Abstract
The highly toxic oxyanion tellurite (TeO3 2−) enters the cells of the facultative photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus through an acetate permease. Here we show that actP gene expression is down-regulated by fructose and this in turn determines a strong decrease of tellurite uptake and a parallel increase in the cells resistance to the toxic metalloid (from a minimal inhibitory concentration of 8 μM up to 400 μM tellurite under aerobic growth conditions). This demonstrates that there exists a direct connection between the level of tellurite uptake and the sensitivity of the cells to the oxyanion.
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This work was supported by the Ministero Istruzione Università e Ricerca (PRIN 2008).
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Borghese, R., Cicerano, S. & Zannoni, D. Fructose increases the resistance of Rhodobacter capsulatus to the toxic oxyanion tellurite through repression of acetate permease (ActP). Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 100, 655–658 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-011-9619-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-011-9619-5