Publication: Pseudomonas aeruginosa nfuA: Gene regulation and its physiological roles in sustaining growth under stress and anaerobic conditions and maintaining bacterial virulence
Issued Date
2018-08-01
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ISSN
19326203
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2-s2.0-85052291820
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Mahidol University
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SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
PLoS ONE. Vol.13, No.8 (2018)
Suggested Citation
Adisak Romsang, Jintana Duang-nkern, Kritsakorn Saninjuk, Paiboon Vattanaviboon, Skorn Mongkolsuk Pseudomonas aeruginosa nfuA: Gene regulation and its physiological roles in sustaining growth under stress and anaerobic conditions and maintaining bacterial virulence. PLoS ONE. Vol.13, No.8 (2018). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0202151 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/44705
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Title
Pseudomonas aeruginosa nfuA: Gene regulation and its physiological roles in sustaining growth under stress and anaerobic conditions and maintaining bacterial virulence
Abstract
© 2018 Romsang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The role of the nfuA gene encoding an iron-sulfur ([Fe-S]) cluster-delivery protein in the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa was investigated. The analysis of nfuA expression under various stress conditions showed that superoxide generators, a thiol-depleting agent and CuCl2 highly induced nfuA expression. The expression of nfuA was regulated by a global [2Fe-2S] cluster containing the transcription regulator IscR. Increased expression of nfuA in the ΔiscR mutant under uninduced conditions suggests that IscR acts as a transcriptional repressor. In vitro experiments revealed that IscR directly bound to a sequence homologous to the Escherichia coli Type-I IscR-binding motifs on a putative nfuA promoter that overlapped the -35 element. Binding of IscR prevented RNA polymerase from binding to the nfuA promoter, leading to repression of the nfuA transcription. Physiologically, deletion of nfuA reduced the bacterial ability to cope with oxidative stress, iron deprivation conditions and attenuated virulence in the Caenorhabditis elegans infection model. Site-directed mutagenesis analysis revealed that the conserved CXXC motif of the Nfu-type scaffold protein domain at the N-terminus was required for the NfuA functions in conferring the stress resistance phenotype. Furthermore, anaerobic growth of the ΔnfuA mutant in the presence of nitrate was drastically retarded. This phenotype was associated with a reduction in the [Fe-S] cluster containing nitrate reductase enzyme activity. However, NfuA was not required for the maturation of [Fe-S]-containing proteins such as aconitase, succinate dehydrogenase, SoxR and IscR. Taken together, our results indicate that NfuA functions in [Fe-S] cluster delivery to selected target proteins that link to many physiological processes such as anaerobic growth, bacterial virulence and stress responses in P. aeruginosa.