Monounsaturated fatty acids are substrates for aldehyde generation in tellurite-exposed Escherichia coli

Soft-metal(loid)s induce protein aggregation in Escherichia coli

Metal(loid) salts were used to treat infectious diseases in the past due to their exceptional biocidal properties at low concentrations. However, the mechanism of their toxicity has yet to be fully elucidated. The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been linked to the toxicity of soft metal(loid)s such as Ag(I), Au(III), As(III), Cd(II), Hg(II), and Te(IV). Nevertheless, few reports have described the direct, or ROS-independent, effects of some of these soft-metal(loid)s on bacteria, including the dismantling of iron-sulfur clusters [4Fe-4S] and the accumulation of porphyrin IX. Here, we used genome-wide genetic, proteomic, and biochemical approaches under anaerobic conditions to evaluate the direct mechanisms of toxicity of these metal(loid)s in Escherichia coli. We found that certain soft-metal(loid)s promote protein aggregation in a ROS-independent manner. This aggregation occurs during translation in the presence of Ag(I), Au(III), Hg(II), or Te(IV) and post-translationally in cells exposed to Cd(II) or As(III). We determined that aggregated proteins were involved in several essential biological processes that could lead to cell death. For instance, several enzymes involved in amino acid biosynthesis were aggregated after soft-metal(loid) exposure, disrupting intracellular amino acid concentration. We also propose a possible mechanism to explain how soft-metal(loid)s act as proteotoxic agents.

Anaerobic RSH-dependent tellurite reduction contributes to Escherichia coli tolerance against tellurite

BACKGROUND

Tellurium is a rare metalloid that exerts high toxicity on cells, especially on bacteria, partly due to reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Moreover, it has also been observed that tellurite can target free cell thiols groups (RSH) (i.e. reduced glutathione (GSH)), enhancing the cellular redox imbalance. Additionally, in vitro experiments have suggested that several enzymes can reduce tellurite (IV) to its elemental form (0); where RSH present on their active sites may be responsible for the process. Nevertheless, the mechanisms implemented by bacteria for tellurite reduction and its role in resistance have not been evaluated in vivo.

RESULTS

This work shows that tellurite reduction to elemental tellurium is increased under anaerobic conditions in E. coli cells. The in vivo tellurite reduction is related to the intracellular concentration of total RSH, in the presence and absence of oxygen. This metabolization of tellurite directly contributes to the resistance of the bacteria to the oxyanion.

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrated that in vivo tellurite reduction is related to the intracellular thiol concentration, i.e. large availability of cellular RSH groups, results in a more significant reduction of tellurite. Furthermore, we observed that, when the bacterium exhibits less resistance to the oxyanion, a decreased tellurite reduction was seen, affecting the growth fitness. Together, these results let us propose that tellurite reduction and the intracellular RSH content are related to the oxyanion bacterial resistance, this tripartite mechanism in an oxygen-independent anaerobic process.

The role of cysteine in tellurate reduction and toxicity

The tellurium oxyanion tellurate is toxic to living organisms even at low concentrations; however, its mechanism of toxicity is poorly understood. Here, we show that exposure of Escherichia coli K-12 to tellurate results in reduction to elemental tellurium (Te[0]) and the formation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Toxicity assays performed with E. coli indicated that pre-oxidation of the intracellular thiol pools increases cellular resistance to tellurate-suggesting that intracellular thiols are important in tellurate toxicity. X-ray absorption spectroscopy experiments demonstrated that cysteine reduces tellurate to elemental tellurium. This redox reaction was found to generate superoxide anions. These results indicate that tellurate reduction to Te(0) by cysteine is a source of ROS in the cytoplasm of tellurate-exposed cells.

Synthesis and Antibacterial Activity of Metal(loid) Nanostructures by Environmental Multi-Metal(loid) Resistant Bacteria and Metal(loid)-Reducing Flavoproteins

Microbes are suitable candidates to recover and decontaminate different environments from soluble metal ions, either via reduction or precipitation to generate insoluble, non-toxic derivatives. In general, microorganisms reduce toxic metal ions generating nanostructures (NS), which display great applicability in biotechnological processes. Since the molecular bases of bacterial reduction are still unknown, the search for new -environmentally safe and less expensive- methods to synthesize NS have made biological systems attractive candidates. Here, 47 microorganisms isolated from a number of environmental samples were analyzed for their tolerance or sensitivity to 19 metal(loid)s. Ten of them were highly tolerant to some of them and were assessed for their ability to reduce these toxicants in vitro. All isolates were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, fatty acids composition, biochemical tests and electron microscopy. Results showed that they belong to the Enterobacter, Staphylococcus, Acinetobacter, and Exiguobacterium genera. Most strains displayed metal(loid)-reducing activity using either NADH or NADPH as cofactor. While Acinetobacter schindleri showed the highest tellurite ( TeO32- ) and tetrachloro aurate ( AuCl4- ) reducing activity, Staphylococcus sciuri and Exiguobacterium acetylicum exhibited selenite ( SeO32- ) and silver (Ag⁺) reducing activity, respectively. Based on these results, we used these bacteria to synthetize, in vivo and in vitro Te, Se, Au, and Ag-containing nanostructures. On the other hand, we also used purified E. cloacae glutathione reductase to synthesize in vitro Te-, Ag-, and Se-containing NS, whose morphology, size, composition, and chemical composition were evaluated. Finally, we assessed the putative anti-bacterial activity exhibited by the in vitro synthesized NS: Te-containing NS were more effective than Au-NS in inhibiting Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes growth. Aerobically synthesized TeNS using MF09 crude extracts showed MICs of 45- and 66- μg/ml for E. coli and L. monocytogenes, respectively. Similar MIC values (40 and 82 μg/ml, respectively) were observed for TeNS generated using crude extracts from gorA-overexpressing E. coli. In turn, AuNS MICs for E. coli and L. monocytogenes were 64- and 68- μg/ml, respectively.

Bactericidal Antibiotics Induce Toxic Metabolic Perturbations that Lead to Cellular Damage

Understanding how antibiotics impact bacterial metabolism may provide insight into their mechanisms of action and could lead to enhanced therapeutic methodologies. Here, we profiled the metabolome of Escherichia coli after treatment with three different classes of bactericidal antibiotics (?-lactams, aminoglycosides, quinolones). These treatments induced a similar set of metabolic changes after 30 min that then diverged into more distinct profiles at later time points. The most striking changes corresponded to elevated concentrations of central carbon metabolites, active breakdown of the nucleotide pool, reduced lipid levels, and evidence of an elevated redox state. We examined potential end-target consequences of these metabolic perturbations and found that antibiotic-treated cells exhibited cytotoxic changes indicative of oxidative stress, including higher levels of protein carbonylation, malondialdehyde adducts, nucleotide oxidation, and double-strand DNA breaks. This work shows that bactericidal antibiotics induce a complex set of metabolic changes that are correlated with the buildup of toxic metabolic by-products.

Application of DNA adductomics to soil bacterium Sphingobium sp. strain KK22

Toward the development of ecotoxicology methods to investigate microbial markers of impacts of hydrocarbon processing activities, DNA adductomic analyses were conducted on a sphingomonad soil bacterium. From growing cells that were exposed or unexposed to acrolein, a commonly used biocide in hydraulic fracturing processes, DNA was extracted, digested to 2'-deoxynucleosides and analyzed by liquid chromatography-positive ionization electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry in selected reaction monitoring mode transmitting the [M + H](+) > [M + H - 116](+) transition over 100 transitions. Overall data shown as DNA adductome maps revealed numerous putative DNA adducts under both conditions with some occurring specifically for each condition. Adductomic analyses of triplicate samples indicated that elevated levels of some targeted putative adducts occurred in exposed cells. Two exposure-specific adducts were identified in exposed cells as 3-(2'-deoxyribosyl)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-6-hydroxy-(and 8-hydroxy-)pyrimido[1,2-a]- purine-(3H)-one (6- and 8-hydroxy-PdG) following synthesis of authentic standards of these compounds and subsequent analyses. A time course experiment showed that 6- and 8-hydroxy-PdG were detected in bacterial DNA within 30 min of acrolein exposure but were not detected in unexposed cells. This work demonstrated the first application of DNA adductomics to examine DNA damage in a bacterium and sets a foundation for future work.

