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Journal of Bacteriology, August 2004, p. 5543-5546, Vol. 186, No. 16
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.16.5543-5546.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
The RpoS Sigma Factor in the Dissimilatory Fe(III)-Reducing Bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens
Cinthia Núñez,1,2* Lorrie Adams,1 Susan Childers,1,3 and Derek R. Lovley1
Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003,1
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844,3
Departamento de Microbiología Molecular, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México 622102
Received 30 January 2004/
Accepted 10 May 2004

ABSTRACT
Geobacter sulfurreducens RpoS sigma factor was shown to contribute
to survival in stationary phase and upon oxygen exposure. Furthermore,
a mutation in
rpoS decreased the rate of reduction of insoluble
Fe(III) but not of soluble forms of iron. This study suggests
that RpoS plays a role in regulating metabolism of
Geobacter under suboptimal conditions in subsurface environments.

TEXT
The physiology of microorganisms in the family
Geobacteraceae in the

-
Proteobacteria is of special interest, because these
are commonly the predominant organisms in sedimentary environments
in which Fe(III) reduction is important (
1,
14,
31,
32,
35,
36). Their ability to oxidize aromatic contaminants with the
reduction of Fe(III) (
24,
25), reductively precipitate uranium
(
1,
26), or grow via reductive dehalogenation (
6,
16) suggests
that they can contribute to the bioremediation of a variety
of contaminants in subsurface environments, such as aromatic
hydrocarbons (
2,
31,
32,
35) and uranium (
1,
14).
The rpoS gene encodes a subunit of the RNA polymerase which is the master regulator of the general stress response in Escherichia coli and related bacteria (8, 9). This response is observed when cells face a number of different adverse or suboptimal growth conditions and is commonly accompanied by a reduced growth rate or entry into stationary phase. Thus, in the Geobacteraceae RpoS might be expected to play a role in metabolic adaptation during growth in the subsurface, where it is expected to be more analogous to the stationary phase of culture than to the exponential phase. The goal of the present work was to initiate the study of the role of RpoS in Geobacter sulfurreducens in an attempt to understand the mechanisms of stress responses in the Geobacteraceae. G. sulfurreducens serves as a model because it is closely related to the Geobacter species that predominate in subsurface environments, it can be cultured in laboratory conditions, and its genome sequence (28) as well as a genetic system is available (5).
G. sulfurreducens genome contains an rpoS homologue gene.
A search of the G. sulfurreducens genome sequence (www.tigr.org), using the E. coli rpoS gene as a query, revealed an open reading frame encoding a protein which has 42% identity with the RpoS protein of E. coli and consists of 328 amino acids with a molecular mass of 38 kDa. It has 87 and 68% amino acid identity with putative RpoS proteins of Geobacter metallireducens and Desulfuromonas acetoxidans, two other members of the Geobacteraceae (preliminary genome sequence data are available at http://www.jgi.doe.gov).
The genetic arrangement of the G. sulfurreducens rpoS region differs from that of E. coli and related bacteria. The nlpD gene, encoding an outer membrane lipoprotein (17), is absent, but this region contains a gene, downstream of rpoS, whose deduced amino acid sequence has 47.5% identity to the adenine phosphoribosyltransferase enzyme Apt of E. coli, which is involved in the one-step salvage pathway of adenine to AMP (12). Reverse transcription-PCR analysis demonstrated that rpoS forms part of the operon surE-pcm-rpoS-apt (data not shown). However, the presence of additional rpoS-containing transcripts cannot be discounted. Primer extension analyses of the surE-pcm-rpoS-apt operon were carried out, as described previously (3), with total RNA extracted from the wild-type strain DL1 (4) and rpoS mutant DLCN16(
rpoS::Km) grown in NBAF media (5) and with oligonucleotide surEPE (5'-GCGTGAACACCATCATC-3') (which is complementary to the 5' region of the surE gene). As shown in Fig. 1, the surE promoter contains 10 (TTTCGT) and 35 (TTTACA) sequences which are similar to the consensus sequences recognized by E. coli
70. This promoter was found to be RpoS independent either in the logarithmic or in the stationary phase of growth (Fig. 1). This is similar to E. coli, in which the transcription of surE, pcm, and rpoS is RpoS independent (10, 20). The rpoS mutant DLCN16(
rpoS::Km) was constructed as described previously (18), using the oligonucleotides rpoS1 (5'-CTTACATGGTCGCCCTGATG-3') and rpoS2 (5'-CATGGAGATCTCCGTCGC-3') to amplify the upstream region of rpoS, oligonucleotides rpoS5 (5'-CGAGGCCAAGTCTCTGG-3') and rpoS6 (5'-GCCGTATTCGAGCTGATAGG-3') to amplify the rpoS downstream region, and oligonucleotides rpoS3 (5'-GCGACGGAGATCTCCATGACCTGGGATGAATGTCAGCTAC-3') and rpoS4 (5'-CCAGAGACTTGGCCTCGAGAAGGCGGCGGTGGAATCG-3') to amplify the kanamycin cassette. This cassette was inserted in the same orientation as that of rpoS transcription, resulting in a nonpolar mutation. This was confirmed by reverse transcription-PCR analysis using total RNA extracted from DLCN16 cultures and oligonucleotides designed to amplify the apt gene (data not shown).
