Differential expression of the three multicopper oxidases from Myxococcus xanthus.

ABSTRACT: Myxococcus xanthus is a soil bacterium that undergoes a unique life cycle among the prokaryotes upon starvation, which includes the formation of macroscopic structures, the fruiting bodies, and the differentiation of vegetative rods into coccoid myxospores. This peculiarity offers the opportunity to study the copper response in this bacterium in two different stages. In fact, M. xanthus vegetative rods exhibit 15-fold-greater resistance against copper than developing cells. However, cells pre-adapted to this metal reach the same levels of resistance during both stages. Analysis of the M. xanthus genome reveals that many of the genes involved in copper resistance are redundant, three of which encode proteins of the multicopper oxidase family (MCO). Each MCO gene exhibits a different express

SUBMITTER: Sanchez-Sutil MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1913447 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature