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Journal of Bacteriology, March 2009, p. 1650-1655, Vol. 191, No. 5
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00597-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Retentive Memory of Bacteria: Long-Term Regulation of Dehalorespiration in Sulfurospirillum multivorans{triangledown}

Markus John,{ddagger} Raffael Rubick,{ddagger} Roland P. H. Schmitz, Jana Rakoczy, Torsten Schubert, and Gabriele Diekert*

Friedrich-Schiller University, Institute for Microbiology, Philosophenweg 12, D-07743 Jena, Germany

Received 30 April 2008/ Accepted 9 December 2008

The gram-negative, strictly anaerobic epsilonproteobacterium Sulfurospirillum multivorans is able to gain energy from dehalorespiration with tetrachloroethene (perchloroethylene [PCE]) as a terminal electron acceptor. The organism can also utilize fumarate as an electron acceptor. Prolonged subcultivation of S. multivorans in the absence of PCE with pyruvate as an electron donor and fumarate as an electron acceptor resulted in a decrease of PCE dehalogenase (PceA) activity. Concomitantly, the pceA transcript level equally decreased as shown by reverse transcriptase PCR. After 35 subcultivations (approximately 105 generations), a pceA transcript was not detectable and the PceA protein and activity were completely absent. In such long-term subcultivated S. multivorans cells, the biosynthesis of catalytically active PceA was restored to the initial level within about 50 h (approximately three generations) by the addition of PCE or trichloroethene. Single colonies obtained from PceA-depleted cultures were able to induce PCE dechlorination, indicating that long-term subcultured cells still contained the functional pceA gene. The results point to a novel type of long-term regulation of PCE dehalogenase gene expression in S. multivorans.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Friedrich-Schiller University, Institute for Microbiology, Philosophenweg 12, D-07743 Jena, Germany. Phone: 49 (0) 3641-949300. Fax: 49 (0) 3641-949302. E-mail: gabriele.diekert{at}uni-jena.de

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 19 December 2008.

{ddagger} Markus John and Raffael Rubick contributed equally to this work.

Journal of Bacteriology, March 2009, p. 1650-1655, Vol. 191, No. 5
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00597-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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