Dataset Information

The global anaerobic metabolism regulator fnr is necessary for the degradation of food dyes and drugs by Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT: The microbiome is an underappreciated contributor to intestinal drug metabolism with broad implications for drug efficacy and toxicity. While considerable progress has been made towards identifying the gut bacterial genes and enzymes involved, the role of environmental factors in shaping their activity remains poorly understood. Here, we focus on the gut bacterial reduction of azo bonds (R-N=N-R’), found in diverse chemicals in both food and drugs. Surprisingly, the canonical azoR gene in Escherichia coli was dispensable for azo bond reduction. Instead, azo reductase activity was controlled by the fumarate and nitrate reduction (fnr) regulator, consistent with a requirement for the anoxic conditions found within the gastrointestinal tract. Paired transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of the fnr regulon revealed that in addition to altering the expression of multiple reductases, FNR is necessary for the metabolism of L-Cysteine to hydrogen sulfide, enabling the degradation of azo bonds. Furthermore, we found that FNR indirectly regulates this process though the small non-coding regulatory RNA fnrS. Taken together, these results show how gut bacteria sense and respond to their intestinal environment to enable the metabolism of chemical groups found in both dietary and pharmaceutical compounds.

ORGANISM(S): Escherichia coli

PROVIDER: GSE235465 | GEO | 2023/08/09

REPOSITORIES: GEO

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:The fumarate and nitrate reductase regulator protein, FNR, is a global transcription factor that regulates major biochemical changes as Escherichia coli adapts from aerobic to anaerobic growth. The ability of an fnr mutant to grow anaerobically in the presence of trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) as the terminal electron acceptor was exploited in microarray experiments designed to determine a minimum number of Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 operons that are regulated directly by FNR. In an anaerobic glycerol-TMAO-fumarate medium, the fnr mutant grew as well as the parental strain, enabling us to reveal the response of the E. coli transcriptome to oxygen, nitrate and nitrite in the absence of glucose repression or artefacts due to variations in growth rate. Many of the discrepancies between previous microarray studies of the E. coli FNR regulon were resolved in this study. First data for 43 previously characterised FNR-dependent operons were analysed. The current microarray data confirmed 32 of these 43 assignments, but alone did not confirm FNR-activation of 5 operons (adhE, glpTQ, cydDC, hlyE and arcA), or FNR repression of 6 operons (hemA, narXL, tpx, yeiL, norVW or ubiCA). Thirty-six operons not previously known to be included in the FNR regulon were activated by FNR and a further 26 operons appeared to be repressed. For each of these operons, an excellent match to the consensus FNR-binding site sequence was identified. The FNR regulon therefore minimally includes at least 94, and possibly as many as 105, operons. Many FNR-activated promoters are also regulated by one or both of two nitrate- and nitrite-responsive two-component regulatory systems, NarX-NarL and NarQ-NarP. Comparison of transcripts in the parental strain and a narXL deletion mutant revealed that transcription of 51 operons is activated, directly or indirectly, by NarL in response to nitrate, and a further 41 are repressed. As phosphorylated NarL can bind to the NarP DNA target sequence, the narP gene was also deleted from the narXL mutant to reveal the extent of regulation by phosphorylated NarP. Fourteen promoters were more active in the narP+ strain than in the mutant, and a further 37 were strongly repressed. This is the first report that NarP might function as a global repressor as well as a transcription activator. The data also revealed possible new biochemical defence mechanisms against reactive nitrogen species. Keywords: genetic modification, growth conditions

Dataset Information

The global anaerobic metabolism regulator fnr is necessary for the degradation of food dyes and drugs by Escherichia coli

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure