Shewanella oneidensisHfq promotes exponential phase growth, stationary phase culture density, and cell survival

BMC Microbiology

Research Article

Matthew T Goulet¹  Zachary Sexton¹  Christopher M Brennan¹  Jessica M Osborn¹  Brett J Pellock¹  Nicholas Q Mazzucca¹  Taylor Mezoian¹  Meghan L Keane¹  Katherine E Douglas¹  Taylor M Hunt¹ 

[1] Department of Biology, Providence College, Providence, RI, USA;

关键词: Shewanella oneidensis;    Hfq;    Metal reduction;    Oxidative stress;    Stationary phase survival;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2180-13-33

 received in 2012-11-09, accepted in 2013-01-21,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundHfq is an RNA chaperone protein that has been broadly implicated in sRNA function in bacteria. Here we describe the construction and characterization of a null allele of the gene that encodes the RNA chaperone Hfq in Shewanella oneidensis strain MR-1, a dissimilatory metal reducing bacterium.ResultsLoss of hfq in S. oneidensis results in a variety of mutant phenotypes, all of which are fully complemented by addition of a plasmid-borne copy of the wild type hfq gene. Aerobic cultures of the hfq∆ mutant grow more slowly through exponential phase than wild type cultures, and hfq∆ cultures reach a terminal cell density in stationary phase that is ~2/3 of that observed in wild type cultures. We have observed a similar growth phenotype when the hfq∆ mutant is cultured under anaerobic conditions with fumarate as the terminal electron acceptor, and we have found that the hfq∆ mutant is defective in Cr(VI) reduction. Finally, the hfq∆ mutant exhibits a striking loss of colony forming units in extended stationary phase and is highly sensitive to oxidative stress induced by H2O2 or methyl viologen (paraquat).ConclusionsThe hfq mutant in S. oneidensis exhibits pleiotropic phenotypes, including a defect in metal reduction. Our results also suggest that hfq mutant phenotypes in S. oneidensis may be at least partially due to increased sensitivity to oxidative stress.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Brennan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.