functional Fnr protein: it is also not regulated by the ArcB–ArcA two-component regulatory system. The ccmA promoter is an example of the ‘extended -10 sequence ’ group of promoters with a TGX motif immediately upstream of the -10 sequence. Mutagenesis of the TG motif to TC, CT or CC resulted in loss of about 50% of the promoter activity. A weak second promoter is suggested to permit transcription of the downstream ccmEFGH genes in the absence of transcription readthrough from the upstream napF and ccmA promoters. The results are consistent with, but do not prove, the current view that CcmA, B, C and D are part of an essential haem transport mechanism, that CcmE, F and H are required for covalent haem attachment to cysteine-histidine motifs in cytochrome c apoproteins in the periplasm, and that CcmG is required for the reduction of cysteine residues on apocytochromes c in preparation for haem ligation.


2001 ◽  
Vol 355 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor REID ◽  
Jeff COLE ◽  
Deborah J. EAVES

In Escherichia coli K-12, c-type cytochromes are synthesized only during anaerobic growth with trimethylamine-N-oxide, nitrite or low concentrations of nitrate as the terminal electron acceptor. A thioredoxin-like protein, CcmG, is one of 12 proteins required for their assembly in the periplasm. Its postulated function is to reduce disulphide bonds formed between correctly paired cysteine residues in the cytochrome c apoproteins prior to haem attachment by CcmF and CcmH. We report that loss of CcmG synthesis by mutation was not compensated by a second mutation in disulphide-bond-forming proteins, DsbA or DsbB, or by the chemical reductant, 2-mercaptoethanesulphonic acid. An anti-CcmG polyclonal antibody was used in Western-blot analysis to probe the redox state of CcmG in mutants defective in the synthesis of other proteins essential for cytochrome c assembly. The oxidized form of CcmG accumulated not only in trxA or dipZ mutants defective in the transfer of electrons from the cytoplasm for disulphide isomerization and reduction reactions in the periplasm, but also in ccmF and ccmH mutants. The requirement of both CcmF and CcmH for the reduction of the disulphide bond in CcmG indicates that CcmG functions later than CcmF and CcmH in cytochrome c assembly, rather than in electron transfer from the membrane-associated DipZ (also known as DsbD) to CcmH. The data support a model proposed by others in which CcmG catalyses one of the last reactions specific to cytochrome c assembly.


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