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How Escherichia coli tolerates profuse hydrogen peroxide formation by a catabolic pathway.

ABSTRACT: When Escherichia coli grows on conventional substrates, it continuously generates 10 to 15 ?M/s intracellular H2O2 through the accidental autoxidation of redox enzymes. Dosimetric analyses indicate that scavenging enzymes barely keep this H2O2 below toxic levels. Therefore, it seemed potentially problematic that E. coli can synthesize a catabolic phenylethylamine oxidase that stoichiometrically generates H2O2. This study was undertaken to understand how E. coli tolerates the oxidative stress that must ensue. Measurements indicated that phenylethylamine-fed cells generate H2O2 at 30 times the rate of glucose-fed cells. Two tolerance mechanisms were identified. First, in enclosed laboratory cultures, growth on phenylethylamine triggered induction of the OxyR H2O2 stress response. Null mutants (?oxyR) that could not induce that response were unable to grow. This is the first demonstration that OxyR plays a role in protecting cells against endogenous H2O2. The critical element of the OxyR response was the induction of H2O2 scavenging enzymes, since mutants that lacked NADH peroxidase (Ahp) grew poorly, and those that additionally lacked catalase did not grow at all. Other OxyR-controlled genes were expendable. Second, phenylethylamine oxidase is an unusual catabolic enzyme in that it is localized in the periplasm. Calculations showed that when cells grow in an open environment, virtually all of the oxidase-generated H2O2 will diffuse across the outer membrane and be lost to the external world, rather than enter the cytoplasm where H2O2-sensitive enzymes are located. In this respect, the periplasmic compartmentalization of phenylethylamine oxidase serves the same purpose as the peroxisomal compartmentalization of oxidases in eukaryotic cells.

SUBMITTER: Ravindra Kumar S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3807432 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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How Escherichia coli tolerates profuse hydrogen peroxide formation by a catabolic pathway.

Ravindra Kumar Sripriya S Imlay James A JA

Journal of bacteriology 20130802 20

When Escherichia coli grows on conventional substrates, it continuously generates 10 to 15 μM/s intracellular H2O2 through the accidental autoxidation of redox enzymes. Dosimetric analyses indicate that scavenging enzymes barely keep this H2O2 below toxic levels. Therefore, it seemed potentially problematic that E. coli can synthesize a catabolic phenylethylamine oxidase that stoichiometrically generates H2O2. This study was undertaken to understand how E. coli tolerates the oxidative stress tha ...[more]

PMID: 23913322

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Project description:Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is used by phagocytic cells of the innate immune response to kill engulfed bacteria. H2O2 diffuses freely into bacteria, where it can wreak havoc on sensitive biomolecules if it is not rapidly detoxified. Accordingly, bacteria have evolved numerous systems to defend themselves against H2O2, and the importance of these systems to pathogenesis has been substantiated by the many bacteria that require them to establish or sustain infections. The kinetic competition for H2O2 within bacteria is complex, which suggests that quantitative models will improve interpretation and prediction of network behavior. To date, such models have been of limited scope, and this inspired us to construct a quantitative, systems-level model of H2O2 detoxification in Escherichia coli that includes detoxification enzymes, H2O2-dependent transcriptional regulation, enzyme degradation, the Fenton reaction and damage caused by •OH, oxidation of biomolecules by H2O2, and repair processes. After using an iterative computational and experimental procedure to train the model, we leveraged it to predict how H2O2 detoxification would change in response to an environmental perturbation that pathogens encounter within host phagosomes, carbon source deprivation, which leads to translational inhibition and limited availability of NADH. We found that the model accurately predicted that NADH depletion would delay clearance at low H2O2 concentrations and that detoxification at higher concentrations would resemble that of carbon-replete conditions. These results suggest that protein synthesis during bolus H2O2 stress does not affect clearance dynamics and that access to catabolites only matters at low H2O2 concentrations. We anticipate that this model will serve as a computational tool for the quantitative exploration and dissection of oxidative stress in bacteria, and that the model and methods used to develop it will provide important templates for the generation of comparable models for other bacterial species.

Project description:Oxidized cytochrome bo reacts rapidly with micromolar concentrations of H2O2 to form a single derivative. The electronic absorption spectrum of this compound differs from that of the oxidized form of the enzyme reported by this laboratory [Watmough, Cheesman, Gennis, Greenwood and Thomson (1993) FEBS Lett. 319, 151-154]. It is characterized by a Soret maximum at 411 nm, increased absorbance at 555 nm, and reduced intensity at 624 nm. The apparent dissociation constant for this process is of the order of 4 x 10(-6) M, and the bimolecular rate constant for the formation of the new compound is (1.25-1.7) x 10(3) M-1.s-1. Electronic absorption difference spectroscopy shows this product to be identical with the compound formed from the reaction of the mixed-valence form of the enzyme with dioxygen. Investigation of this compound by room-temperature magnetic c.d. spectroscopy shows haem o to be neither high-spin nor low-spin ferric, but to have a spectrum characteristic of an oxyferryl species. There is no evidence for oxidation of the porphyrin ring. Therefore the binuclear centre of this species must consist of an oxyferryl haem (S = 1) coupled to a Cu(II) ion (S = 1/2) to form a new paramagnetic centre. The reaction was also followed by X-band e.p.r. spectroscopy, and this showed the disappearance in parallel with the formation of the oxyferryl species, of the broad g = 3.7, signal which arises from the weakly coupled binuclear centre in the oxidized enzyme. Since no new e.p.r.-detectable paramagnetic species were observed, the Cu(II) ion is presumed to be coupled to another paramagnet, possibly an organic radical. There is no evidence in the electronic absorption spectrum to indicate further reaction of cytochrome bo with H2O2 to form a second species. We argue that the circumstances of formation of this oxyferryl species are the same as those for the P form of cytochrome c oxidase, a species often regarded as containing a bound peroxide ion. The implications of these observations for the reaction mechanism of haem-copper terminal oxidases are discussed.

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How Escherichia coli tolerates profuse hydrogen peroxide formation by a catabolic pathway.

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How Escherichia coli tolerates profuse hydrogen peroxide formation by a catabolic pathway.

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