A Mur regulator protein in the extremophilic bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans

Amir Miraj Ul Hussain Shah; Ye Zhao; Yunfei Wang; Guoquan Yan; Qikun Zhang; Liangyan Wang; Bing Tian; Huan Chen; Yuejin Hua

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0106341

A Mur regulator protein in the extremophilic bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans

PLoS One. 2014 Sep 22;9(9):e106341. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106341. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Amir Miraj Ul Hussain Shah¹, Ye Zhao¹, Yunfei Wang¹, Guoquan Yan², Qikun Zhang², Liangyan Wang¹, Bing Tian¹, Huan Chen³, Yuejin Hua¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Chinese Ministry of Agriculture for Nuclear-Agricultural Sciences, Institute of Nuclear-Agricultural Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
² Laboratory of Microbiology and Genomics, Zhejiang Institute of Microbiology, Hangzhou, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine, Ministry of Education, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Laboratory Medicine & Life Science, Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, China; Laboratory of Microbiology and Genomics, Zhejiang Institute of Microbiology, Hangzhou, China.

Abstract

Ferric uptake regulator (Fur) is a transcriptional regulator that controls the expression of genes involved in the uptake of iron and manganese, as well as vital nutrients, and is essential for intracellular redox cycling. We identified a unique Fur homolog (DR0865) from Deinococcus radiodurans, which is known for its extreme resistance to radiation and oxidants. A dr0865 mutant (Mt-0865) showed a higher sensitivity to manganese stress, hydrogen peroxide, gamma irradiation and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation than the wild-type R1 strain. Cellular manganese (Mn) ion (Mn2+) analysis showed that Mn2+, copper (Cu2+), and ferric (Fe3+) ions accumulated significantly in the mutant, which suggests that the dr0865 gene is not only involved in the regulation of Mn2+ homeostasis, but also affects the uptake of other ions. In addition, transcriptome profiles under MnCl2 stress showed that the expression of many genes involved in Mn metabolism was significantly different in the wild-type R1 and DR0865 mutant (Mt-0865). Furthermore, we found that the dr0865 gene serves as a positive regulator of the manganese efflux pump gene mntE (dr1236), and as a negative regulator of Mn ABC transporter genes, such as dr2283, dr2284 and dr2523. Therefore, it plays an important role in maintaining the homoeostasis of intracellular Mn (II), and also other Mn2+, zinc (Zn2+) and Cu2+ ions. Based on its role in manganese homeostasis, DR0865 likely belongs to the Mur sub-family of Fur homolog.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bacterial Proteins / metabolism*
Deinococcus / genetics
Deinococcus / metabolism*
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
Homeostasis / physiology*
Manganese / metabolism
Repressor Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

Bacterial Proteins
Repressor Proteins
ferric uptake regulating proteins, bacterial
Manganese

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (31100058, 31210103904, 31370102), and a major project for genetically modified organisms breeding from the Ministry of Agriculture of China (2014ZX08009-003-002), a grant from Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest from the Ministry of Agriculture of China (201103007), a Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-10-0739), the Natural Science Foundation and Educational Commission of Zhejiang Province (LY13C010001, Y201329892), a project of the Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province of China (2013F20011, 2014F50012, 2014F30033), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities from Zhejiang University (2013QNA6015), and Key Innovation Team Program of Zhejiang Province (2010R50033). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.