Project description:D-amino acids are essential components for bacterial peptidoglycan, and these natural compounds are also involved in cell wall remodeling and biofilm disassembling. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the dadAX operon, encoding the D-amino acid dehydrogenase DadA and the amino acid racemase DadX, is essential for D- and L-Ala catabolism, and its expression requires a transcriptional regulator, DadR. In this study, purified recombinant DadA alone was sufficient to demonstrate the proposed enzymatic activity with very broad substrate specificity; it utilizes all D-amino acids tested as substrates except D-Glu and D-Gln. DadA also showed comparable k(cat) and K(m) values on D-Ala and several D-amino acids. dadRAX knockout mutants were constructed and subjected to analysis of their growth phenotypes on amino acids. The results revealed that utilization of L-Ala, L-Trp, D-Ala, and a specific set of D-amino acids as sole nitrogen sources was abolished in the dadA mutant and/or severely hampered in the dadR mutant while growth yield on D-amino acids was surprisingly improved in the dadX mutant. The dadA promoter was induced by several L-amino acids, most strongly by Ala, and only by D-Ala among all tested D-amino acids. Enhanced growth of the dadX mutant on D-amino acids is consistent with the finding that the dadA promoter was constitutively induced in the dadX mutant, where exogenous D-Ala but not L-Ala reduced the expression. Binding of DadR to the dadA regulatory region was demonstrated by electromobility shift assays, and the presence of L-Ala but not D-Ala increased affinity by 3-fold. The presence of multiple DadR-DNA complexes in the dadA regulatory region was demonstrated in vitro, and the formation of these nucleoprotein complexes exerted a complicated impact on promoter activation in vivo. In summary, the results from this study clearly demonstrate DadA to be the enzyme solely responsible for the proposed D-amino acid dehydrogenase activity of broad substrate specificity and the physiological functions of DadRAX in catabolism of several D-amino acids and support L-Ala as the signal molecule for induction of the dadAX genes through DadR binding to several putative operator sites.

Project description:Polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) are major organic polycations essential for a wide spectrum of cellular processes. The cells require mechanisms to maintain homeostasis of intracellular polyamines to prevent otherwise severe adverse effects. We performed a detailed transcriptome profile analysis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in response to agmatine and putrescine with an emphasis in polyamine catabolism. Agmatine serves as the precursor compound for putrescine (and hence spermidine and spermine), which was proposed to convert into 4-aminobutyrate (GABA) and succinate before entering the tricarboxylic acid cycle in support of cell growth, as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen. Two acetylpolyamine amidohydrolases, AphA and AphB, were found to be involved in the conversion of agmatine into putrescine. Enzymatic products of AphA were confirmed by mass spectrometry analysis. Interestingly, the alanine-pyruvate cycle was shown to be indispensable for polyamine utilization. The newly identified dadRAX locus encoding the regulator alanine transaminase and racemase coupled with SpuC, the major putrescine-pyruvate transaminase, were key components to maintaining alanine homeostasis. Corresponding mutant strains were severely hampered in polyamine utilization. On the other hand, an alternative gamma-glutamylation pathway for the conversion of putrescine into GABA is present in some organisms. Subsequently, GabD, GabT, and PA5313 were identified for GABA utilization. The growth defect of the PA5313 gabT double mutant in GABA suggested the importance of these two transaminases. The succinic-semialdehyde dehydrogenase activity of GabD and its induction by GABA were also demonstrated in vitro. Polyamine utilization in general was proven to be independent of the PhoPQ two-component system, even though a modest induction of this operon was induced by polyamines. Multiple potent catabolic pathways, as depicted in this study, could serve pivotal roles in the control of intracellular polyamine levels.

Project description:Polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) are major organic polycations essential for a wide spectrum of cellular processes. The cells require mechanisms to maintain homeostasis of intracellular polyamines to prevent otherwise severe adverse effects. We performed a detailed transcriptome profile analysis of P. aeruginosa in response to agmatine and putrescine with an emphasis in polyamine catabolism. Agmatine serves as precursor compound for putrescine (and hence spermidine and spermine), which was proposed to convert into GABA and succinate before entering the TCA cycle in support of cell growth as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen. Two acetylpolyamine amidohydrolases, AphA and AphB, were identified to be involved in the conversion of agmatine into putrescine. Enzymatic products of AphA were confirmed by mass spectrometry analysis. Interestingly, the alanine-pyruvate cycle was shown indispensable for polyamine utilization. The newly identified dadRAX locus, encoding the regulator, alanine transaminase and racemase respectively, coupled with SpuC, the major putrescine-pyruvate transaminase, were key components to maintain alanine homeostasis. Corresponding mutant strains were severely hampered in polyamine utilization. On the other hand, the alternative gamma-glutamylation pathway for the conversion of putrescine into GABA was also discussed. Subsequently, GabD, GabT and PA5313 were identified for GABA utilization. Growth defect of PA5313 gabT double mutant in GABA suggested the importance of these two transaminases. The succinic-semialdehyde dehydrogenase activity of GabD and its induction by GABA was also demonstrated in vitro. Polyamine utilization in general was proven independent of the PhoPQ two-component system even the expression of which was induced by polyamines. Multiple potent catabolic pathways as depicted in this study could serve pivotal roles in control of intracellular polyamine levels. Keywords: Metabolism, polyamines, agmatine, putrescine, glutamate, phoPQ.

Project description:Polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) are major organic polycations essential for a wide spectrum of cellular processes. The cells require mechanisms to maintain homeostasis of intracellular polyamines to prevent otherwise severe adverse effects. We performed a detailed transcriptome profile analysis of P. aeruginosa in response to agmatine and putrescine with an emphasis in polyamine catabolism. Agmatine serves as precursor compound for putrescine (and hence spermidine and spermine), which was proposed to convert into GABA and succinate before entering the TCA cycle in support of cell growth as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen. Two acetylpolyamine amidohydrolases, AphA and AphB, were identified to be involved in the conversion of agmatine into putrescine. Enzymatic products of AphA were confirmed by mass spectrometry analysis. Interestingly, the alanine-pyruvate cycle was shown indispensable for polyamine utilization. The newly identified dadRAX locus, encoding the regulator, alanine transaminase and racemase respectively, coupled with SpuC, the major putrescine-pyruvate transaminase, were key components to maintain alanine homeostasis. Corresponding mutant strains were severely hampered in polyamine utilization. On the other hand, the alternative gamma-glutamylation pathway for the conversion of putrescine into GABA was also discussed. Subsequently, GabD, GabT and PA5313 were identified for GABA utilization. Growth defect of PA5313 gabT double mutant in GABA suggested the importance of these two transaminases. The succinic-semialdehyde dehydrogenase activity of GabD and its induction by GABA was also demonstrated in vitro. Polyamine utilization in general was proven independent of the PhoPQ two-component system even the expression of which was induced by polyamines. Multiple potent catabolic pathways as depicted in this study could serve pivotal roles in control of intracellular polyamine levels. Experiment Overall Design: P. aeruginosa PAO1 was grown aerobically in minimal medium P with 350 rpm shaking at 37C, in the presence of L-glutamate alone or with the addition of putrescine, agmatine or GABA at 20 mM. Cells were harvested when the optical density at 600 nm reached 0.5~0.6 by centrifugation for 5 minutes at 4C. Total RNA samples were isolated by RNeasy purification kit following instructions of the manufacturer (Qiagen). Reverse transcription for cDNA synthesis, fragmentation by DNase I treatment, cDNA probe labeling and hybridization were performed according to the instructions of GeneChip manufacturer (Affymetrix). Data were processed by Microarray Suite 5.0 software normalizing the absolute expression signal values of all chips to a target intensity of 500. GeneSpring software (Silicon Genetics) was used for expression pattern analysis and comparison. Only genes showing consistent expression profiles in duplicates were selected for further analysis.

Project description:The P. aeruginosa reference strain PAO1 has been used to delineate much of the physiology, metabolism, and fundamental biology of the species. The wild-type parent of PAO1 was lost, and PAO1 carries a regulatory mutation introduced for positive genetic selection that affects antibiotic resistance, virulence, quorum sensing, and other traits. The mutation is a loss-of-function change in an oxidoreductase gene (mexS), which constitutively activates a stress response controlled by a positive regulator (MexT). Fitness defects associated with the constitutive response have led to the inadvertent selection of mexT-minus suppressor mutations, creating genetic heterogeneity in PAO1 sublines studied in different laboratories. To help circumvent complications due to the mexS-minus phenotypes, we created a wild-type version of PAO1 (called LPAO) by "reverting" its mexS to the functional allele likely to have been in its parent. Phenotypic analysis revealed that the mexS-minus allele in PAO1 makes growth sensitive to salt (NaCl) and is lethal when combined with mutations inactivating the major sodium antiporter (ShaABCDEF). The salt sensitivity of PAO1 may underlie some complex mexS-minus phenotypes and help explain the selection of mexT-minus suppressor mutations. To facilitate genetic comparisons of PAO1, LPAO, and other P. aeruginosa strains, we developed a transformation procedure to transfer selectable alleles, such as transposon insertion alleles, between strains. Overall, the study helps explain phenotypic heterogeneity of PAO1-derived strains and provides resources to help recognize and eliminate difficulties due to it. IMPORTANCE The P. aeruginosa reference strain PAO1 carries a regulatory mutation that may affect processes characterized in it. To eliminate complications due to the mutation, we constructed a version of the missing wild-type parent strain and developed methods to transfer mutations between PAO1 and the new strain. The methods are likely to be applicable to other isolates of P. aeruginosa as well.

Dataset Information

Two genes for carbohydrate catabolism are divergently transcribed from a region of DNA containing the hexC locus in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1.

Publications

Two genes for carbohydrate catabolism are divergently transcribed from a region of DNA containing the hexC locus in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1.

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