Quorum Sensing Is Accompanied by Global Metabolic Changes in the Opportunistic Human Pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses N-acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL)-dependent quorum sensing (QS) systems to control the expression of secreted effectors. These effectors can be crucial to the ecological fitness of the bacterium, playing roles in nutrient acquisition, microbial competition, and virulence. In this study, we investigated the metabolic consequences of AHL-dependent QS by monitoring the metabolic profile(s) of a lasI rhlI double mutant (unable to make QS signaling molecules) and its wild-type progenitor as they progressed through the growth curve. Analysis of culture supernatants by (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H-NMR) spectroscopy revealed that at the point where AHL concentrations peaked in the wild type, the metabolic footprints (i.e., extracellular metabolites) of the wild-type and lasI rhlI mutant diverged. Subsequent gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based analysis of the intracellular metabolome revealed QS-dependent perturbations in around one-third of all identified metabolites, including altered concentrations of tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates, amino acids, and fatty acids. Further targeted fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) GC-MS-based profiling of the cellular total fatty acid pools revealed that QS leads to changes associated with decreased membrane fluidity and higher chemical stability. However, not all of the changes we observed were necessarily a direct consequence of QS; liquid chromatography (LC)-MS analyses revealed that polyamine levels were elevated in the lasI rhlI mutant, perhaps a response to the absence of QS-dependent adaptations. Our data suggest that QS leads to a global readjustment in central metabolism and provide new insight into the metabolic changes associated with QS during stationary-phase adaptation.

IMPORTANCE

Quorum sensing (QS) is a transcriptional regulatory mechanism that allows bacteria to coordinate their gene expression profile with the population cell density. The opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses QS to control the production of secreted virulence factors. In this study, we show that QS elicits a global "metabolic rewiring" in P. aeruginosa. This metabolic rerouting of fluxes is consistent with a variety of drivers, ranging from altered QS-dependent transcription of "metabolic genes" through to the effect(s) of global "metabolic readjustment" as a consequence of QS-dependent exoproduct synthesis, as well as a general stress response, among others. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to assess the global impact of QS on the metabolome.

Overexpression of a monomeric form of the bovine odorant-binding protein protects Escherichia coli from chemical-induced oxidative stress

Mammalian odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are soluble lipocalins produced in the nasal mucosa and in other epithelial tissues of several animal species, where they are supposed to serve as scavengers for small structurally unrelated hydrophobic molecules. These would include odorants and toxic aldehydes like 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE), which are end products of lipid peroxidation; therefore OBP might physiologically contribute to preserve the integrity of epithelial tissues under oxidative stress conditions by removing toxic compounds from the environment and, eventually, driving them to the appropriate degradative pathways. With the aim of developing a biological model based on a living organism for the investigation of the antioxidant properties of OBP, here we asked whether the overexpression of the protein could confer protection from chemical-induced oxidative stress in Escherichia coli. To this aim, bacteria were made to overexpress either GCC-bOBP, a redesigned monomeric mutant of bovine OBP, or its amino-terminal 6-histidine-tagged version 6H-GCC-bOBP. After inducing overexpression for 4 h, bacterial cells were diluted in fresh culture media, and their growth curves were followed in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and tert-Butyl hydroperoxide (tBuOOH), two reactive oxygen species whose toxicity is mainly due to lipid peroxidation, and menadione, a redox-cycling drug producing the superoxide ion. GCC-bOBP and 6H-GCC-bOBP were found to protect bacterial cells from the insulting agents H2O2 and tBuOOH but not from menadione. The obtained data led us to hypothesize that the presence of overexpressed OBP may contribute to protect bacterial cells against oxidative stress probably by sequestering toxic compounds locally produced during the first replication cycles by lipid peroxidation, before bacteria activate their appropriate enzyme-based antioxidative mechanisms.