Project description: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.
Project description:G. sulfurreducens was cultured on a variety of different iron concentrations and differential expression analysis was used to identify the iron stimulon.
Project description:Fur is a transcriptional regulator whose activity is dependent on Fe(II) concentrations. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) coupled to microarray analysis allowed for the identification of Fur binding sites within the G. sulfurreducens genome.
Project description:G. sulfurreducens was cultured on a variety of different iron concentrations and differential expression analysis was used to identify the iron stimulon. Wild type G. sulfurreducens was cultured on fresh water media with trace concentrations of iron (iron sufficient condition) as well as no trace iron (iron deficient condition). It was also cultured in ferric citrate (iron excess condition) media
Project description:Fur is a transcriptional regulator whose activity is dependent on Fe(II) concentrations. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) coupled to microarray analysis allowed for the identification of Fur binding sites within the G. sulfurreducens genome. Wild type G. sulfurreducnes was cultured on fresh water media (harvested during log phase), and ChIP was used to identify Fur binding regions.
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 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 Two experimental procedures, each of them performed in two replicates. A total of four independent biological samples were used