Previous Article
Journal of Bacteriology, August 2002, p. 4640-4643, Vol. 184, No. 16
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.16.4640-4643.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
The NorR Protein of Escherichia coli Activates Expression of the Flavorubredoxin Gene norV in Response to Reactive Nitrogen Species
Matthew I. Hutchings,,
Neeraj Mandhana, and Stephen Spiro*
School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
Received 28 March 2002/
Accepted 9 May 2002

ABSTRACT
The
Escherichia coli norVW genes encode a flavorubredoxin and
NADH:(flavo)rubredoxin reductase, respectively, which are involved
in nitric oxide detoxification under anaerobic growth conditions.
Here it is shown that the
norVW genes also have a role in protection
against reactive nitrogen intermediates generated from nitroprusside.
Transcription from the
norV promoter is activated by the presence
of nitroprusside in the growth medium; activation requires the
product of a divergently transcribed regulatory gene,
norR.

TEXT
Genes previously designated
ygaK and
ygbD in the
Escherichia coli genome were recently shown to encode a flavorubredoxin
and an NADH:(flavo)rubredoxin oxidoreductase, respectively,
which together metabolize nitric oxide (NO) in cells grown anaerobically
and preexposed to NO (
4,
5). Because of the activity of the
proteins in reducing NO, the genes were redesignated
norV and
norW. The transcriptional organization of the
norVW region has
not been defined, but the fact that the two coding regions overlap
suggests that they are in a single transcription unit and that
they are translationally coupled. A
norV mutant showed a clear
defect in the ability to metabolize NO under anaerobic conditions
(
5). A
norW mutant showed a partial phenotype, indicating that
NorW plays an ancillary role in flavorubredoxin-catalyzed NO
reduction, or that it can be replaced by another protein (
5).
Divergently transcribed from
norVW there is a gene (previously
designated
ygaA) that is predicted to encode a
54-dependent
transcriptional activator (
5,
11,
14). As has been previously
noted (
11), the product of
ygaA is

42% identical in sequence
to the NorR protein of
Ralstonia eutropha, which activates expression
of a nitric oxide reductase in response to NO and to reactive
nitrogen intermediates (RNIs) generated from sodium nitroprusside
(
11). The NorR protein is organized into three domains: an N-terminal
GAF domain that is potentially a site for an interaction with
a small molecule ligand (
8), a central domain that is predicted
to interact with
54-containing RNA polymerase and to hydrolyze
ATP, and a C-terminal DNA binding domain (
11,
14). On the basis
of this sequence similarity and the observation that
ygaA and
norV mutants have similar phenotypes, the
ygaA gene of
E. coli was redesignated
norR, on the assumption that the
norR gene
product regulates expression of
norV (
5). There is a predicted
54 promoter in the 111-bp
norR-
norV intergenic region (17) (Fig.
1), which is consistent with the proposal that NorR activates
54-RNA polymerase-directed transcription of
norV (and, probably,
norW). Data presented in this paper demonstrate that the NorR
protein is indeed required for transcription of
norV and that
expression of the structural genes is activated in both aerobic
and anaerobic cultures by RNIs. It was previously reported that,
while the NorVW system efficiently reduces NO in the absence
of oxygen, mutants deficient in
norV or
norW had no growth defect
in anaerobic cultures grown in rich medium in the presence of
NO. A growth defect was noted in cultures grown in defined media
formulated such that growth was dependent on NO-sensitive enzymes
(
5). Here it is demonstrated that
nor mutants are sensitive
to RNIs (generated from nitroprusside) and, further, that they
show a defect in growth in rich medium in the presence of NO,
at least under some conditions.
Phenotypes of nor mutants.
The
norR gene was disrupted in
E. coli strain DH10B [
mcrA 
(
mrr hsdRMS mcrBC)

80d
lacZ
M15
lacX74
deoR recA endA araD 
(
ara leu)
galU galK rpsL nupG] by a chloramphenicol resistance cartridge,
using the one-step inactivation method (
3). A single deletion-insertion
removing most of the
norV and
norW reading frames was constructed
by the same method. To test the sensitivity of strains to RNIs,
the two mutants and the parent were grown in anaerobic cultures
in a rich medium (L broth supplemented with 0.5% glucose) to
which increasing concentrations of the NO
+ donor sodium nitroprusside
(
13) were added. The results revealed that the
norR and
norVW mutants are significantly more sensitive to nitroprusside than
the wild type. Growth of the
norR mutant was completely inhibited
by 0.2 mM nitroprusside, and growth of the
norVW mutant was
inhibited by 0.075 mM nitroprusside (Fig.
2a). In contrast,
the parent strain showed significant growth at nitroprusside
concentrations up to 1 mM (Fig.
2a) and was not further inhibited
by concentrations as high as 5 mM. Determinations of viable
counts after a 2-h exposure to nitroprusside (data not shown)
confirmed that nitroprusside is cytotoxic (rather than cytostatic)
towards the mutant strains. In aerobic cultures,
nor mutants
were no more sensitive to nitroprusside than the parent strain
(data not shown). This can probably be explained by the fact
that the enzyme encoded by
norV is sensitive to oxygen (
4).
However, a role for the
nor genes during aerobic growth cannot
be excluded, given that the
norV promoter is activated by nitroprusside
under aerobic growth conditions (see below), and so it will
be of interest to investigate further the role of the
nor genes
in aerobic cultures.
The
norVW disruption mutant could be partially complemented
by a clone containing the
norVW genes and the 111-bp
norR-norV intergenic region (Fig.
1). The complemented strain grew to
final culture densities of about 50% of that of the parent strain
across all of the nitroprusside concentrations shown in Fig.
2. However, the
norR mutant could not be complemented by a plasmid
clone (Fig.
1) containing the
norR gene and the
norR-norV intergenic
region. The most likely explanation for this failure of
norR to complement the
norR mutation in
trans is that the mutation
disrupts a
cis-acting sequence (perhaps a NorR binding site)
within the
norR coding region that is required for
norVW expression.
If this idea is correct, the
cis-acting sequence can be localized
to the 135-bp region defined by the 5' end of the clone used
to construct the
norV-
lacZ reporter fusion (see below) and the
site of the
norR insertion mutation (Fig.
1). For both complementation
tests, it is also possible that multiple-copy clones (containing
the
norV regulatory region) titrate out NorR and so contribute
to the lack of complete complementation.
In an assay for sensitivity to NO, the three strains were inoculated into rich medium solidified with soft agar in gas-tight glass tubes with rubber septa in the caps. The headspace was flushed with nitrogen and then 1 ml of NO gas was injected. In experiments such as these, a zone of clearing appears during growth, which is interpreted to reflect the sensitivity of the organism to NO (2). In this case, both mutant strains showed a zone of clearing extending into the agar to a depth about twice that found in the wild-type parent (Fig. 2b). The norVW mutant consistently showed a sharp boundary between the zones of growth and nongrowth that was not seen in the norR mutant (Fig. 2b). The reason for this difference in behavior is not clear, but it may reflect slight differences in the sensitivities of the two strains (Fig. 2). Nevertheless, this experiment shows that the norR and norVW strains are significantly more sensitive to NO than the parent strain under the growth conditions used in this experiment. This is in contrast to the previous observation that nor mutants showed no growth defect in liquid cultures grown in rich medium in the presence of NO (5).
Regulation of the nor promoters.
To explore the expression pattern of the nor genes and the potential role of the NorR regulator, lacZ reporter fusions to the norR and norV promoters were constructed in pRS551, crossed onto phage
RS45 by homologous recombination, and introduced onto the chromosome as single-copy lysogens at the
attachment site (15). The DNA used for the construction of the norV reporter fusion extended into the norR coding region (Fig. 1), since the complementation tests indicated the presence of a cis-acting regulatory sequence in this region and because
54-dependent activators typically bind to an upstream activating sequence located 100 to 200 bp away from the target promoter (14). Nitroprusside was used as the source of RNIs in these experiments, since the homologous NorR protein of R. eutropha can be activated by nitroprusside in vivo (11). In anaerobic cultures, the norV promoter was activated by nitroprusside in both rich and minimal media, though the effect of nitroprusside was greater in rich medium (Table 1). Activation is completely dependent on the product of the norR gene, which demonstrates that NorR mediates the activation of the norV promoter by RNIs. In minimal medium, nitrate activated the norV promoter as effectively as did nitroprusside, which may reflect the fact that nitrate respiration is accompanied by the formation of traces of NO (9). Activation of the norV promoter by nitroprusside was virtually abolished in the norVW mutant (Table 1). One possible explanation for this observation is that the NorVW proteins act on RNIs to generate a compound that is the true signal recognized by NorR. The norR promoter appears to be essentially constitutive, though it did show a small stimulation by the presence of nitrate in the growth medium (Table 1). The norR promoter was significantly more active in the norR mutant, which is consistent with negative autoregulation, as is seen for other members of the
54-dependent family of regulators, such as XylR (1). The norR promoter showed a response to nitrate in the norR mutant similar to that seen in the parent strain. The norR promoter was inactive in the norVW mutant, under all growth conditions, a surprising result that cannot easily be explained at the present time.
View this table:
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
TABLE 1. ß-Galactosidase activities of norR- and norV-lacZ fusions in anaerobic cultures of a wild-type strain (DH10B) and its norR and norVW mutant derivativesa
|
In aerobic cultures, the
norV promoter was strongly activated
by nitroprusside, but only in rich medium (Table
2). The reasons
for the medium effect and for the different response under aerobic
conditions are not known but may reflect the complex interaction
of nitroprusside and RNIs with oxygen (
13). Nitrate did not
cause activation of
norV in aerobic cultures (Table
2), which
supports the idea that activation by nitrate requires nitrate
respiration (and the concomitant formation of NO) under anaerobic
conditions. Otherwise,
norV and
norR promoter activities under
aerobic conditions were qualitatively rather similar to those
seen under anaerobic conditions. Aerobic expression of
norV may seem surprising, given that the NO reducing activity of
NorVW is sensitive to oxygen (
4). On the other hand, the enzyme
does seem to have a role under microaerobic conditions (
5),
and the NorVW proteins have been reported to have oxidase activity
(
6). Hence, it is possible that the aerobic expression of the
nor genes under aerobic conditions reflects a physiological
role for the enzyme in the presence of oxygen.
View this table:
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
TABLE 2. ß-Galactosidase activities of norR- and norV-lacZ fusions in aerobic cultures of a wild-type strain (DH10B) and its norR and norVW mutant derivativesa
|
Concluding remarks.
The NorR protein of
E. coli appears to be a true orthologue
of NorR of
R. eutropha (
11) in that it is activated in vivo
by sources of RNIs, specifically nitroprusside. However, the
targets for NorR in
E. coli are different, being two genes,
the products of which protect
E. coli against the harmful effects
of NO and RNIs. Bacteria have multiple mechanisms to protect
against or reverse the harmful effects of RNIs, including those
involving flavohemoglobin (
13), cytochrome
c' (
2), peptide methionine
sulfoxide reductase (
16),
S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (
10),
and NO reductase (
18). In
E. coli, the SoxR and OxyR regulatory
proteins are activated by NO, and mutants with defects in these
systems are more sensitive to RNIs and nitrosative stress (
7,
12). The discovery of the role of the
nor genes increases the
diversity of the regulatory and enzymatic systems that have
a role in protection against reactive nitrogen species, and
it will be of interest to further explore the biochemical mechanisms
involved.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by a research grant to S.S. from the
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and by
the Wellcome Trust through provision of a vacation scholarship
to N.M.
We are grateful to Tracy Palmer and Barry Wanner for providing strains, plasmids, and phage and to Ray Dixon for helpful discussions.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 1603 593222. Fax: 44 1603 592250. E-mail:
s.spiro{at}uea.ac.uk.

Present address: John Innes Centre, Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, United Kingdom. 

REFERENCES
1 - Bertoni, G., J. Perez-Martin, and V. de Lorenzo. 1997. Genetic evidence of separate repressor and activator activities of the XylR regulator of the TOL plasmid, pWW0, of Pseudomonas putida. Mol. Microbiol. 23:1221-1227.[CrossRef][Medline]
2 - Cross, R., J. Aish, S. J. Paston, R. K. Poole, and J. W. B. Moir. 2000. Cytochrome c' from Rhodobacter capsulatus confers increased resistance to nitric oxide. J. Bacteriol. 182:1442-1447.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3 - Datsenko, K. A., and B. L. Wanner. 2000. One-step inactivation of chromosomal genes in Escherichia coli K12 using PCR products. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:6640-6645.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
4 - Gardner, A. M., and P. R. Gardner. 2002. Flavohemoglobin detoxifies nitric oxide in aerobic, but not anaerobic, Escherichia coli. Evidence for a novel inducible anaerobic nitric oxide-scavenging activity. J. Biol. Chem. 277:8166-8171.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
5 - Gardner, A. M., R. A. Helmick, and P. R. Gardner. 2002. Flavorubredoxin, an inducible catalyst for nitric oxide reduction and detoxification in Escherichia coli. J. Biol. Chem. 277:8172-8177.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
6 - Gomes, C. M., J. B. Vicente, A. Wasserfallen, and M. Teixeira. 2000. Spectroscopic studies and characterization of a novel electron-transfer chain from Escherichia coli involving a flavorubredoxin and its flavoprotein reductase partner. Biochemistry 39:16230-16237.[CrossRef][Medline]
7 - Hausladen, A., C. T. Privalle, T. Keng, J. DeAngelo, and J. S. Stamler. 1998. Nitrosative stress: activation of the transcription factor OxyR. Cell 86:719-729.
8 - Ho, Y. S., L. M. Burden, and J. H. Hurley. 2000. Structure of the GAF domain, a ubiquitous signaling motif and a new class of cyclic GMP receptor. EMBO J. 19:5288-5299.[CrossRef][Medline]
9 - Hutchings, M. I., N. Shearer, S. Wastell, R. J. M. van Spanning, and S. Spiro. 2000. Heterologous NNR-mediated nitric oxide signaling in Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 182:6434-6439.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
10 - Liu, L., A. Hausladen, M. Zeng, L. Que, J. Heitman, and J. S. Stamler. 2001. A metabolic enzyme for S-nitrosothiol conserved from bacteria to humans. Nature 410:490-494.[CrossRef][Medline]
11 - Pohlmann, A., R. Cramm, K. Schmelz, and B. Friedrich. 2000. A novel NO-responding regulator controls the reduction of nitric oxide in Ralstonia eutropha. Mol. Microbiol. 38:626-638.[CrossRef][Medline]
12 - Pomposiello, P. J., and B. Demple. 2001. Redox-operated genetic switches: the SoxR and OxyR transcription factors. Trends Biotechnol. 19:109-114.[CrossRef][Medline]
13 - Poole, R. K., and M. N. Hughes. 2000. New functions for the ancient globin family: bacterial responses to nitric oxide and nitrosative stress. Mol. Microbiol. 36:775-783.[CrossRef][Medline]
14 - Shingler, V. 1996. Signal sensing by
54-dependent activators: derepression as a control mechanism. Mol. Microbiol. 19:409-416.[CrossRef][Medline]
15 - Simons, R. W., F. Houman, and N. Kleckner. 1987. Improved single and multicopy lac-based cloning vectors for protein and operon fusions. Gene 53:85-96.[CrossRef][Medline]
16 - St. John, G., N. Brot, J. Ruan, H. Erdjument-Bromage, P. Tempst, H. Weissbach, and C. Nathan. 2001. Peptide methionine sulfoxide reductase from Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis protects bacteria against oxidative damage from reactive nitrogen intermediates. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98:9901-9906.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
17 - Studholme, D. J., and M. Buck. 2000. The biology of enhancer-dependent transcriptional regulation in bacteria: insights from genome sequences. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 186:1-9.[CrossRef][Medline]
18 - Watmough, N. J., G. Butland, M. R. Cheesman, J. W. B. Moir, D. J. Richardson, and S. Spiro. 1999. Nitric oxide in bacteria: synthesis and consumption. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1411:456-474.[Medline]
Journal of Bacteriology, August 2002, p. 4640-4643, Vol. 184, No. 16
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.16.4640-4643.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Castiglione, N., Rinaldo, S., Giardina, G., Cutruzzola, F.
(2009). The transcription factor DNR from Pseudomonas aeruginosa specifically requires nitric oxide and haem for the activation of a target promoter in Escherichia coli. Microbiology
155: 2838-2844
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Mills, P. C., Rowley, G., Spiro, S., Hinton, J. C. D., Richardson, D. J.
(2008). A combination of cytochrome c nitrite reductase (NrfA) and flavorubredoxin (NorV) protects Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium against killing by NO in anoxic environments. Microbiology
154: 1218-1228
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Jarboe, L. R., Hyduke, D. R., Tran, L. M., Chou, K. J. Y., Liao, J. C.
(2008). Determination of the Escherichia coli S-Nitrosoglutathione Response Network Using Integrated Biochemical and Systems Analysis. J. Biol. Chem.
283: 5148-5157
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Tucker, N. P., D'Autreaux, B., Yousafzai, F. K., Fairhurst, S. A., Spiro, S., Dixon, R.
(2008). Analysis of the Nitric Oxide-sensing Non-heme Iron Center in the NorR Regulatory Protein. J. Biol. Chem.
283: 908-918
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Filenko, N., Spiro, S., Browning, D. F., Squire, D., Overton, T. W., Cole, J., Constantinidou, C.
(2007). The NsrR Regulon of Escherichia coli K-12 Includes Genes Encoding the Hybrid Cluster Protein and the Periplasmic, Respiratory Nitrite Reductase. J. Bacteriol.
189: 4410-4417
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Klink, A., Elsner, B., Strube, K., Cramm, R.
(2007). Characterization of the Signaling Domain of the NO-Responsive Regulator NorR from Ralstonia eutropha H16 by Site-Directed Mutagenesis. J. Bacteriol.
189: 2743-2749
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Pullan, S. T., Gidley, M. D., Jones, R. A., Barrett, J., Stevanin, T. M., Read, R. C., Green, J., Poole, R. K.
(2007). Nitric Oxide in Chemostat-Cultured Escherichia coli Is Sensed by Fnr and Other Global Regulators: Unaltered Methionine Biosynthesis Indicates Lack of S Nitrosation. J. Bacteriol.
189: 1845-1855
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Bodenmiller, D. M., Spiro, S.
(2006). The yjeB (nsrR) Gene of Escherichia coli Encodes a Nitric Oxide-Sensitive Transcriptional Regulator. J. Bacteriol.
188: 874-881
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Nittler, M. P., Hocking-Murray, D., Foo, C. K., Sil, A.
(2005). Identification of Histoplasma capsulatum Transcripts Induced in Response to Reactive Nitrogen Species. Mol. Biol. Cell
16: 4792-4813
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Arai, H., Hayashi, M., Kuroi, A., Ishii, M., Igarashi, Y.
(2005). Transcriptional Regulation of the Flavohemoglobin Gene for Aerobic Nitric Oxide Detoxification by the Second Nitric Oxide-Responsive Regulator of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. J. Bacteriol.
187: 3960-3968
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Flatley, J., Barrett, J., Pullan, S. T., Hughes, M. N., Green, J., Poole, R. K.
(2005). Transcriptional Responses of Escherichia coli to S-Nitrosoglutathione under Defined Chemostat Conditions Reveal Major Changes in Methionine Biosynthesis. J. Biol. Chem.
280: 10065-10072
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Busch, A., Pohlmann, A., Friedrich, B., Cramm, R.
(2004). A DNA Region Recognized by the Nitric Oxide-Responsive Transcriptional Activator NorR Is Conserved in {beta}- and {gamma}-Proteobacteria. J. Bacteriol.
186: 7980-7987
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Tucker, N. P., D'Autreaux, B., Studholme, D. J., Spiro, S., Dixon, R.
(2004). DNA Binding Activity of the Escherichia coli Nitric Oxide Sensor NorR Suggests a Conserved Target Sequence in Diverse Proteobacteria. J. Bacteriol.
186: 6656-6660
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Moore, C. M., Nakano, M. M., Wang, T., Ye, R. W., Helmann, J. D.
(2004). Response of Bacillus subtilis to Nitric Oxide and the Nitrosating Agent Sodium Nitroprusside. J. Bacteriol.
186: 4655-4664
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Mukhopadhyay, P., Zheng, M., Bedzyk, L. A., LaRossa, R. A., Storz, G.
(2004). Prominent roles of the NorR and Fur regulators in the Escherichia coli transcriptional response to reactive nitrogen species. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
101: 745-750
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Studholme, D. J., Dixon, R.
(2003). Domain Architectures of {sigma}54-Dependent Transcriptional Activators. J. Bacteriol.
185: 1757-1767
[Full Text]
-
Gardner, A. M., Gessner, C. R., Gardner, P. R.
(2003). Regulation of the Nitric Oxide Reduction Operon (norRVW) in Escherichia coli. ROLE OF NorR AND sigma 54 IN THE NITRIC OXIDE STRESS RESPONSE. J. Biol. Chem.
278: 10081-10086
[Abstract]
[Full Text]