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Hemerythrins in the microaerophilic bacterium Campylobacter jejuni help protect key iron-sulphur cluster enzymes from oxidative damage.

ABSTRACT: Microaerophilic bacteria are adapted to low oxygen environments, but the mechanisms by which their growth in air is inhibited are not well understood. The citric acid cycle in the microaerophilic pathogen Campylobacter jejuni is potentially vulnerable, as it employs pyruvate and 2-oxoglutarate:acceptor oxidoreductases (Por and Oor), which contain labile (4Fe-4S) centres. Here, we show that both enzymes are rapidly inactivated after exposure of cells to a fully aerobic environment. We investigated the mechanisms that might protect enzyme activity and identify a role for the hemerythrin HerA (Cj0241). A herA mutant exhibits an aerobic growth defect and reduced Por and Oor activities after exposure to 21% (v/v) oxygen. Slow anaerobic recovery of these activities after oxygen damage was observed, but at similar rates in both wild-type and herA strains, suggesting the role of HerA is to prevent Fe-S cluster damage, rather than promote repair. Another hemerythrin (HerB; Cj1224) also plays a protective role. Purified HerA and HerB exhibited optical absorption, ligand binding and resonance Raman spectra typical of ?-oxo-bridged di-iron containing hemerythrins. We conclude that oxygen lability and poor repair of Por and Oor are major contributors to microaerophily in C.?jejuni; hemerythrins help prevent enzyme damage microaerobically or during oxygen transients.

SUBMITTER: Kendall JJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4257069 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Hemerythrins in the microaerophilic bacterium Campylobacter jejuni help protect key iron-sulphur cluster enzymes from oxidative damage.

Kendall John J JJ Barrero-Tobon Angelica M AM Hendrixson David R DR Kelly David J DJ

Environmental microbiology 20131217 4

Microaerophilic bacteria are adapted to low oxygen environments, but the mechanisms by which their growth in air is inhibited are not well understood. The citric acid cycle in the microaerophilic pathogen Campylobacter jejuni is potentially vulnerable, as it employs pyruvate and 2-oxoglutarate:acceptor oxidoreductases (Por and Oor), which contain labile (4Fe-4S) centres. Here, we show that both enzymes are rapidly inactivated after exposure of cells to a fully aerobic environment. We investigate ...[more]

PMID: 24245612

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Project description:The expression of iron-regulated systems in gram-negative bacteria is generally controlled by the Fur protein, which represses the transcription of iron-regulated promoters by using Fe2+ as a cofactor. Mutational analysis of the Campylobacter jejuni fur gene was carried out by generation of a set of mutant copies of fur which had a kanamycin or chloramphenicol resistance gene introduced into the regions encoding the N and C termini of the Fur protein. The mutated genes were recombined into the C. jejuni NCTC 11168 chromosome, and putative mutants were confirmed by Southern hybridization. C. jejuni mutants were obtained only when the resistance genes were transcribed in the same orientation as the fur gene. The C. jejuni fur mutant grew slower than the parental strain. Comparison of protein profiles of fractionated C. jejuni cells grown in low- or high-iron medium indicated derepressed expression of three iron-regulated outer membrane proteins with molecular masses of 70, 75, and 80 kDa. Characterization by N-terminal amino acid sequencing showed the 75-kDa protein to be identical to CfrA, a Campylobacter coli siderophore receptor homologue, whereas the 70-kDa protein was identified as a new siderophore receptor homologue. Periplasmic fractions contained four derepressed proteins with molecular masses of 19, 29, 32, and 36 kDa. The 19-kDa protein has been previously identified, but its function is unknown. The cytoplasmic fraction contained two iron-repressed and two iron-induced proteins with molecular masses of 26, 55, 31, and 40 kDa, respectively. The two iron-repressed proteins have been previously identified as the oxidative stress defense proteins catalase (KatA) and alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (AhpC). AhpC and KatA were still iron regulated in the fur mutant, suggesting the presence of Fur-independent iron regulation. Further analysis of the C. jejuni iron and Fur regulons by using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis demonstrated the total number of iron- and Fur-regulated proteins to be lower than for other bacterial pathogens.

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Hemerythrins in the microaerophilic bacterium Campylobacter jejuni help protect key iron-sulphur cluster enzymes from oxidative damage.

Publications

Hemerythrins in the microaerophilic bacterium Campylobacter jejuni help protect key iron-sulphur cluster enzymes from oxidative damage.

Similar Datasets

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