ABSTRACTMicrobial biotransformations have a major impact on environments contaminated with toxic elements, including arsenic, resulting in an increasing interest in strategies responsible for how bacteria cope with arsenic. In the present work, we investigated the metabolism of this metalloid in the bacteriumOchrobactrum triticiSCII24. This heterotrophic organism contains two differentarsoperons and is able to oxidize arsenite to arsenate. The presence of arsenite oxidase genes in this organism was evaluated, and sequence analysis revealed structural genes for an As(III) oxidase (aoxAB), ac-type cytochrome (cytC), and molybdopterin biosynthesis (moeA). Two other genes coding for a two-component signal transduction pair (aoxRS) were also identified upstream from the previous gene cluster. The involvement ofaoxgenes in As(III) oxidation was confirmed by functionally expressing them intoO. tritici5bvl1, a non-As(III) oxidizer. Experiments showed that the As(III) oxidation process inO. triticirequires not only the enzyme arsenite oxidase but also the cytochromecencoded in the operon. The fundamental role of this cytochromec, reduced in the presence of arsenite in strain SCII24 but not in anO. triticiΔaoxBmutant, is surprising, since to date this feature has not been found in other organisms. In this strain the presence of anaoxsystem does not seem to confer an additional arsenite resistance capability; however, it might act as part of an As(III)-detoxifying strategy. Such mechanisms may have played a crucial role in the development of early stages of life on Earth and may one day be exploited as part of a potential bioremediation strategy in toxic environments.
摘要微生物的生物转化对包括砷在内的有毒元素污染的环境有重大影响,因此人们对细菌如何应对砷的策略越来越感兴趣。在本研究中,我们研究了三尖杉赭菌(Ochrobactrum triticiSCII24)对这种金属元素的代谢。这种异养生物含有两种不同的砷过氧化物酶,能够将亚砷酸盐氧化成砷酸盐。对该生物体内亚砷酸盐氧化酶基因的存在情况进行了评估,序列分析发现了 As(III)氧化酶(aoxAB)、ac 型细胞色素(cytC)和钼蝶呤生物合成(moeA)的结构基因。在前一个基因簇的上游还发现了另外两个编码双组分信号转导对(aoxRS)的基因。通过将这些基因表达到非 As(III)氧化剂 O. tritici5bvl1 中,证实了aoxgenes 参与了 As(III)氧化。实验表明,三疣梭子蟹的 As(III)氧化过程不仅需要亚砷酸盐氧化酶,还需要操作子中编码的细胞色素。三尖杉ΔaoxB 基因突变株在亚砷酸盐存在的情况下细胞色素减少,这种细胞色素的基本作用令人惊讶,因为迄今为止在其他生物体中还没有发现过这种特征。在该菌株中,anoxsystem 的存在似乎并不赋予其额外的亚砷酸盐抗性能力;但它可能是 As(III)解毒策略的一部分。这种机制可能在地球生命早期阶段的发展中发挥了至关重要的作用,也许有一天会被用作有毒环境中潜在生物修复策略的一部分。