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1 Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Latvia, Kronvalda Boulv. 4, LV-1586, Riga, Latvia
2 Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Sheffield, Firth Court, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
Correspondence
Uldis Kalnenieks
kalnen{at}lanet.lv
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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Electron transport in Z. mobilis provokes special interest because of its unusual physiological manifestations. Although the cytoplasmic membrane of Z. mobilis carries a functional H+-ATP synthase complex (Reyes & Scopes, 1991
), this bacterium does not use its respiratory chain to supply energy for aerobic growth in the same way as the majority of aerobic and facultatively anaerobic micro-organisms do. Indeed, its respiratory metabolism seems to be inhibitory for this bacterium, largely because of the accumulation of acetaldehyde and other toxic byproducts (Viikari, 1986
; Viikari & Berry, 1988
). A pronounced stimulation of aerobic growth takes place when respiration is partially inhibited by addition of cyanide at submillimolar concentrations (Kalnenieks et al., 2000
). Oxygen uptake in aerobic cultures of Z. mobilis proceeds at a relatively high rate, while the biomass yields under oxic conditions are low, typically well below 10 g dry weight per mole of glucose (Belaïch & Senez, 1965
; Bringer et al., 1984
; Pankova et al., 1985
). It is not clear whether the respiratory chain per se plays any role in the energetics of growth or stationary-phase survival, and whether there might be some alternative physiological functions of electron transport (Kalnenieks, 2006
). Obviously, without a clear picture of the electron-transport pathways, it will not be possible to explain the function of the respiratory chain in Z. mobilis.
Respiratory knockout mutants have contributed greatly to research on bacterial electron transport during the last two decades (Calhoun et al., 1993
; Poole & Cook, 2000
), helping to reveal the structure and energy-coupling efficiency of particular electron-transport branches. To our knowledge, no respiratory mutants have so far been reported for Z. mobilis. This largely explains the gaps in our understanding of the electron transport in this bacterium. Here we report the construction and study of a Z. mobilis mutant that is deficient in the NADH : CoQ oxidoreductase of type II (Ndh). The mutant shows profound alterations of the respiratory phenotype, namely a dramatic decrease of the respiration rate and yet an improvement of the aerobic growth capacity.
| METHODS |
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Cultivation and preparation of membranes.
Batch cultivations were carried out at 30 °C, either in 300 ml shaken flasks, 120 ml culture volume, on a shaker at 120 r.p.m., or in a Labfors fermenter (Infors) of 1 l working volume with air flow 2.5 l min–1 and stirring rate 500 r.p.m. For some cultivations, gassing with nitrogen or air was performed, as stated in Results. The growth medium contained glucose (50 g l–1), yeast extract (5 g l–1), potassium dihydrogen phosphate (1 g l–1), ammonium sulfate (1 g l–1) and magnesium sulfate (0.5 g l–1), pH 5.5. To compare various modes of aeration, the oxygen volumetric mass transfer coefficient (KLa, s–1) was determined by the gassing-out method, as described by Demirtas et al. (2003)
. For preparation of cytoplasmic membrane vesicles, cells were sedimented by centrifugation at 5000 r.p.m. for 15 min, resuspended in 100 mM potassium phosphate buffer, containing 2 mM magnesium sulfate, pH 6.9, and disrupted by disintegration with abrasive quartz beads, 125–150 µm diameter, in a homogenizer at 1000 r.p.m. for 3.5 min. Separation of cytoplasmic membranes was performed as described previously (Kalnenieks et al., 1993
).
Analytical methods.
Concentration of dissolved oxygen was monitored by Clark-type oxygen electrodes. An autoclavable Ingold electrode was used in the fermenter, and a Radiometer electrode with a thermostatted electrode cell for oxygen uptake measurements in washed cell or membrane vesicle suspensions. Ethanol concentration was determined by gas chromatography (Varian). Acetaldehyde was assayed via the alcohol dehydrogenase reaction, and glucose was assayed by the glucose oxidase method, as described previously (Kalnenieks et al., 2000
). Protein concentration in membrane samples was determined according to Markwell et al. (1978)
. Cell concentration was determined as OD550, and dry cell mass of the suspensions was calculated by reference to a calibration curve. All results are means of at least three replicates.
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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Effect of ndh disruption on the respiratory oxidase activities
Data on the respiratory oxidase activities in membrane preparations obtained from cultures of strains Zm6 and the mutant ndh : : cmr grown under various conditions of aeration are presented in Fig. 1
. In agreement with previous data (Bringer et al., 1984
; Kim et al., 1995
), NADH oxidase was the major respiratory activity in Zm6 membranes. In cultures grown either without aeration (in shaken flasks under nitrogen gas) (Fig. 1a
), or under moderate aeration (KLa 0.27 s–1) on the shaker at 120 r.p.m. (Fig. 1b
), its activity was close to 0.3 U (mg membrane protein)–1. NADPH oxidase activity constituted approximately 25–50 % of this value. Both oxidase activities were approximately doubled when Zm6 was grown with hyperventilation (Fig. 1c
) in shaken flasks at 120 r.p.m., additionally gassed with air (1 l min–1, KLa 1.18 s–1). Minor D-lactate oxidase (Kalnenieks et al., 1998
) and glucose oxidase activities (Strohdeicher et al., 1990
) were also detectable; both of them were likewise induced by aeration (Fig. 1b, c
).
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Bacterial respiratory dehydrogenases are predominantly NADH-specific (Yagi, 1991
), yet the ability to oxidize NADPH in the respiratory chain has been reported for several bacteria. For C. glutamicum (Matsushita et al., 2001
) and for Azotobacter vinelandii (Bertsova et al., 2001
) it was demonstrated that NADPH oxidation in the respiratory chain is accomplished by the type II NADH dehydrogenase (ndh), in full accordance with our present observations on Z. mobilis. Apart from ndh, the Z. mobilis genome (Seo et al., 2005
) contains a gene homologous to mdaB of E. coli, encoding an NADPH-specific quinone reductase. Homologues of the MdaB protein are known to act as antioxidant factors in many pathogenic bacteria, helping to cope with the oxidative stress accompanying inflammation processes (Wang & Maier, 2004
). The putative function of the MdaB homologue in Z. mobilis has not been investigated so far.
Aerobic growth of the mutant strain
Some of the aerobic batch cultivation experiments were carried out in a lab-scale fermenter with continuous monitoring of pO2. Remarkably, Ndh deficiency in Z. mobilis resulted in an increase of biomass yield, i.e. YX/S, cell yield normalized with respect to glucose consumption (Table 2
), and stimulation of aerobic growth. The mutant strain also grew substantially faster than Zm6, at the end of the exponential phase typically reaching a threefold higher biomass concentration (Fig. 2
). However, the downshift of pO2 that occurred during the growth of Zm6 was much larger than that seen in the mutant, indicating a higher respiration rate of the parent culture. Accordingly, the mutant culture showed an increased aerobic ethanol yield (YP/S, Table 2
), because more reducing equivalents were diverted towards ethanol synthesis. As expected, the oxygen uptake rate of a washed ndh : : cmr cell suspension was close to zero (Table 2
). No oxygen consumption could be detected with ethanol, implying that in Z. mobilis, ethanol oxidation proceeds solely via NAD+-dependent alcohol dehydrogenases. The remaining respiratory activity of cell suspensions with glucose most probably is related to some type of lactate shunt, as discussed above.
In general, the aerobic growth of the ndh-deficient mutant strain resembles that of Zm6 in the presence of cyanide (Kalnenieks et al., 2000
, 2003
). However, the results obtained with the ndh-deficient mutant are less ambiguous, and help to draw a more precise picture of the aerobic growth stimulation of Z. mobilis. Cyanide typically caused the growth stimulation of Zm6 after a prolonged lag phase, when, following an initial period of complete inhibition, the re-emerging respiration reached 30–50 % of the respiration rate in the control culture (Kalnenieks et al., 2000
). Hence, an important question was left: (i) does the stimulating effect result simply from inhibition of the bulk oxygen consumption, or (ii) is some specific, energetically efficient and cyanide-resistant branch of the respiratory chain contributing to the aerobic growth? Our present results with the ndh : : cmr strain tend to support the first alternative, because the oxygen uptake in the mutant strain would be too low for any measurable impact of oxidative phosphorylation. We therefore suggest that the observed elevation of the aerobic growth rate and biomass yield (YX/S) of Z. mobilis does not result from extra ATP generation by oxidative phosphorylation, but occurs whenever the NADH flux is redirected from respiration to ethanol synthesis, so that less acetaldehyde, the toxic precursor of ethanol (Wecker & Zall, 1987
), is accumulated in the culture.
The key role of acetaldehyde was reinforced by the present finding that vigorous aeration (hyperventilation) of the shaken flask cultures of Zm6 improved the aerobic growth rate. As described above, the batch cultivations in shaken flasks were carried out under strictly anaerobic conditions (gassing of cultures with oxygen-free nitrogen gas), aerobically on the shaker, and aerobically on the shaker with hyperventilation. Under strictly anaerobic conditions, the growth curves of Zm6 and ndh : : cmr were identical (not shown). However, the aerobic behaviour of the two strains differed substantially (Fig. 3
). In shaken flasks without hyperventilation Zm6 accumulated acetaldehyde and grew much more slowly than the mutant. At the early stationary phase, acetaldehyde concentration reached 33 mM (1.4 g l–1). In the mutant strain, due to its low respiration rate, accumulation of acetaldehyde was negligible; its concentration at the end of the batch cultivation did not exceed 0.6 mM. Hyperventilation of the shaken flask cultures barely affected the growth of ndh : : cmr, yet greatly improved that of Zm6. Acetaldehyde concentration in both hyperventilated cultures was low: 0.5 mM for Zm6 and 0.4 mM for ndh : : cmr. We may conclude that either a low rate of acetaldehyde generation (as in ndh : : cmr) or an efficient removal of acetaldehyde (as in the hyperventilated Zm6) is of prime importance for aerobic growth stimulation in Z. mobilis to take place.
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| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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Edited by: R. van Spanning
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Received 24 August 2007;
revised 13 November 2007;
accepted 27 November 2007.
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