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Interactions between the Fe(III)-reducing bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens and arsenate, and capture of the metalloid by biogenic Fe(II).

ABSTRACT: Previous work has shown that microbial communities in As-mobilizing sediments from West Bengal were dominated by Geobacter species. Thus, the potential of Geobacter sulfurreducens to mobilize arsenic via direct enzymatic reduction and indirect mechanisms linked to Fe(III) reduction was analyzed. G. sulfurreducens was unable to conserve energy for growth via the dissimilatory reduction of As(V), although it was able to grow in medium containing fumarate as the terminal electron acceptor in the presence of 500 muM As(V). There was also no evidence of As(III) in culture supernatants, suggesting that resistance to 500 muM As(V) was not mediated by a classical arsenic resistance operon, which would rely on the intracellular reduction of As(V) and the efflux of As(III). When the cells were grown using soluble Fe(III) as an electron acceptor in the presence of As(V), the Fe(II)-bearing mineral vivianite was formed. This was accompanied by the removal of As, predominantly as As(V), from solution. Biogenic siderite (ferrous carbonate) was also able to remove As from solution. When the organism was grown using insoluble ferrihydrite as an electron acceptor, Fe(III) reduction resulted in the formation of magnetite, again accompanied by the nearly quantitative sorption of As(V). These results demonstrate that G. sulfurreducens, a model Fe(III)-reducing bacterium, did not reduce As(V) enzymatically, despite the apparent genetic potential to mediate this transformation. However, the reduction of Fe(III) led to the formation of Fe(II)-bearing phases that are able to capture arsenic species and could act as sinks for arsenic in sediments.

SUBMITTER: Islam FS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1317334 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Interactions between the Fe(III)-reducing bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens and arsenate, and capture of the metalloid by biogenic Fe(II).

Islam F S FS Pederick R L RL Gault A G AG Adams L K LK Polya D A DA Charnock J M JM Lloyd J R JR

Applied and environmental microbiology 20051201 12

Previous work has shown that microbial communities in As-mobilizing sediments from West Bengal were dominated by Geobacter species. Thus, the potential of Geobacter sulfurreducens to mobilize arsenic via direct enzymatic reduction and indirect mechanisms linked to Fe(III) reduction was analyzed. G. sulfurreducens was unable to conserve energy for growth via the dissimilatory reduction of As(V), although it was able to grow in medium containing fumarate as the terminal electron acceptor in the pr ...[more]

PMID: 16332858

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Project description:Geobacter sulfurreducens is a well-studied representative of the Geobacteraceae, which play a critical role in organic matter oxidation coupled to Fe(III) reduction, bioremediation of groundwater contaminated with organics or metals, and electricity production from waste organic matter. In order to investigate G. sulfurreducens central metabolism and electron transport, a metabolic model which integrated genome-based predictions with available genetic and physiological data was developed via the constraint-based modeling approach. Evaluation of the rates of proton production and consumption in the extracellular and cytoplasmic compartments revealed that energy conservation with extracellular electron acceptors, such as Fe(III), was limited relative to that associated with intracellular acceptors. This limitation was attributed to lack of cytoplasmic proton consumption during reduction of extracellular electron acceptors. Model-based analysis of the metabolic cost of producing an extracellular electron shuttle to promote electron transfer to insoluble Fe(III) oxides demonstrated why Geobacter species, which do not produce shuttles, have an energetic advantage over shuttle-producing Fe(III) reducers in subsurface environments. In silico analysis also revealed that the metabolic network of G. sulfurreducens could synthesize amino acids more efficiently than that of Escherichia coli due to the presence of a pyruvate-ferredoxin oxidoreductase, which catalyzes synthesis of pyruvate from acetate and carbon dioxide in a single step. In silico phenotypic analysis of deletion mutants demonstrated the capability of the model to explore the flexibility of G. sulfurreducens central metabolism and correctly predict mutant phenotypes. These results demonstrate that iterative modeling coupled with experimentation can accelerate the understanding of the physiology of poorly studied but environmentally relevant organisms and may help optimize their practical applications.

Project description:Whole-genome DNA microarray analysis of Geobacter sulfurreducens cells grown on Fe(III)-oxide or Mn(IV)-oxide versus cells grown on soluble Fe(III) citrate indicated that there were significant differences in transcription patterns during growth on the insoluble metal oxides compared to growth on soluble Fe(III). Many of the genes that appeared to be up-regulated during growth on the metal hydroxides were involved in electron transport. The most highly up-regulated genes for both conditions were omcS and omcT, which encode co-transcribed c-type cytochromes exposed on the outer surface of the cell that are known to be required for Fe(III) and Mn(IV)-oxide reduction. Other electron transport genes that were up-regulated on both insoluble metals included the gene coding for the outer membrane c-type cytochrome, OmcG, genes for the outer membrane proteins, OmpB and OmpC, and the gene that codes for the structural protein of electrically conductive pili, PilA. Genes that were up-regulated in cells grown on Fe(III)-oxide but not Mn(IV)-oxide, included outer membrane c-type cytochromes including OmcE, a putative DMSO reductase protein, and proteins from the cytochrome bc1 complex. Electron transport genes that were only up-regulated in Mn(IV)-oxide grown cells included the genes that code for the outer membrane c-type cytochromes, OmcZ and OmcB, the periplasmic c-type cytochrome, MacA, and fumarate reductase. Genetic studies indicated that the c-type cytochrome proteins, PpcH, OmcJ, OmcM, OmcV, MacA, OmcF, OmcI, and OmcQ, and the iron sulfur subunit of the cytochrome b/b6 complex, QcrA, are important for reduction of insoluble Fe(III)-oxides but do not appear to be important for Mn(IV) reduction. These results demonstrate that the physiology of Fe(III) reducing bacteria differ significantly during growth on insoluble electron and soluble electron acceptors and emphasizes the importance of c-type cytochromes in extracellular electron transfer in G. sulfurreducens. Geobacter sulfurreducens cells were grown with acetate (5 mM) provided as the electron donor and either Fe(III) oxide or Fe(III) citrate provided as the electron acceptor. Cells were harvested at mid-log and total RNA was extracted. Total RNA (0.5 μg) was amplified using the MessageAmp II-Bacteria Kit (Ambion, Foster City, CA) according to the manufacturers instructions. Ten micrograms of amplified RNA (aRNA) was chemically labeled with Cy3 (for the control or soluble electron acceptor condition) or Cy5 (for the experimental or insoluble electron acceptor condition) dye using the MicroMax ASAP RNA Labeling Kit (Perkin Elmer, Wellesley, MA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Dataset Information

Interactions between the Fe(III)-reducing bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens and arsenate, and capture of the metalloid by biogenic Fe(II).

Publications

Interactions between the Fe(III)-reducing bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens and arsenate, and capture of the metalloid by biogenic Fe(II).

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