Strength of Cu-efflux response in Escherichia coli coordinates metal resistance in Caenorhabditis elegans and contributes to the severity of environmental toxicity.

ABSTRACT: Without effective homeostatic systems in place, excess copper (Cu) is universally toxic to organisms. While increased utilization of anthropogenic Cu in the environment has driven the diversification of Cu-resistance systems within enterobacteria, little research has focused on how this change in bacterial architecture impacts host organisms that need to maintain their own Cu homeostasis. Therefore, we utilized a simplified host-microbe system to determine whether the efficiency of one bacterial Cu-resistance system, increasing Cu-efflux capacity via the ubiquitous CusRS two-component system, contributes to the availability and subsequent toxicity of Cu in host Caenorhabditis elegans nematode. We found that a fully functional Cu-efflux system in bacteria increased the severity of Cu toxici

SUBMITTER: Shafer CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8424214 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature