Authors: Chunli Zheng Minjie Chen Dan Wang Li Zhang JianYing Wang Xuefeng Zhang
Publish Date: 2016/07/04
Volume: 73, Issue: 4, Pages: 527-533
Abstract
We have previously demonstrated that in Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans resistance to the highly toxic divalent cation Cd2+ is mediated in part by the sulfur assimilation pathway SAP and enhanced intracellular concentrations of cysteine and glutathioneGSH Zheng et al Extremophiles 19429–436 2015 In this paper we investigate the interplay between Zn2+ and Pb2+ resistances SAP gene expression and thiolcontaining metabolite levels Cells grown in the presence of 300 mM Zn2+ had enhanced activities of the following enzymes adenosylphosphosulphate reductase APR 40fold serine acetyltransferase SAT 180fold and Oacetylserine thiol lyase OASTL 230fold We investigated the concentrations of mRNA transcripts of the genes encoding these enzymes in cells grown in the presence of 600 mM Zn2+ transcripts for 4 SAP genes—ATPSATP sulphurylase APR SiRsulfite reductase SAT and OASTL—each showed a more than threefold increase in concentration At the metabolite level concentrations of intracellular cysteine and glutathione GSH were nearly doubled When cells were grown in the presence of 10 mM Pb2+ SAP gene transcript concentrations cysteine and GSH concentrations were all decreased as were SAP enzyme activities These results suggested that Zn2+ induced SAP pathway gene transcription while Pb2+ inhibited SAP gene expression and enzyme activities compared to the pathway in most organisms Because of the detoxification function of thiol pool the results also suggested that the high resistance of A ferrooxidans to Zn2+ may also be due to regulation of GSH and the cysteine synthesis pathwayThe project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China 5126402941561094 the Environmental Public Welfare Scientific Research Project 201309005 the Inner Mengolia Science Technology Plan Program for Young Talents of Science and Technology in Universities of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region NJYT14B12 and the Innovation Foundation of Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology 2014QNGG05
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