Stationary-phase survival in the
rpoS mutant, using NBAF medium
with limiting acetate (8 mM) as electron donor and excess fumarate
(37 mM) as electron acceptor (
5), decreased at least 10-fold
compared to that of the wild-type strain DL1, indicating that
RpoS is involved in stationary-phase survival of
G. sulfurreducens (Fig.
2). This result is consistent with the fact that
G. sulfurreducens rpoS is cotranscribed with
surE,
pcm, and
apt, whose products
are necessary for stationary-phase survival in
E. coli (
7,
19,
38).
The utilization of either fumarate or soluble Fe(III) [in the
form of Fe(III) citrate] as electron acceptor was not affected
in the
rpoS mutant (Fig.
2A and
3A); in contrast, the reduction
of insoluble Fe(III) (Fig.
3B) was significantly diminished
in the
rpoS mutant compared to that of the wild-type strain.
The same result was obtained with two independent
rpoS mutant
isolates. This result suggests that RpoS may regulate the expression
of genes in
G. sulfurreducens that are specifically required
for the reduction of insoluble Fe(III) oxide, the primary form
of Fe(III) in most sedimentary environments. Preliminary studies
have indicated that the pattern of
c-type cytochromes in the
rpoS mutant is different from that in the wild-type strain (data
not shown), which is significant because
c-type cytochromes
are involved in electron transfer to Fe(III) in
G. sulfurreducens (
18,
22,
27). The identity of such
c-type cytochromes is presently
being investigated.
Although
G. sulfurreducens was originally designated a strict
anaerobe (
4), subsequent studies demonstrated that it can tolerate
long-term exposure to oxygen (
21). Oxygen intrusions into sediments
in which
Geobacter species predominate are common, and thus
the ability to tolerate oxygen exposure is an important feature
in the survival of these organisms (
21). As shown in Fig.
4,
tolerance to oxygen was clearly reduced in the
rpoS mutant DLCN46(
rpoS::Cm)
after 4 days of exposure and it was rescued in the
rpoS-complemented
mutant strain DLCN52(
rpoS::Cm/
rpoS+). (The procedure for the
construction of a
rpoS::Cm mutant was the same as that for the
DLCN16 mutant, except that oligonucleotides rpoSCm-3 [5'-GCGACGGAGATCTCCATGACGGAAGATCACTTCGC-3']
and rpoSCm4 [5'-CCAGAGACTTGGCCTCGAGGGCAGCAATAACTGCC-3'] were
used to amplify the chloramphenicol cassette; the complementation
was achieved, as described before [
29], by cointegration of
plasmid pCNDL17, a PCR 2.1-TOPO derivative [Km
r] [Invitrogen,
Carlsbad, Calif.] carrying the entire
rpoS gene.) These results
indicate that RpoS is involved in the aerotolerance of
G. sulfurreducens,
which is consistent with its role in oxidative-stress resistance
in other bacteria (
15,
34,
37). However, the fact that the
rpoS mutant of
G. sulfurreducens was still viable after 4 days of
oxygen exposure indicates that the mechanism for coping with
oxidative damage is only partially RpoS dependent.
G. sulfurreducens RpoS had no apparent function in resistance
to high temperature (45°C for 7 days) or alkaline pH (pH
6 for 60 min) (data not shown), indicating that some stress
response mechanisms are not controlled by RpoS. In addition
to RpoS and the well-known sigma factors RpoD (
70), RpoH (
32),
RpoF (
28), and RpoN (
54),
G. sulfurreducens contains a sigma
factor that belongs to the family having extracytoplasmic functions
(data not shown) (
23). This sigma factor, designated RpoE, is
likely to be involved in resistance to oxidative stress and
other adverse conditions in
G. sulfurreducens based on its role
in
E. coli and other gram-negative bacteria (
11,
13,
33); however,
this remains to be investigated.
This first study of RpoS in a member of the
-Proteobacteria illustrates some similarities and differences in gene organization and function compared to those of other classes of previously investigated Proteobacteria. The effect of the rpoS mutant on survival in stationary phase and on reduction of Fe(III) oxide, the primary electron acceptor supporting the growth of Geobacteraceae, suggests that RpoS may play a role in controlling activity of G. sulfurreducens in subsurface environments. Thus, it seems likely that further investigation of the RpoS regulon will provide insights into the mechanisms by which G. sulfurreducens and related organisms function so effectively in Fe(III)-reducing subsurface environments.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was funded by the Genomes to Life program, U.S.
Department of Energy (grant DE-FC02-02ER63446). C.N. was the
recipient of a DGAPA/UNAM Postdoctoral Fellowship.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Departamento de Microbiología Molecular, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad 2001, Col. Chamilpa Cuernavaca, Morelos 62210, México. Phone: (52) 777 329-16-29. Fax: (52) 777 317-23-88. E-mail:
cinthia{at}ibt.unam.mx.


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Journal of Bacteriology, August 2004, p. 5543-5546, Vol. 186, No. 16
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.16.5543-5546.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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