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The iron stimulon and fur regulon of Geobacter sulfurreducens and their role in energy metabolism.

ABSTRACT: Iron plays a critical role in the physiology of Geobacter species. It serves as both an essential component for proteins and cofactors and an electron acceptor during anaerobic respiration. Here, we investigated the iron stimulon and ferric uptake regulator (Fur) regulon of Geobacter sulfurreducens to examine the coordination between uptake of Fe(II) and the reduction of Fe(III) at the transcriptional level. Gene expression studies across a variety of different iron concentrations in both the wild type and a ?fur mutant strain were used to determine the iron stimulon. The stimulon consists of a broad range of gene products, ranging from iron-utilizing to central metabolism and iron reduction proteins. Integration of gene expression and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) data sets assisted in the identification of the Fur transcriptional regulatory network and Fur's role as a regulator of the iron stimulon. Additional physiological and transcriptional analyses of G. sulfurreducens grown with various Fe(II) concentrations revealed the depth of Fur's involvement in energy metabolism and the existence of redundancy within the iron-regulatory network represented by IdeR, an alternative iron transcriptional regulator. These characteristics enable G. sulfurreducens to thrive in environments with fluctuating iron concentrations by providing it with a robust mechanism to maintain tight and deliberate control over intracellular iron homeostasis.

SUBMITTER: Embree M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3993298 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The iron stimulon and fur regulon of Geobacter sulfurreducens and their role in energy metabolism.

Embree Mallory M Qiu Yu Y Shieu Wendy W Nagarajan Harish H O'Neil Regina R Lovley Derek D Zengler Karsten K

Applied and environmental microbiology 20140228 9

Iron plays a critical role in the physiology of Geobacter species. It serves as both an essential component for proteins and cofactors and an electron acceptor during anaerobic respiration. Here, we investigated the iron stimulon and ferric uptake regulator (Fur) regulon of Geobacter sulfurreducens to examine the coordination between uptake of Fe(II) and the reduction of Fe(III) at the transcriptional level. Gene expression studies across a variety of different iron concentrations in both the wi ...[more]

PMID: 24584254

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Project description:In the alpha subclass of proteobacteria iron homeostasis is controlled by diverse iron responsive regulators. Caulobacter crescentus, an important freshwater α-proteobacterium, uses the ferric uptake repressor (Fur) for such purpose. However, the impact of the iron availability on the C. crescentus transcriptome and an overall perspective of the regulatory networks involved remain unknown. In this work we report the identification of iron-responsive and Fur-regulated genes in C. crescentus using microarray-based global transcriptional analyses. We identify 46 genes that were strongly upregulated both by mutation of fur and by iron limitation condition. Among them, there are genes involved in iron uptake (four TonB dependent receptor gene clusters, feoAB), riboflavin biosynthesis and some genes encoding hypothetical proteins. Most of these genes are associated with Fur binding sites, implicating them as direct targets of Fur-mediated repression. These data were validated by β-galactosidase and EMSA assays for two operons encoding putative transporters. The role of Fur as a positive regulator is also evident, given that 50 genes were downregulated both by mutation of fur and under low-iron condition. As expected, this group includes many genes involved in energy metabolism, mostly iron-using enzymes. Surprisingly, are also included in this group many genes encoding TonB dependent receptors and the genes fixK, fixT and ftrB encoding an oxygen signaling network required for growth during hypoxia. Bioinformatics analyses performed in the promoters of these genes suggest that positive regulation by Fur is mainly indirect. In addition to the Fur modulon, iron limitation altered expression of more 103 genes, including upregulation of genes involved in Fe-S cluster assembly, oxidative stress and heat shock response, as well as downregulation of genes implicated in amino acid metabolism, chemotaxis and motility. Altogether, our results showed that adaptation of C. crescentus to iron limitation involves increasing the transcription of iron-acquisition systems and decreasing the production of iron-using proteins as a general strategy

Project description:In the alpha subclass of proteobacteria iron homeostasis is controlled by diverse iron responsive regulators. Caulobacter crescentus, an important freshwater Î±-proteobacterium, uses the ferric uptake repressor (Fur) for such purpose. However, the impact of the iron availability on the C. crescentus transcriptome and an overall perspective of the regulatory networks involved remain unknown. In this work we report the identification of iron-responsive and Fur-regulated genes in C. crescentus using microarray-based global transcriptional analyses. We identify 46 genes that were strongly upregulated both by mutation of fur and by iron limitation condition. Among them, there are genes involved in iron uptake (four TonB dependent receptor gene clusters, feoAB), riboflavin biosynthesis and some genes encoding hypothetical proteins. Most of these genes are associated with Fur binding sites, implicating them as direct targets of Fur-mediated repression. These data were validated by Î²-galactosidase and EMSA assays for two operons encoding putative transporters. The role of Fur as a positive regulator is also evident, given that 50 genes were downregulated both by mutation of fur and under low-iron condition. As expected, this group includes many genes involved in energy metabolism, mostly iron-using enzymes. Surprisingly, are also included in this group many genes encoding TonB dependent receptors and the genes fixK, fixT and ftrB encoding an oxygen signaling network required for growth during hypoxia. Bioinformatics analyses performed in the promoters of these genes suggest that positive regulation by Fur is mainly indirect. In addition to the Fur modulon, iron limitation altered expression of more 103 genes, including upregulation of genes involved in Fe-S cluster assembly, oxidative stress and heat shock response, as well as downregulation of genes implicated in amino acid metabolism, chemotaxis and motility. Altogether, our results showed that adaptation of C. crescentus to iron limitation involves increasing the transcription of iron-acquisition systems and decreasing the production of iron-using proteins as a general strategy Two experimental procedures, each of them performed in two replicates. A total of four independent biological samples were used

Project description:BACKGROUND: The role of the RNA polymerase sigma factor RpoN in regulation of gene expression in Geobacter sulfurreducens was investigated to better understand transcriptional regulatory networks as part of an effort to develop regulatory modules for genome-scale in silico models, which can predict the physiological responses of Geobacter species during groundwater bioremediation or electricity production. RESULTS: An rpoN deletion mutant could not be obtained under all conditions tested. In order to investigate the regulon of the G. sulfurreducens RpoN, an RpoN over-expression strain was made in which an extra copy of the rpoN gene was under the control of a taclac promoter. Combining both the microarray transcriptome analysis and the computational prediction revealed that the G. sulfurreducens RpoN controls genes involved in a wide range of cellular functions. Most importantly, RpoN controls the expression of the dcuB gene encoding the fumarate/succinate exchanger, which is essential for cell growth with fumarate as the terminal electron acceptor in G. sulfurreducens. RpoN also controls genes, which encode enzymes for both pathways of ammonia assimilation that is predicted to be essential under all growth conditions in G. sulfurreducens. Other genes that were identified as part of the RpoN regulon using either the computational prediction or the microarray transcriptome analysis included genes involved in flagella biosynthesis, pili biosynthesis and genes involved in central metabolism enzymes and cytochromes involved in extracellular electron transfer to Fe(III), which are known to be important for growth in subsurface environment or electricity production in microbial fuel cells. The consensus sequence for the predicted RpoN-regulated promoter elements is TTGGCACGGTTTTTGCT. CONCLUSION: The G. sulfurreducens RpoN is an essential sigma factor and a global regulator involved in a complex transcriptional network controlling a variety of cellular processes.

Project description:Geobacter sulfurreducens is a ubiquitous iron-reducing bacterium in soils, and in engineered systems, it can respire an electrode to produce measurable electric current. Its unique metabolism, heavily dependent on an extensive network of cytochromes, requires a unique cell composition. In this work, we used metallomics, cell fraction and elemental analyses, and transcriptomics to study and analyze the cell composition of G. sulfurreducens. Elemental composition studies (C, H, O, N, and ash content) showed high C:O and H:O ratios of approximately 1.7:1 and 0.25:1, indicative of more reduced cell composition that is consistent with high lipid content. Our study shows that G. sulfurreducens cells have a large amount of iron (2 ± 0.2 μg/g dry weight) and lipids (32 ± 0.5% dry weight/dry weight) and that this composition does not change whether the cells are grown with a soluble or an insoluble electron acceptor. The high iron concentration, higher than similar microorganisms, is attributed to the production of cytochromes that are abundant in transcriptomic analyses in both solid and soluble electron acceptor growth. The unique cell composition of G. sulfurreducens must be considered when growing this microorganism for lab studies and commercial applications. IMPORTANCE Geobacter sulfurreducens is an electroactive microorganism. In nature, it grows on metallic minerals by transferring electrons to them, effectively "breathing" metals. In a manmade system, it respires an electrode to produce an electric current. It has become a model organism for the study of electroactive organisms. There are potential biotechnological applications of an organism that can bridge the gap between biology and electrical signal and, as a ubiquitous iron reducer in soils around the world, G. sulfurreducens has an impact on the global iron cycle. We measured the concentrations of metals, macromolecules, and basic elements in G. sulfurreducens to define this organism's composition. We also used gene expression data to discuss which proteins those metals could be associated with. We found that G. sulfurreducens has a large amount of lipid and iron compared to other bacteria-these observations are important for future microbiologists and biotechnologists working with the organism.

Dataset Information

The iron stimulon and fur regulon of Geobacter sulfurreducens and their role in energy metabolism.

Publications

The iron stimulon and fur regulon of Geobacter sulfurreducens and their role in energy metabolism.

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