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Transcriptional response of Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough to oxidative stress mimicking environmental conditions

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Abstract

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are anaerobes readily found in oxic–anoxic interfaces. Multiple defense pathways against oxidative conditions were identified in these organisms and proposed to be differentially expressed under different concentrations of oxygen, contributing to their ability to survive oxic conditions. In this study, Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough cells were exposed to the highest concentration of oxygen that SRB are likely to encounter in natural habitats, and the global transcriptomic response was determined. Three hundred and seven genes were responsive, with cellular roles in energy metabolism, protein fate, cell envelope and regulatory functions, including multiple genes encoding heat shock proteins, peptidases and proteins with heat shock promoters. Of the oxygen reducing mechanisms of D. vulgaris only the periplasmic hydrogen-dependent mechanism was up-regulated, involving the [NiFeSe] hydrogenase, formate dehydrogenase(s) and the Hmc membrane complex. The oxidative defense response concentrated on damage repair by metal-free enzymes. These data, together with the down-regulation of the ferric uptake regulator operon, which restricts the availability of iron, and the lack of response of the peroxide-sensing regulator operon, suggest that a major effect of this oxygen stress is the inactivation and/or degradation of multiple metalloproteins present in D. vulgaris as a consequence of oxidative damage to their metal clusters.

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Abbreviations

D :

Desulfovibrio

PMF:

Proton motive force

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

SRB:

Sulfate-reducing bacteria

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia grants PPCDT/2004/QUI/55690 and PTDC/QUI/68368/2006, co-funded by FEDER program, and by the United States Department of Energy under Genomics:GTL program through the Virtual Institute of Microbial Stress and Survival (http://vimss.lbl.gov), Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Office of Science. PMP was a recipient of the FCT PhD grant SFRH/BD/5231/2001

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Author notes

  1. Patrícia M. Pereira

    Present address: Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

  2. Qiang He

    Present address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

  3. Jizhong Zhou

    Present address: Department of Botany and Microbiology, Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Ok, 73019, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Patrícia M. Pereira, António V. Xavier, Inês A. C. Pereira & Ricardo O. Louro

  2. Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA

    Qiang He & Jizhong Zhou

  3. Virtual Institute for Microbial Stress and Survival, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Qiang He & Jizhong Zhou

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  1. Patrícia M. Pereira
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  2. Qiang He
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Correspondence to Ricardo O. Louro.

Additional information

Communicated by Friedrich Widdel.

António V. Xavier—deceased May 2006.

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Pereira, P.M., He, Q., Xavier, A.V. et al. Transcriptional response of Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough to oxidative stress mimicking environmental conditions. Arch Microbiol 189, 451–461 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-007-0335-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-007-0335-5

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